Ex-Furze Platt teacher doctored registers and broke ‘professional boundaries’, report finds

A former Maidenhead secondary school teacher has been banned from the profession after she doctored attendance registers and told a parent their child was being ‘targeted’ by her colleagues.

Erin Dempsey, 27, broke multiple ‘professional boundaries’ and safeguarding rules during the seven months she was employed at Furze Platt Senior School, an investigation found.

The ex-history teacher did not attend her misconduct hearing in December, which heard how she told a pupil that staff were 'looking for a reason' to suspend them, and had offered them chocolate in exchange for better attendance.

A report on the banning order by industry watchdog the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) said Dempsey's behaviour ‘fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession’.

A spokesperson for Furze Platt said it had been the school’s own 'prompt action’ which led to the TRA investigation, and that it continued to ‘ensure that our staff meet the highest possible safeguarding standards’.  

Dempsey, who the TRA said was qualified to teach in Canada but not England, worked at Furze Platt for seven months and 22 days, from September 2023 to her resignation in April 2024.

The watchdog’s investigation said wrongdoing during her time at the school had ‘involved multiple breaches of professional boundaries and a lack of integrity and dishonesty’.

The report said she had given her personal phone number to a pupil and had been in repeated contact with them through the messaging service WhatsApp.

One message described how she was ‘changing your attendance for drama and chem[istry],” while others described how she had changed the records for that pupil’s detentions.

Maintaining accurate registers was an important safeguarding measure, the TRA said, and one which Dempsey would have been aware of.

In further emails to the pupil, Dempsey told them to ‘be careful’ and: “They are looking for a reason to suspend you, don’t give them on [sic].”

Dempsey said she would give the pupil ‘one of the large Cadbury chocolate bars’ as part of a ‘small reward system for you going to class and staying in them’.

The TRA report said her communications with the pupil had been ‘inappropriate’ and her reasoning for gifting the chocolate was not ‘acceptable’.

The TRA report also found Dempsey had sent emails to a parent of that pupil, some of which shared confidential information about other pupils and others which criticised her colleagues.

One email said: “I don’t agree with him being targeted by some because it’s not helping when it comes to his classes because he’s less likely to do work if he feels like you’re picking on him or accusing him of something.”

Following the TRA investigation, a decision to impose an indefinite teaching ban on Dempsey was made by Sarah Buxcey on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education. Dempsey can apply to review the order after two years.

Ms Buxcey said a ban was ‘proportionate’ to the wrongdoing identified in the investigation, and was needed ‘in order to maintain public confidence in the profession’.

“The conduct of Ms Dempsey amounted to misconduct of a serious nature which fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession,” the TRA report said.

A Furze Platt School spokesperson said: “We place huge importance on the health, welfare and safeguarding of all our community, particularly our children.

“We note that the judgement recognised the safeguarding training and measures implemented by Furze Platt Senior School.

“It was our school community who raised the concerns and it was our own prompt action, including investigation and liaison with outside agencies, which led to the Teaching Regulation Authority referral and subsequent Secretary of State decision.

“We continue to ensure that our staff meet the highest possible safeguarding standards.

“Our priority remains supporting and educating our students to become fantastic, successful young adults."