Teacher banned for 'excessive' emails to pupils

A teacher at a Catholic girls' school who sent "excessive" emails to two pupils outside of school hours has been banned from the profession.

Jennifer Farron, who taught science at St John Bosco Arts College in Liverpool, admitted unacceptable professional conduct and failure to maintain appropriate professional boundaries.

The 34-year-old also acknowledged deleting a number of emails between herself and both pupils, asking one of them - referred to as pupil AM - to also delete them in relation to the school's investigation.

The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) has banned her from teaching indefinitely, saying she can apply for the prohibition to be set aside after three years.

She has the right to appeal the TRA's decision at the High Court.

An investigation found Farron sent emails "late at night and in school holidays".

Despite Farron's deletion of a number of emails, the investigation found that, in the 90 days before her suspension in June 2024, Farron sent 79 emails to a pupil, who in turn sent her 80 emails.

The TRA panel also found Farron had failed to report when the same girl stated they had the "worst 24 hours of [their] life" on New Year's Eve given the potential safeguarding concern regarding the student's welfare.

They also said Farron should have reported when the girl stated they "missed" her "given that it indicated a pupil potentially developing a personal attachment to her".

Following her suspension, Farron said she had apologised to the student and her family for the "distress and disruption her actions had caused" and that she had apologised to the wider school community.

However the panel commented "there has not been any acknowledgement by Farron of the impact her request had on pupil AM".

They judged "the lack of full insight means that there is some risk of the repetition of this behaviour, and this puts at risk the future well-being of pupils".

"Whilst the emails were sent using school email addresses, the panel considered that there had been a failure to maintain appropriate boundaries on the part of Farron.

"Communicating outside of usual working hours and to an excessive degree had the effect of blurring a professional relationship with a more personal one," they added.

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