Stuart Alston, 31, lied about his background as a PE teacher to find employment at Harwich and Dovercourt High School in Essex in 2016
A PE teacher has been banned from teaching for life after having a sexual relationship with a young school apprentice.
Stuart Alston, 31, engaged in a sexual relationship with the girl while teaching at Harwich and Dovercourt High School in Essex in 2016.
When confronted by staff members, Alston, from Sudbury, Sussex, lied to his colleagues, denying any involvement with the apprentice.
A teacher disciplinary panel also found Alston a serial abuser of his position, and in an agreed statement of facts, admitted to exaggerating his qualifications – telling the Essex school he had been a PE teacher previously, when he actually been support staff.
The panel heard he had engaged in innapropriate activity with pupils at his prior role at Sudbury Upper School in 2011.
Alston admitted to sexual contact with a pupil at Sudbury, that he separately had a romantic relationship with another former pupil, and that he had kissed one other.
While in his application for St Paul’s Academy in London – his most recent job before Harwich and Dovercourt – he failed to declare he had been subject to a child protection concern.
The report when on to state that Alston had ‘repeatedly abused’ his position of trust in pursuing the relationships with young pupils and former pupils.
Alston, from Sudbury in Suffolk, was found to have exaggerated his experience in his job application, telling the Essex school (pictured) he had been a PE teacher in the past when in actual fact he’d been a teaching assistant
Alston was banned from teaching for life for unacceptable professional conduct and bringing the profession into disrepute.
The report concluded: ‘Having found the facts of the allegations proven, we [the panel] find Mr Alston’s conduct amounts to both unacceptable professional conduct and conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute.
‘Mr Alston fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession.
‘The panel found the teacher’s actions to be calculated and motivated.’
The panel recommended he was struck off for life.