A Penrith teacher who was in a relationship with a student has been banned from the profession indefinitely.
Daniel Roberts, aged 32, exchanged inappropriate emails with the girl as well as giving her lifts in his car and meeting with her outside school hours during his time as head of music at a school in Penrith, between 2019 and 2021.
A misconduct panel heard that the relationship turned sexual in June 2022, after she left the school.
The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) found that the proven conduct was serious and had been referred to the police, but no further action was taken.
In its report, the TRA said: “The panel had found that Mr Roberts had engaged in inappropriate emails of a personal nature with Pupil A, had given her lifts and met with her for social activities, all whilst she was a pupil of the school. In doing so, Mr Roberts had crossed professional boundaries and had a disregard for safeguarding policies and practices over a protracted period of time.”
Mr Roberts admitted exchanging 3,000 pages worth of inappropriate and personal emails with the student between September, 2019 and April, 2021, and offering her lifts in his car.
The panel was shown examples of the emails, which included a discussion about the student taking a bath and about trying Italian food.
Mr Roberts, who was employed at the school from 2017, told the panel he attended events with her family and he was invited to her home.
In his statement, he said: “Arranging to meet a pupil outside of school was not an uncommon thing for me to do.” He provided examples of when this might be done, including attending concerts or rehearsals. He told the panel that he attended events with Pupil A’s family, but wrote in his statement: “I can see that what started as Pupil A’s parents arranging to meet me became Pupil A and I arranging to meet each other.”
He admitted starting a sexual relationship from June, 2022 after the student had left the school. He denied his conduct prior to then was sexually motivated. He said it would have “repulsed him to see or be a teacher who wanted to engage in a romantic or sexual relationship with a pupil”.
The panel said it had not been given evidence that a sexual relationship had started before then.
It added that Mr Roberts may have been contemplating some sort of future relationship with the pupil, but it could not be satisfied that this was a sexual relationship.
The teacher told someone at the school that he was in a romantic relationship with a former pupil in June 2022. He was suspended the following month.
“There were multiple failures by Mr Roberts to address the safeguarding risk, and he actively encouraged and engaged in inappropriate communication with the pupil,” the report found.
Regarding the emails, lifts and social meets, the panel was satisfied that Mr Roberts was guilty of unacceptable professional conduct.
However, the panel was not satisfied that there had been a breach of the teachers’ standards regarding the sexual relationship.
The panel considered there was “no clear guidance on when it may be considered appropriate for a teacher to engage in a sexual relationship with a former pupil”.
Mr Roberts was prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England.
The panel said he would not be able to apply for the prohibition order to be set aside until 6th January 2030.
