A 25-year-old teaching assistant spun a fake sob story to get time off from school, only to jet off on holiday.
Ella Griffith’s deceit was caught out by colleagues after her partner posted pictures of the two of them gallivanting around Rome together on Facebook.
Now the teaching assistant at Ysgol Cybi school, in Anglesey, Wales, been slapped with a one year ban from working in schools.
Ms Griffith, who worked 30 hour weeks, lied to her bosses, with the primary school worker claiming that she had a “serious personal matter at home”.
However, instead she travelled across Europe to eat pasta, drink cocktails and relax in a hot tub in Italy.
A misconduct panel heard how she spent the long weekend in Italy.
The Education Workforce Council heard how Miss Griffith was employed as a learning support assistant.
During September last year, after the schools have just returned, she asked headteacher Rhian Grieve for some time off.
Ms Grieve said: "She spoke with me on September 17, 2020, and asked to leave early the following day and return on September 23.
"The situation appeared critical in that Ella Griffith's family needed her and she requested compassionate leave."
But, the headteacher was then tipped off by other staff members that Miss Griffith’s boyfriend had posted pictures of the pair of them, posing in front of a Roman fountain.
Other incriminating snaps showed them drinking at an ice bar, riding e-scooters through the historic city and stopping at a number of tourist hotspots.
When she confronted Miss Griffith about her lies, the 25-year-old lied, and claimed she had flown to Italy over the weekend.
Ms Grieve said Miss Griffith was asked to provide her airline tickets as proof but would later “confess she had lied at the length of time away”.
The panel was told how she then failed to turn up to the next two days of work at school, texting her bosses to say she would not be in.
Miss Griffith did not attend the hearing and has since left the school.
She was found guilty of four misconduct allegations relating to her time away, and the days afterwards.
Despite the fact she was cleared of “knowingly” using the time off to travel to Italy, committee chair Sue Davies said: "Travel from the UK during the first year of the Covid pandemic meant international travel from the UK was not straightforward and required for example booking Covid tests to enable flying.
"It strikes the committee as inherently unlikely Miss Griffiths would have been completely unaware of the proposed travel plans with her partner."
She added: "Miss Griffith knew or must have known during the course of her leave in Italy was the school was being misled to the principle reason for her absence.
"Her actions were clearly dishonest and furthermore she was not truthful with the school when first questioned about the incident and initially gave a series of misleading responses."
She added that usng compassionate leave to go on holiday, Miss Griffiths had acted in a “manipulative and dishonest manner”.
She said: "It departed significantly from professional and ethical standards displaying a lack of integrity,”.
Miss Griffith was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and was given a 12-month suspension order from working in schools.
