A teacher who called her whiteboard pen the “magic pen of sex” and referred to her tutor group as “fucking idiots” has been struck off.

Elizabeth Woods, who taught English at Hornsea School and Language College in Yorkshire, also referred to the group as “twats”.

A professional conduct panel of the Teaching Regulation Agency found that Ms Woods was responsible for “unacceptable professional conduct and conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute”.

According to the panel’s decision notice - published today - in June 2016, a pupil reported that Ms Woods had stuck her middle finger up at him. This complaint led to an investigation during which concerns regarding her “use of inappropriate language” came to light.

The panel found that after asking the student - referred to as ‘Pupil A’ - to leave the classroom because of his behaviour, Ms Woods asked: “Am I surrounded by fucking idiots?”.

On another occasion she referred to her tutor group as “twats”.

According to the panel, Ms Woods stuck her middle finger up at Pupil A through the window of the classroom door when after 15 minutes he had knocked on the door in order to be let back in.

She was also found to have referred to her whiteboard pen as the “magic pen of sex”.

Pupil A told the panel that one of his friends had previously come up with the name for the interactive board pen rather than Ms Woods, but that she had then continued to use the term repeatedly. He said this appeared “weird” to him.

The panel also found that in June 2016 Ms Woods allowed two pupils to leave the school in order to buy food in town, while giving other teachers the impression they were under her supervision. 

One of the pupils told the panel that she had said words to the effect of “don’t get caught” or “if you are caught, don’t say it was me”.

However, the panel said that other allegations against Ms Woods - that she had told a pupil to “fuck off” and referred to a student as having a “big willy” - were both unproven.

The panel said that Ms Woods swearing at pupils and her breach of school safeguarding procedures by allowing the students to leave the school site amounted to “misconduct of a serious nature”.

But it said her continued use of the phrase “magic pen of sex” was “more of an immature and foolish remark towards the lower end of the spectrum of seriousness”.

The education secretary’s representative, Dawn Dandy, accepted the panel’s recommendation that Ms Woods should be prohibited from teaching indefinitely.

Ms Dandy said her decision had given “considerable weight” to the fact that Ms Woods “lack of full insight” into her actions meant there was “some risk of the repetition of this behaviour and this risks safeguarding of pupils in the future.”

She may apply for the prohibition order to be set aside in May 2022.