The Craven Herald: News from across skipton and surrounding areas.

Teacher is banned over cancer claim

From the Telegraph & Argus, first published Monday 27th Jun 2005.

A former teacher who lied about having cancer to his colleagues has been banned from the job for a year.

Matthew McArdle has been suspended by the General Teaching Council (GTC) for unacceptable professional conduct after it found he had forged a sick note from Bradford Royal Infirmary.

The 33-year-old, who worked at Holy Family School in Keighley, for five years, tampered with a doctor's note changing the reason for his absence from work from an ankle injury to a stomach operation.

He has now been suspended for a year by the GTC and has to prove he is fit to return to work before he is allowed to teach again. Mr McArdle, who is single, left the Keighley School two years ago and joined Sydney Smith School in Hull in 2003 as head of science.

However soon after joining he began missing time off work. In October the school's head teacher Derek Coe told him he had to provide a sick note for his absence in June.

In its findings, the GTC ruled that Mr McArdle falsified a sick note changing the reason and date of his absence from work. The GTC also found that Mr McArdle misled colleagues into believing he had cancer.

The teacher denied the allegations but the GTC said this was unsupportable.

Colleagues at his former school in Keighley were shocked by the news. Holy Family's deputy head teacher Sean Gilligan said: "This is very tragic news. Matthew is a very likeable young man with many lovely qualities.

"He was popular with the staff and pupils."

Head teacher Derek Coe said: "He would go through the treatments he was having and we believed him, as you would.

"He had a lengthy period of time off in June 2003 when we thought he was in hospital for a stomach operation.

"He had presented a sick note for a second period of absence but that was for a knee operation. When he was pressed for a sick note for his first absence he presented what was clearly a fraudulent copy."

Mr Coe said Mr McArdle was suspended in November 2003 after an internal school inquiry. He was sacked from Sydney Smith School in March 2004 and reported to the GTC.

The panel concluded: "We consider Mr McArdle's behaviour involved a degree of dishonesty that falls short of the standard expected of a teacher."

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