A teacher who sent sexually motivated messages to a pupil has been banned from the classroom for life.

Ian Stuart, 36, sent messages to a girl sitting her GCSEs, asking “how far they had gone with a guy” and stating “he would love to have them one on one”.  

The girl also received messages from Mr Stuart saying “maybe a good idea to get rid of our chat” and “probably best to get rid of this one too”.

A professional conduct panel of the National College for Teaching and Leadership saw screenshots of messages sent in May 2017.

The girl was Mr Stuart’s pupil at King Edward VI School, in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, where he had taught between 2013 and 2017. He left the school to take up a new post at Broadlands Hall School, near Haverhill, Suffolk.

‘Dishonest’ conduct

A panel report says that the tone and nature of the messages “were more likely than not, sexually motivated” and that messages were sent to “one or more pupils”.

It states: “His conduct was dishonest in that he was attempting to conceal the fact that he had been communicating with pupils at his former employer.”

Messages from Mr Stuart also included telling a pupil that “they could do better than their boyfriend” and that “them being drunk intrigues him”.

He told the panel he admitted the facts and that they amounted to unacceptable professional conduct and/or conduct that may bring the teaching profession into disrepute.

The panel found that he was in breach of standards including those of ethics and behaviour, within and outside school, and that he did not observe proper boundaries appropriate to a teacher’s professional position.

Mr Stuart has been banned from teaching without a review period, and is not entitled to apply for restoration of his eligibility to teach.

He has a right of appeal to the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court within 28 days from the date of the order (March 14, 2018).

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