A 49-YEAR-OLD man has been banned from teaching indefinitely after privately declaring his affection for a former female pupil he called “hun” over Instagram, telling her he would “go to the end of the world” for her and meeting up with her.

Richard Stanley, a long-serving humanities teacher of more than 13 years, faced a number of allegations relating to an ex-student he taught while working at The Co-operative Academy Leeds, in Stoney Rock Lane.

The former teacher’s case was considered by a Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) panel via video call on January 7.

Mr Stanley was employed at the school from 2005 to 2019, when he joined Springwell Leeds Academy as a humanities teacher. He also volunteered as a Sunday School Leader at the LIFE Church in Bradford.

The allegations came about after a parent of a friend of the former pupil contacted the LIFE Church raising concerns about private messages between Mr Stanley and 'Pupil A'.

Mr Stanley resigned from Springwell Leeds Academy on Monday, June 24, 2019 and a disciplinary hearing took place at the school the next day.

He admitted in a 'Statement of Agreed Facts' that he had “overstepped the line in respect of inappropriate language used” in private messages sent to his former student over a period of roughly four months in 2018.

This included referring to his ex-pupil as “hun”, commenting on her appearance and asking her to rate her own appearance out of 10.

Mr Stanley also told her he loved her and/or loved spending time with her, and that he would “go to the end of the world for her or words to that effect”.

Other messages included telling the pupil he was jealous when she had spoken to another man and telling her about an occasion where he had kissed another woman.

Mr Stanley also admitted in his statement that he had asked his former pupil to see him at the school and had then driven her home following her visit. The panel was satisfied that on at least one occasion Mr Stanley took Pupil A for a walk around a park on the drive to her home, demonstrating a "potentially inappropriate relationship between a teacher and an ex-pupil.”

Mr Stanley was trained in safeguarding as a teacher and for his role at the LIFE Church.

The overall judgement from the panel was that Mr Stanley’s conduct was deemed to be both unacceptable professional conduct and conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute.

The panel then had to contemplate whether it should recommend that the Secretary of State for Education impose a prohibition order, banning Mr Stanley from teaching for a set period of time.

In mitigation, the report outlined that Mr Stanley had previous good history as a long-serving teacher, including experience as a senior pastoral leader and as a teacher responsible for students that present challenging behaviours and circumstances. Mr Stanley did show some remorse for his actions.

Ultimately the panel decided to push for a prohibition order, with a review period of two years.

Alan Meyrick was the decision maker for this case and made the final judgement on behalf of the Secretary of State.

He placed “considerable weight” on the panel’s comments concerning Mr Stanley’s lack of insight into his actions and lack of remorse.

He said in the report: “In my judgement, the lack of insight means that there is some risk of the repetition of this behaviour and this puts at risk the future wellbeing of pupils.

That decision was to take the panel’s recommendation and impose a prohibition order with a review period of two years.

This means Mr Stanley is banned from teaching at any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England indefinitely.

Mr Stanley has a right to appeal and will be entitled to apply for the ban to be lifted in two years.

The T&A contacted both The Co-operative Academy Leeds and the LIFE Church in Bradford for comment yesterday, but neither responded.