PE teacher banned after falsely claiming to being a former professional footballer
A PE teacher has been banned from teaching after false claims he played for two professional football teams and the England youth squad; but this was learned by a student.
Aaron Smith told his employer between 2015 and 2016 that he had played for West Bromwich Albion and Leicester City between the ages of 11 and 20, and also represented England schoolboys at U15 level.
The Teaching Regulation Agency’s misconduct panel heard he falsified several documents, entered his name on a team sheet that included a list of players and edited a photo of the Leicester team with his face on to show students.
A student and his father were upset when they could not find information online about the football career of Mr Smith, who worked as a teacher at Woodlands Primary School between 2015 and 2016.
The panel heard that during a school assembly in February 2016, Mr Smith presented a fake team sheet in which he substituted his name for another player on the list.
A witness told the panel that after the student and father raised their concerns, the Football Association confirmed that no match had taken place and that Mr Smith had not represented England at any level.
The teacher also showed the students various props, including a football jersey, medals and a photo with his face edited out.
The panel heard he then went to work at Co-op Academy Bebington between 2016 and 2022.
But when applying for a job at the school, the panel found she had lied by claiming to work two part-time jobs through childcare and sports training service SY4C.
Later, in 2021, an outreach meeting was held with Mr Smith after he was repeatedly absent from school – the panel found he had received a forged letter from a doctor from a Liverpool psychotherapy and counseling service and was subsequently absent.
The school was suspicious of the letter due to incorrect spelling and use of grammar.
The panel concluded that it was satisfied that Mr Smith’s conduct “constituted misconduct of a serious nature that fell significantly short of the standards expected from the profession”.
He has been banned from teaching for at least the next five years.
