Nottingham teacher Nick Lucas banned by conduct panel

The panel heard Nick Lucas carried out "sustained bullying and intimidation" against colleagues at Denewood and Unity Academies

A teacher who held a pupil upside down by his legs and held another against a wall by his throat has been banned.

Nick Lucas had taught at Denewood and Unity Academies, which teaches "permanently excluded" pupils in Nottingham, since the mid-2000s.

A Teaching Regulation Agency professional conduct panel found the Key Stage 2 leader, 48, swore at students and made homophobic references.

It recommended an indefinite ban.

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The panel found in one case Mr Lucas pulled a pupil "by his legs and held him upside down", causing him to hit his head, and "pulled him around like a rag doll".

He was also found to have held one pupil against a wall, which one witness described as "the worst thing I have ever seen".

Another witness "became increasingly offended" by "verbally abusive behaviour" from Mr Lucas towards her in 2017.

A formal grievance was submitted in June of that year, leading to his suspension and further allegations of improper behaviour being disclosed.

Mr Lucas, who from February 2015 was responsible for pupils aged seven to 11, was dismissed from the school in May 2018.

That decision was upheld on appeal in July that year and he was indefinitely banned by the panel on 20 November 2019.

Its report found he "failed to maintain high standards of behaviour", adding there were "significant safeguarding issues in relation to more than one pupil" and that there was "sustained bullying and intimidation" by him towards members of his team.