South Teacher Faked Illness to Attend Portugal Stag Party

A primary school teacher in South Yorkshire has been found to have fabricated an illness to attend a friend's stag party in Portugal and later tore pages from his passport in an attempt to conceal the trip. A professional conduct panel ruled that Joe Wilson, a Year 6 teacher at Listerdale Junior Academy in Rotherham, was dishonest and that his actions may bring the teaching profession into disrepute.

The Teaching Regulation Agency panel determined that Wilson was absent from school without legitimate justification on May 18 and 19, 2023. He informed senior staff via messages that he had been up all night being sick and was too unwell to attend, claiming he could not keep food or water down. He returned to work the following Monday.

Wilson later admitted the illness was fabricated so he could join friends in Lisbon. The deception was uncovered after an anonymous staff member reported photographs appearing to show Wilson at an airport holding a pint of beer. One image, posted online by another person at 5:23 a.m. on the morning of May 18, was captioned, "Early start for... stag do, few beers with the Portugal gaffer."

Initially, Wilson claimed the photographs were from an earlier...