Bickford did not tell the father about his relationship with the mother, and forwarded the emails to her. When the father found out, he complained to the school.
"Imagine my surprise to find out that [Bickford] was the person my wife had been having an affair with, which she admitted," the father wrote to the school.
The school held a meeting with Bickford to address the issues, and "despite being confronted with screenshots" he would not admit he'd sent the emails.
Bickford's registration was also cancelled becauase of tests students were supposed to undergo.
Parents began expressing concern about a "lack of testing" according the summary of facts.
On checking, the school found each student had only one assessment level tested despite most scores being at 70 per cent or higher.
"This should have resulted in further testing at a higher level," the summary said.
The school confronted Bickford, who claimed the students had been tested and had just forgotten.
"He admitted there had been some problems, and said that next year he would be the best teacher in New Zealand.
"The fact there were test results on file meant the school initially had the impression the students were being untruthful or mistaken when they said they had not been tested."
Further checks revealed the teacher had fabricated all the test results and had never done the tests.
Bickford later said he had a "serious lapse in judgment and in character".
Bickford also failed to supply long-term work plans, was not often seen assessing individual children, and often left his students unsupervised in the playground during class time.
Bickford allowed the students onto the playground for "20-minute brain breaks", usually at 2pm, only half an hour after lunchtime.
The principal also received complaints about the amount of time the students spent in the playground when they should have been learning, often 15 minutes before the end of most days.
"Parents often found their children unsupervised prior to the 3pm bell," the summary said.
Bickford would also leave school half an hour early each day, despite school policy requiring teachers to stay until 3.30pm. He was spotted on camera once waiting for the school's electronic gates to open at 3pm.
He told the school he was "going through something", referring to a relationship he was having with a co-worker, which he told the Complaints Assessment Committee (CAC) was "all-consuming".
The teachers would visit each other's classrooms and text each other in school time, and students would talk about them being "mushy".
He later told a senior teacher he was "a love-sick puppy" and this had affected his work.
Parents also raised concerns after Bickford confessed to his students he had not been a very good teacher lately and asked the children how he could improve.
Following a complaint last December, Bickford texted the principal saying he had sent his resignation by email. He refused to answer calls from the principal and did not come back to the school after that.
The tribunal decided Bickford's registration should be cancelled and he should be censured.
He was also made to pay 50 per cent of the costs for the hearing, including 50 per cent of the tribunal's costs and the CAC's costs.
