Teacher ‘pulled a sickie’ for to go on stag do – then tore pages from passport to cover it up

An investigation at Listerdale Junior Academy found Joe Wilson had torn up pages of his passport to hide his trip to Portugal for a stag weekend (Picture: Google)

A teacher ‘pulled a sickie’ to go to Portugal for a friend’s stag do and later ripped out pages of his passport to cover his tracks, a tribunal has found.

Joe Wilson, who was a Year 6 teacher at Listerdale Junior Academy in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, went on the secret holiday on Thursday May 18 and Friday May 19, 2023.

He told the school on the morning of his flight that he had been ‘up all night being sick’, continuing the ruse the next day, before returning to work on the Monday.

At around 5am on May 18, he messaged: ‘I’m not going to be in school today. I’ve been up all night being sick and have got a really bad headache.’

The following day he told the same person: ‘I’m still no better so won’t be in school today. Can’t keep any food or water down. I’ll keep you updated.’

But an anonymous member of staff flagged photos of Mr Wilson in an airport with a pint of beer in his hand, the panel heard.

One of the photographs which featured him was posted by another person at 5.23am on the morning of May 18 with the caption: ‘Early start for… stag do, few beers with the Portugal gaffer.’

Mr Wilson originally claimed the photographs were taken from a previous trip, but later admitted to the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) that he ‘agreed to attend a stag do in Lisbon’ and he ‘made a huge error of judgement but (felt) the situation at the time influenced (him) to make this poor decision’.

He also told the TRA in October 2025 he ‘accepted full responsibility’ for his actions, including ‘falsifying a sickness’.

Mr Wilson also removed pages from his passport to hide that he had been away.

Since the UK left the EU in 2020, British passports have been stamped on entry and exit to European ports and airports – although the procedure is now being phased out in favour of the bloc’s new Entry Exit System (EES).

He told the TRA he ‘made a huge mistake of taking out a page of (his) passport’ after ‘an informal chat with (his) headteacher’ as she ‘encouraged (him) to show something “to get them off my case”’.

He also said he was ‘ashamed’ of his actions.

Asked if he could give evidence of when the stag do took place, Mr Wilson told the school he would ‘speak to the best man’, before providing his passport minus four pages.

The panel found that Mr Wilson had intentionally deceived the school into believing he was on paid sick leave when he was in fact taking a holiday, before attempting to conceal his true whereabouts.

However, it concluded that unauthorised school absence was not, by itself, a ‘significant departure from the standards’ expected of teaching staff.

It said that despite lacking integrity, Mr Wilson’s behaviour did not ‘fall significantly short of the standards expected of the profession’.

Acting on behalf of the Secretary of State, decision maker David Oatley ruled that Mr Wilson should be allowed to continue teaching given his otherwise clean record.

He wrote that a prohibition order would be disproportionate given that the teacher’s misconduct was not ‘at the most serious end’ of the spectrum.

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