21/03/11…..Thame teacher guilty of ‘inappropriate behaviour’

A TEACHER sacked by a Thame school after several warnings about so-called ‘sex talk’ with students, has been banned from teaching for a year.

On March 14, The General Teaching Council found Mr Norman Wright guilty of unacceptable professional conduct whilst employed at Lord Williams School, Thame, between September 2008 and September 2009.

The Disciplinary hearing heard that Mr Wright, who taught Religious Studies at the school:

i) had inappropriate conversations of a sexual nature with pupils outside of school in the Autumn term 2008

ii) had an inappropriate conversation with a teaching assistant in front of pupils, in the Autumn term 2008, in that he discussed matters of a sexual nature

iii) acted in an inappropriate manner towards a pupil and put their health and safety at risk on 24 March 2009 by lifting them onto his shoulders

iv) acted in an inappropriate manner in class on 01 April 2009, in that he removed his shirt in front of pupils

v) acted in an inappropriate manner in a lesson in September 2009 in that as part of a lesson he told an anti-Semitic joke.

In a statement, Oxfordshire County Council said: “When issues relating to his teaching arose, he was given support and appropriate action was taken. After a series of warnings he was dismissed from his post in October 2009.?

The GTC found other allegations against Mr Wright, including that he had told an offensive joke about the death of Jade Goody, not proved.

PHOTO: Courtesy of www.lordwilliams.oxon.sch.uk