A PE teacher has been banned for life from the classroom for making lewd comments and groping three female teaching assistants at a special needs school.

Luke Farrant was dismissed for gross misconduct from the Jubilee School, Hampshire, after an internal investigation by its headmaster.

A Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) panel further ruled this month that Mr Farrant’s actions were sexually motivated and that he had failed to “uphold public trust in the profession and maintain high standards of ethics and behaviour”.

The Jubilee School’s investigation found that Mr Farrant had kissed, groped and made sexual comments to a number of staff during the three months he worked at the school between September and December 2016.

It added that the teacher’s advances were either made in person, via social media or in front of other pupils at the special needs school, which caters for students between eight and 16.

The three-person panel found that the PE teacher made a barrage of comments to the “young teaching assistants” and a pupil during his short stint at the school.

He told one teaching assistant, identified as Individual A, during a school off-site visit: “You like dick really don’t you, come on don’t lie, I don’t believe that you’re a lesbian.”

He told her to “imagine my cock in your mouth” during a lesson in front of students.

On other occasions, the teacher grabbed the crotch of Individual A in the staff room, and kissed and bit the neck of another teaching assistant, identified as Individual B, at school.

Teacher told pupil ‘you’re hot’

The PE teacher also showed a third teaching assistant, identified as Individual C, a picture of a penis on his mobile phone, while they were sitting alone in the staff room.

On a separate occasion, Mr Farrant attempted to befriend a student, identified as Pupil A, on Facebook, adding that he wanted to do this because “I think you’re hot”.

The school’s headmaster told the panel that Mr Farrant denied most of the allegations, only accepting charges that were corroborated by others, or that had been documented online.  

The headmaster told the panel that he did not think Mr Farrant had been “honest and straightforward” during his investigation. The PE teacher only conceded that he had been “overly flirty”, but was dismissed on 7 December 2016.

The panel concluded that the PE teacher’s actions breached Teachers’ Standards and amounted to unacceptable professional misconduct.

It added that Mr Farrant had committed “misconduct of a serious nature which fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession”.

It recommended that Mr Farrant be given a prohibition order from teaching without a review after two years - meaning he is barred from the profession for life.

This was accepted by Alan Meyrick on behalf of the education secretary. He said: “In this case, there are three factors that in my view mean that a two-year review period is not sufficient to achieve the aim of maintaining public confidence in the profession. These elements are the sexual misconduct found, the involvement of pupils and the lack of either insight or remorse.”

Mr Farrant has the right of appeal to the High Court within 28 days.