A FORMER sports tutor at Borders College has been reprimanded after students were forced to retake assessments.

Stephen McLeish was the course tutor for football at the Galashiels campus since it was created in 2009.

And many leading young players have passed through his courses on their way to full time contracts with clubs like Hibernian, Livingston and Dunfermline.

But between 2016 and 2017 McLeish breached strict guidelines by allowing his students to undertake SQA assessments on publicly accessible websites.

He also stored their completed assessments towards HNC Coaching and Developing Sport on insecure sites which were accessible to other students.

The General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) threw out a further charge of him providing excessive direction to students due to a lack of evidence.

And the panel also decided not to pursue allegations of failing to assess students' work fairly and failing to provide feedback on grounds they fell within charges of competence rather than conduct.

But they did uphold two charges of misconduct in relation to the use of the insecure website Edmodo.

A spokesperson for the GTCS said: "The integrity of the SQA system relied upon the appropriate conduct of teachers in conducting the assessment process and required that teachers conduct themselves with the utmost integrity in their dealings with them.

"The conduct had been unfair to pupils as they had been required to retake assessments and called into question their integrity during the assessment process.

"The conduct fell short of the standards expected of a registered teacher."

The GTCS Panel decided that a Reprimand should remain in place for one year.

The spokesperson added: "The teacher had admitted the conduct and had reflected on it.

"The conduct was isolated and there was no history of misconduct.

"In view of the Panel, a reprimand was an appropriate sanction to mark the seriousness of the conduct in the circumstances."

Mr McLeish hasn't worked at Borders College since 2017.

The College declined to comment on the outcome of the hearing.