Criminal record?

[BashStreetKid]

I know that having a record doesn't necessarily bar someone from being a teacher, but does anyone have any thoughts about someone who has been convicted for fraud serious enough to merit a prison sentence within the three or four years prior to appointment? And if it happened before they qualified as a teacher, would it be a bar to qualification?

Not sure about qualifying but it would show up on every single dbs which I would imagine most employers would be dubious about offering employment with something as serious as that on their record.

Have you looked at the forums on TES? I think you would get some advice on there.

I don't think anyone would get a teaching job if they'd had a recent prison sentence. Maybe if they applied in their 30s but had a short sentence when they were a teenager, but not for fraud and not a recent sentence.

Why do you ask?

I’ve known people get teaching jobs after prison sentences.

It would probably make me judge them as a person? Will they be truthful?

Whether it would stop an employer from hiring someone, I don’t know.

When I started teaching we were told that the only thing that automatically barred someone from the profession was a conviction for financial fraud, as other things could perhaps be explained and were up to the discretion of the headteacher. However that was ten years ago, when teachers had to register. As teachers don't have to register anymore I don't think anything is really a bar to teaching as such. However I think a university would probably be unwilling to take you on a PGCE with that kind of conviction as they are effectively recommending you to a school for the placements. It really depends on the exact nature and circumstances of the conviction though.

This was a conviction for fraud against a number of people including school staff. The individual in question is now described as a teacher but reports of their conviction a few years ago didn't suggest they were at that time, so I was wondering whether it really is possible for them to have qualified since coming out of prison and/or whether their employer is likely to have known. It is an academy so I suppose they don't have to be qualified.