Hearing on Cambridge High School swamped by submissions

1.00pm

A hearing into allegations of staff bullying and results tampering at Cambridge High School has been swamped by responses.

Retired district court judge, Dame Augusta Wallace, began hearing submissions about the school in Cambridge this week.

It was understood so many submissions were received that the hearing was likely to last a further week.

Meanwhile, the school's board chairwoman Diana Grantham said today reports assistant principal Martin Blackburn had quit were wrong.

Mr Blackburn was on sick leave and it was not known when he would return, she said.

In June, the school's board of trustees asked Dame Augusta to chair an independent investigation into staff concerns at the school.

She will present a report to the board at the end of the hearing.

It was understood the report would go to the Education Review Office (ERO), which investigated the school in July.

Earlier this year, Mr Blackburn, who has been teaching at the school for seven years, was accused of writing the answers to National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) questions on the board, by student Scott Glass.

The school has had a 100 per cent NCEA pass rate for the last two years.

Deputy principal, Warren Purdy, left at the end of term two to take up a teaching position in England.

Today, the school and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) remained at odds over the authority's report on Cambridge High.

Mrs Grantham said the school was still waiting for results of the investigation, which took place at the start of July, and the ERO report.

The board and school principal Alison Annan would not comment until they had seen the report.

NZQA looked at the school's internal assessment management systems and says it has given the school a draft of the report.

The board had a draft copy of its report to allow the school to give to comment before the report was released later this month, NZQA spokeswoman Heather Church said.

A 50,000 word report on allegations of staff bullying at the school has also been presented by a former teacher.

That report was with the Labour Department but has not been released to the public.

- NZPA