Teacher quits over exam 'theft' row

A teacher accused of stealing GCSE exam papers to show to candidates at a private tutorial college has resigned from her job at a south London comprehensive.

The woman, who had taught English to refugee pupils at Archbishop Lanfranc school in Croydon for 13 years, quit after she and her husband were arrested on Monday night following a police raid on the tutorial centre where they both work.

The couple, both in their 40s, were questioned and bailed on Monday evening after police raided the Head Start private tutorial college in Merton, south London.

The police had been called by the Edexcel examination board on Wednesday last week after a local teacher made allegations of cheating at the college. The teacher had been told by a pupil, who was receiving extra tuition at the college, that a mock GCSE maths paper she had taken there had been identical to the real exam she sat the next day.

Officers raided the college the evening before the second GCSE maths paper was due to be taken and found about ten pupils reading through the real exam questions. The papers had been taken from a sealed packet at Archbishop Lanfranc school, where the female teacher worked.