A head teacher who admitted altering pupils' national test papers will be allowed to return to the classroom, the profession's standards watchdog has ruled.

Helen Quick resigned from her post at Wyndham Primary School in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in June last year, after confessing she had corrected the 11 year olds' national curriculum test papers in maths and science.

Miss Quick resigned from her post

Miss Quick was found guilty of gross professional misconduct by the General Teaching Council for England at a hearing in Birmingham on Thursday.

The three-member panel ordered that she be given a reprimand which will remain on her registration file for two years.

Stress

At the time of the incident last summer, Miss Quick's union - the National Association of Head Teachers - said she had been under extreme pressure to improve results at the school.

Prior to the incident, her integrity had been "impeccable", the NAHT said at the time.

Speaking last June, the director of education at Newcastle City Council, Phil Turner, said Miss Quick had regretted her actions and stressed she had an "unblemished record" until the error of judgement.

Wyndham Primary had been struggling in the drive to raise standards.

An Ofsted inspection of the school in March 2001 said pupils' achievement had not improved since the last inspection in 1998 - especially the results of more able children.

"It is not yet an effective school," the inspectors' report said.