History teacher banned for 'inappropriate' conduct

Grant Nightingale had been working at the school since April 2019

A history teacher who sent inappropriate messages to pupils has been banned from the profession.

Grant Nightingale, who used to work at Brunts Academy in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, exchanged messages with two pupils in 2020 via the school email system, and discussed pupils' sex lives and his home life with students.

The 35-year-old admitted his professional conduct was unacceptable and could bring the profession into disrepute.

A Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) panel found he "failed to maintain professional boundaries with pupils", and recommended reviewing his case in five years.

'I would cuddle you'

The panel's report said Mr Nightingale began working at the school in April 2019, and started exchanging emails and holding video calls with two pupils from March 2020, the month Covid pandemic restrictions first came into place.

In his emails, he "discussed his own mental health" and personal life.

This included sending messages to pupils telling them he was "always here to listen and help in any way that I can" and he can be free outside of the classroom.

The panel said it was satisfied discussions around his mental health "went way beyond appropriate professional boundaries", and said not sharing his concerns over problems raised by the pupils "constituted a failure to take appropriate action with respect to these safeguarding concerns".

In October that year, his contact with one of the pupils was reported to the school, which had previously recorded two complaints from other pupils about "inappropriate comments being made by Mr Nightingale in lessons".

He was dismissed later that month.

Another pupil raised concerns with the school after he was dismissed.

Comments he made in class included him saying he would be "disappointed if they made the wrong choices" in their sex lives, telling a female student "everything doesn't have to be about sleeping with boys", according to the report.

He also shared details about his sex life when he was their age.

Additionally, the panel found he told a pupil going through relationship problems: "I would cuddle you if I could cuddle you."

"Mr Nightingale accepts that he should not have involved himself in discussions of this nature, and that his comments in the circumstances were inappropriate," the report said.

Noting how the teacher had received a formal warning from a previous employer "for breaching professional boundaries with pupils", the TRA found he was guilty of unacceptable professional conduct.

The report added: "The panel considered that maintaining appropriate professional boundaries was at the core of that which was required of a teacher and that the allegations as found proven had demonstrated that [he] had breached those professional boundaries repeatedly, with at least three pupils, over a prolonged period of time."

A spokesperson for the academy said: "We can reassure our entire school community that the health, safety and wellbeing of our colleagues and the pupils and families we serve is always our top priority.

"We have robust policies and procedures in place to uphold this commitment and encourage anyone with concerns in the future to contact the academy directly."