Indefinite ban for teacher who posed a 'significant ongoing risk to children'

MULTIPLE CONCERNS RAISED ABOUT HIS BEHAVIOUR

- By RUCSANDRA MOLDOVEANU

A TEACHER has been banned indefinitely after breaching professional boundaries with former pupils.

Grant Nightingale, 35, joined The Brunts Academy in Mansfield as a history teacher in April 2019.

But in October 2020, he was dismissed after multiple concerns were raised regarding his behaviour towards a number of students.

A Teaching Regulation Agency panel considered his case on July 21, concluding that Mr Nightingale was in breach of a number of teaching standards.

All the allegations brought in front of the panel took place in 2020 during the pandemic.

Mr Nightingale, although not present or represented at the meeting, admitted all the allegations made against him and that they amounted to unacceptable professional conduct.

The first allegation detailed by the panel in its report explained that, from March to October 2020, Mr Nightingale exchanged inappropriate messages with two pupils - Pupil 1 and Pupil 2 - through the school’s email system.

Screenshots seen by the TRA panel showed email messages from the teacher including “much love’, “?m really not that scary? “I’m always here” and “my classroom isn’t free, but I can be free outside’

The two pupils also informed the teacher that they were struggling with Covid-19 regulations and their mental health, but these were not appropriately handled by Mr Nightingale.

In a statement, Pupil 1 explained she and Mr Nightingale spoke “for around five months’

The TRA report reads: “The panel noted that Mr Nightingale accepted that his failure to share the full extent of the concerns raised by Pupil 1 and Pupil 2 constituted a failure to take appropriate action with respect to these safeguarding concerns”

During the same period, Mr Nightingale also discussed his own health and wellbeing with the pupils, as well as details about his personal life. The information was “highly personal, potentially distressing’, TRA said.