Nicholas Martin, formerly the head of sixth form at St Edward’s School in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, has been banned from teaching after it was revealed that he had lied about holding a masters degree in history from the University of Cambridge.

When he applied for the role of deputy headmaster after having taught at the school since 2006, inconsistencies in his recorded age prompted staff to launch an investigation.

Martin, 43, said he was five years younger than he actually was, claiming to be born in 1987 when school documents listed his date of birth as 1982.

When challenged on this, Martin initially claimed that someone had misread his handwriting. Further checks of his passport and driving licence revealed the earlier 1982 date, but Martin continued to claim that 1987 was correct and that the discrepancy was due to a historic passport issue.

He then claimed that he had become so used to writing the 1987 date that he may have copied it from his 2024 application, but a review revealed that he had actually written 2012 on that document.

These discrepancies in Martin’s response led the school to investigate other parts of his CV, including his claim of holding a master’s degree in history from the University of Cambridge. He had used post-nominals “MA (Cantab)” in his signature, signalling that he was a postgraduate degree holder from Cambridge University.

He provided a counterfeit certificate, which he said he liked to “show off to friends on the weekends”. However, when contacted, Cambridge University confirmed that this was forged.

Marc Cavey, a member of the Teaching Regulatory Authority (TRA) panel, concluded that “the conduct of Mr Martin fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession”.

After a hearing last month (29/01), the TRA banned him from working as a teacher due to his “fundamental disregard of fundamental aspects of the education system”. The duration of the ban is two years, and extends to teaching in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation, or children’s home in England. Martin will be able to appeal for a panel to review the prohibition order after two years.

Cavey said that the ban was “proportionate” to the degree of “serious dishonesty found”.

The chair of the TRA panel, Michelle Chappelle, said that Martin’s actions prevented him from being a “suitable role model in supporting pupils”.

She added: “The panel was satisfied that the conduct of Mr Martin amounted to misconduct of a serious nature which fell significantly short of standard expected of the profession […] Central to Mr Martin’s actions were a disregard of fundamental aspects of the education system, that is the integrity of qualifications and the application process.”

The panel concluded that they needed to treat Martin’s conduct with “utmost seriousness” so as not to weaken public confidence in the profession.

The TRA found that, ultimately, “Martin had demonstrated a high level of insight into his dishonest behaviour,” that he “recognised the seriousness” of it and that he had expressed his regret. The hearing also heard that there was no suggestion of previous misconduct at St Edward’s and that he had been described as a “good teacher”. However, this was not deemed evidence of him “demonstrating exceptionally high standards of significantly contributing to the education sector”.

St Edward’s School released a statement that said: “We take issues of professional integrity extremely seriously and expect the highest standards of honesty and conduct from all staff.

“Safeguarding, transparency and trust are at the heart of everything we do as a school. As soon as concerns were identified, appropriate procedures were followed and the relevant authorities were informed so that the matter could be considered independently.”

They added: “We remain fully committed to maintaining the confidence of our pupils, parents and wider community, and to upholding the standards expected of the teaching profession.”