A disgraced former headteacher of the year who spent thousands of pounds on extravagant parties, hotels and home furniture has been banned for life today from teaching by Michael Gove.

Joanna Shuter, 53, was found guilty of bringing the teaching profession into disrepute by The National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) at a hearing on April 30 after being fired, re-hired then quitting from her 11-year post at Quintin Kynaston Academy in St John’s Wood last year over the expenses claims.

Today (May 13), she found out that on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education, NCTL official Paul Heathcote had decided to ban her for life from the profession as although she admitted to 11 counts of fraud, her actions were ‘deliberate and she was not acting under duress’.

Known as Jo, the mother-of-two went on to become head teacher in September 2013 at King Solomon High School in Ilford, Essex, where parents were informed last Wednesday that Ms Shuter would not be in school until issues were resolved after the NCTL’s April finding.

The teacher, who was named headteacher of the year in 2007, claimed over £5,850 for taxis between January 2011 and August 2012 which the panel found were definitely not related to school business after she relied on the fact she was using taxis frequently to go between Quintin Kynaston and Pimlico School where she was also headteacher for a time - but only until 2008.

She was also the school’s Chief Financial Accounting Officer and got so used to putting expenses on the school that she used £6,292 of school funds to pay for her 50th birthday party in January 2011. She eventually repaid £5,906 of the sum in April 2012 despite having received an invoice in March 2011.

Writing in the report where Mr Heathcote decided to ban her from teaching for life, he said: “There is little doubt that Ms Shuter has had a significant positive impact on the educational aspects of the schools at which she has been headteacher and on the students at those schools.

"However, the facts proven took place over a prolonged period of time and many after Ms Shuter received a letter from the bursar in 2010 drawing her attention to alleged abuse of her position and concerns regarding her expenses claims and being paid for external consultancy.”

Over-generosity to staff also seemed to be acceptable to the head who previously had a good record and was awarded a CBE in 2010 for services to teaching. She paid for an £8,269 overnight stay at the luxury five-star Grove Hotel in Hertfordshire and a £4,410 event at London’s renowned Landmark Hotel.

Mobile phone bills also featured heavily on her expenses claims, with a bill in April 2011 of £748 which included £571 of calls while in Thailand. She also reclaimed her June 2011 bill of £591 twice, as well as expensing phone contracts for her son, daughter and an iPad.

There were also claims for £1,500 of furniture delivered to her home address and claimed for travel expenses for additional paid speaking and consultancy work despite them already being paid by the client.

The NCTL panel found that Ms Shuter had an utter disdan for any responsibility for financial management and referred in her evidence to the ‘minutiae’ of financial regulation which she did not have time to consider.

Quintin Kynaston refused to comment on Ms Shuter's ban.