Teacher Joe Wilson faked sick day for Portugal stag do then ripped out passport pages to hide trip
A teacher in Portugal who “made an illness” to attend a friend’s stag party then tried to hide his actions by tearing out pages of his passport, a court heard.
Joe Wilson, a Year 6 teacher at Listerdale Junior Academy in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, went on the secret trip on Thursday and Friday 18-19 May 2023.
On the morning of his flight, he reported to school that he had “been up all night because he was sick” and continued the deception the next day, Monday, before returning to work.
At around 5 a.m. on May 18, 2023, Mr. Wilson texted: “I won’t be going to school today. I’ve been up all night because I’m sick and I have a bad headache.”
The next day he told the same person: “I’m still not better, so I won’t go to school today. I won’t be able to keep food or water on. I’ll keep you informed.”
But an unnamed member of staff raised the alarm after seeing photos of Mr Wilson at the airport with a glass of beer in his hand.
One of the photos featuring him was published by another person at 5.23am on May 18, 2023, with the following caption: “Early start for the stag, a few beers with the Portuguese guy”.
Mr Wilson initially claimed the photographs were taken from a previous trip, but later admitted to the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) that he had “agreed to attend the stag party in Lisbon” and that he had “made a huge error of judgment but (felt) that the situation at the time influenced (him) to make this poor decision”.
He also told the TRA in October 2025 that he “accepts full responsibility” for his actions, including “faking a disease.”
In February, he sent an email to the agency stating that he was “pulling in a patient to attend his friends’ bachelorette party.”
Mr Wilson also removed pages from his passport to hide his absence.
He told the TRA that after “an informal chat with his headteacher” he “made a big mistake in taking out a page from his passport” and that the headteacher “encouraged them to show him something that would get them off my case”.
He also said he was “ashamed” of his actions.
An investigation report detailing Mr Wilson handing over his passport to someone at the school in June 2023 revealed that photocopies of the document were missing pages 9, 10, 27 and 28, the court heard.
The panel found that it was proven that Mr. Wilson was absent from school without a valid reason; Although this was not the case, he informed the school that he was absent due to illness and removed from his passport the pages containing the stamps showing that he was out of the country on the dates in question.
“Mr. Wilson deliberately misled the school and concealed the truth by falsely reporting his absence due to illness and submitting an altered document during an investigation,” the board said in its decision.
“The panel considered that Mr. Wilson’s conduct fell below the ethical standards expected of a teacher and was contrary to the profession’s way of serving the public.”
The court also found that his conduct lacked integrity, that he was dishonest and that his actions were likely to bring the profession into disrepute.
It was decided that the restraining order banning Mr Wilson from teaching was not proportionate, but that publication of the findings would be sufficient.
