A SCIENCE teacher allegedly told children to "look busy" when senior staff entered the room, an education hearing heard this morning.

Tracey Jayne Beadle, who worked at Lewis Girls' Comprehensive School in Ystrad Mynach, is accused of six allegations claiming she failed to perform as an effective classroom teacher.

Ms Beadle admits the six allegations of "serious professional incompetence" between February 2012 and January 2014.

The Education Workforce Council's Fitness to Practise Committee began to hear Ms Beadle's case in Cardiff this morning.

Ms Beadle admits five charges that she did not independently plan lessons, did not choose an appropriate range of learning approaches, did not consistently deliver engaging lessons, did not ensure she provided regular feedback and did not ensure that her marking identified areas for pupils' development.

Ms Beadle also admits the sixth allegation: that the five previous charges constituted "serious professional incompetence", or "conduct which demonstrates a level of incompetence which falls seriously below that expected of a registered person".

The committee panel heard from Helen Harding, deputy head at the school, who was asked to act as mentor and work with Ms Beadle on a one-to-one basis following a formal written warning which was given to her in December 2012.

Ms Harding said sometimes things "ended up in chaos" in lessons.

"My concern was on the last lesson I observed, Ms Beadle got the lesson wrong and the children ended up repeating the lesson for the third time.

"There were complaints the children were being told to look busy if either I or Ms Phillips came into the room."

Carys Williams, representing Ms Beadle, questioned whether Ms Harding knew of any other personal issues which may have affected Ms Beadle's performance.