ROGUE teachers are being thrown out of England’s classrooms in record numbers – with nearly FOUR a week banned for disgraceful behaviour.
New figures lay bare a grim catalogue of shame – including school staff struck off for having sex with pupils, sending nude images and boozing on duty.
A Sun on Sunday audit reveals how 191 teachers were banned from the profession in the last year.
That is the highest figure ever recorded – and more than three times higher than the 63 banned just five years earlier.
On average, a staggering 16 teachers are now being blacklisted each month – or one every other day.
Among those kicked out are school sirs who bedded pupils and teachers who sent children nude pictures.
Others were shown the door for fiddling exam results, turning up drunk for lessons and even watching porn on school computers.
More than 400 have been banned from classrooms in England and Wales in the last four years.
A paedophile teacher who had sex with two students including one she had a baby with is set to be struck off after being found guilty in December of misconduct.
Rebecca Joynes, 30, struck up relationships with the boys after preying on them as they sat in her maths class at school.
She groomed one boy, 15, with a Gucci belt before sleeping with him twice at her Salford flat.
The predator also had sex with boy, 16, on 30 different occasions before having a baby with him while on bail.
Another shocking case saw a married deputy headteacher at an all-girls’ grammar school banned after a secret two-year fling with a colleague.
Liyarna Beamish, 39, and art teacher Gareth Collins, 45, romped while pupils at Ribston Hall High School in Gloucestershire were nearby.
When quizzed by school leaders, married Mrs Beamish confessed how the couple regularly had sex in Mr Collins’ art room and two cupboards with the “doors locked”.
Father-of-two Mr Collins, a teacher of 18 years, admitted having sex with Mrs Beamish “sporadically” over a “few years” in his classroom.
Both were fired and banned for unacceptable professional conduct.
Another teacher, Benjamin Hiscox, 34, was banned for life after asking a former pupil to bring her school uniform to a hotel before having sex with her.
The girl was studying at a college where Hiscox was training to be a teacher.
No criminal charges were brought but Hiscox, who offered to buy the girl a sex toy, was banned for unacceptable professional conduct.
Another primary teacher was so drunk at work she staggered into assembly and was unable to present a pupil award – just months being convicted of drink-driving.
Ashley Atkin, 38, was just weeks into her new job at Horn’s Mill primary school in Helsby, Cheshire, when colleagues noticed that she reeked of alcohol.
The Year 1 teacher ‘looked dazed; as she brought her class into the school hall for its star-of-the-week assembly.
Instead of leading her children as expected, she walked off to sit down on a chair away from her class.
When it was time to present the school’s weekly Big Cheese award to a star pupil, she whispered to a colleague to ask who the recipient was, before handing over the certificate and refusing to announce the winner herself.
An analysis of misconduct hearings reveals how the numbers of teachers being banned has climbed year-on-year.
In 2023-24, 157 teachers were banned. The year before, 137 were kicked out, while In 2021-22 the figure was 108.
Even during the Covid-hit year of 2020–21, when schools were partially closed, 39 teachers were still struck off.
Over the past decade, a staggering 1,094 teachers have been banned from the classroom.
The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA), which polices the profession, admits the most common reasons for bans are sexual misconduct and the viewing or sharing of illegal indecent images.
In one of the most damning recent cases, a deputy headteacher who seduced a sixth-form pupil managed to avoid justice for nearly a decade after his prestigious girls’ school allowed him to quietly resign.
Philip Culling, 52, was director of music at posh Godolphin and Latymer School in west London – where former pupils include Nigella Lawson and Davina McCall – when he began an affair with a teenager.
Despite being married with three children, Culling engaged in a series of sexual encounters with the student – including intimate liaisons in his office and a cupboard tryst that was interrupted by a dinner lady.
His fling with the 19-year-old was said to have been an ‘open secret’ among staff at the elite private school.
Yet Culling was allowed to quietly resign in 2014 and continued in education before finally being banned from the teaching profession in June.
Meanwhile, drama miss Megan Lanning, 36, taught music and performing arts at Ripplevale School in Rochester, Kent, when she sent two sordid images to a student.
Other teachers have been struck off for faking exam results and doing students’ coursework, though many have been kicked out for drinking.
Primary school headmistress Leanne Grove, 44, was caught out when staff found a haul of drinks in cupboards and containers in her office at Hazeldene School in Bedford.
And a special needs teacher was sanctioned after secretly moonlighted as an OnlyFans model.
Leanne Wilson, 41, was unmasked when shocked colleagues at Holbrook School for Autism, near Belper, Derbyshire, stumbled across her racy online alter-ego.
Wilson used the adult platform to advertise graphic pictures and videos, penis-rating services and the chance for subscribers to ‘control’ her vibrator.
The TRA’s annual report shows the watchdog is overwhelmed with complaints.
During 2024–25 alone, it received 1,854 misconduct referrals – equivalent to more than five a day.
While some cases were thrown out for not meeting the threshold, 912 serious misconduct investigations were launched.
A prohibition order is the profession’s ultimate punishment. It bans a teacher from working in any school, sixth-form college, children’s home or youth accommodation in England.
A TRA spokesperson said: “The primary purposes of a prohibition order are to protect pupils, maintain public confidence in the teaching profession, and support schools in upholding proper standards of conduct.”
Ex-primary school teacher Abi Twomlow, now an anxiety psychologist, said: “The vast majority of teachers understand their responsibility to protect children and act in their best interests.
“Schools are built on trust, and they must remain places of absolute safety. Where that trust is abused, it’s right that individuals are identified swiftly, removed from the profession, prosecuted and prevented from ever working with children again.
“However, strong safeguarding culture doesn’t just rely on awareness or policies. It depends on whether staff feel safe to raise concerns. Teachers are often the first to notice subtle changes in behaviour or dynamics, but concerns need to be shared early and without fear of judgement or reprisal, especially if it concerns another member of staff.
“Creating environments where staff feel supported to speak up is an area that still needs ongoing attention. Safeguarding depends not just on systems, but on a culture where concerns are shared early and acted on without hesitation.”
Ria Culley, a former teaching assistant who is campaigned for better safeguarding in schools and nurseries, said: “The increasing number of teachers and those working within the school setting being banned for misconduct is a huge wake up call and cause for major concern.
“Families, when sending their children to school, expect them to be safe. There should be no place in our schools for bad apples.
“While the vast majority of teachers help our children learn, grow and thrive – it is unsettling that more and more are being handed prohibition orders.
“What we do not know is whether these figures are rising because of more vigilance in schools to root out misconduct or whether there are more unsuitable teachers being recruited into our classroom.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “The Teaching Regulation Agency continues to play an important and vital role in ensuring claims of serious teacher misconduct are robustly investigated.
“Extensive steps have already been taken to increase capacity to ensure the timely conclusion of cases which has led to record number of misconduct hearings in the past year and reduce the time taken to conclude cases.”
