A TEACHER who turned up to Tavistock College under the influence of drink and used the F-word in front of pupils has been given the official go-ahead to carry on teaching. The teacher, who has been sacked from the college, was spared punishment after a disciplinary hearing because her actions were held to be 'out of character'. In a decision made on behalf of Education Secretary Michael Gove, Gillian Brunt, 52, was not banned from the country's classrooms after she admitted she was guilty of was 'unacceptable professional conduct'. The National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) professional conduct panel found that, while employed as a head of year at Tavistock College, Brunt turned up there on July 12 last summer under the influence of alcohol and behaved in an inappropriate manner. It heard that she said the F-word in the presence of students, used abusive language calling one person a 'stupid tw*t' and a 'w****r' and attempted to put another person in a headlock and climb on his back, as well as calling him a 'w****r'. She also failed to inform her school that, on July 30, 2013, she was fined £500 by magistrates and ordered to pay costs of £85 and a £50 victim surcharge for failing to provide a specimen for analysis after driving or attempting to drive. She was also banned from driving for a year. The disciplinary panel said in its findings that Brunt had fallen well short of the standards of behaviour expected of a teacher, but recommended that she should not be banned from teaching. Giving the final decision on behalf of the Secretary of State, NCTL official Paul Heathcote said: 'Ms Brunt has clearly behaved in an inappropriate manner whilst under the influence of alcohol. The panel has recognised that there is a public interest consideration in the maintenance of public confidence in the profession and in declaring and upholding proper standards of conduct. With regard to her conviction, they have identified that there is a public interest consideration in the protection of members of the public. 'Balanced against these considerations the panel took particular account of the evidence presented by Ms Brunt and her doctor together with the evidence of a positive testimonial as to Ms Brunt's character.  'They have also recognised that the behaviour took place on a single day and was out of character. Ms Brunt has fully accepted responsibility for her actions and there were a range of personal issues in play at the time. 'The panel have noted that there was evidence of lack of support from the school at the time leading up to the events. 'In all the circumstances I agree with the panel's view that a prohibition order would not be an appropriate and proportionate response.' The panel said that Brunt's evidence was that she had become increasingly stressed and frustrated with a number of issues at the college at the time and that her behaviour was in total opposition to everything she believed to be important when dealing with young people.   Tavistock College principal Helen Salmon said the college acted very swiftly regarding the situation, taking decisive action and immediately convening a governors' conduct investigation and panel, which resulted in Ms Brunt being dismissed. Mrs Salmon said: 'The college expects very high standards from all its staff and following what was a flagrant breach of its conduct policy, we immediately put the wheels in motion to deal with it.' Mrs Salmon said she could not comment on the conduct panel's decision.