A former teacher at a Scottish boarding school was rebuked after spending time alone with a female pupil.
The ex-tutor at St Leonards in St Andrews, Fife, has been told he can continue teaching despite spending time alone with the pupil at the school's common room and walking his dog.
He claimed other pupils had tried to cause difficulties for him at the school because his wife Yulia had punished them in her role as acting housemistress, reports the Daily Record.
The educator, who taught French, also drove the girl to his home address alone to return a trailer after a camping trip, where she helped him unload the trailer in his driveway.
He also accompanied her alone on a trip to Falkland Palace, near the Fife town of Cupar.
Watchdogs at the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) concluded his actions involving the girl, named as Pupil A, throughout 2019 were "inappropriate" and "in breach of professional boundaries".
A hearing convened by the GTCS was told Barlow defended his actions on the grounds there was a "degree of informality" between teachers and pupils at boarding schools.
He also claimed to have been providing the girl with "pastoral care" to help her adjust to life at the St Andrews school, where fees for the most senior pupils can run up to £38,000 for the year.
The GTCS tribunal heard last month that activities involving teachers and pupils outside of regular teaching hours were not uncommon because staff acted "in place of parents".
He admitted watching films with her and speaking with her alone in the common area.
But investigators said taking the girl to his home address without telling the school had "marked a crossing into [his] personal life" that left him "open to question", and the unaccompanied trip to Falkland Palace was "wholly inappropriate".
However, the teacher escaped punishment for sharing the medical info of other pupils with the girl in an email.
The GTCS accepted his claim that he had shared the information with her ahead of a camping trip on which she would have a "supervisory" role for extra-curricular credit.
Issuing the teacher with a reprimand that will stay on his record for six months, the watchdog said that while there had been no suggestion of "impropriety", Barlow was more concerned about his professional reputation than anything else.
A written summary concluded: "The panel considered that the teacher had evidenced little insight and was not wholly convinced that he appreciated the seriousness of the allegations beyond the consequences of the conduct upon himself.
"However, the shortfalls in his conduct were remediable. The teacher had impressed the panel as genuine in his beliefs regarding the positive impact of the pastoral care he had provided for Pupil A."
Barlow has apologised for his conduct, and has vowed not to repeat the behaviour.
