A teacher who asked a pupil to be his girlfriend has been permanently banned from the profession.

Wayne Howe, 63, was found to have failed to maintain appropriate professional boundaries and be guilty of unacceptable professional conduct by a panel of the Teaching Regulation Agency.

He was found to have told a pupil that he liked her and asked her if she wanted to be his girlfriend once she left school.

Although he admitted to the allegations to some extent, the panel found him to have engaged in victim blaming the pupil, called Pupil A in the report, by saying that he had “read it all wrong”.

Mr Howe was employed as a maths teacher at the Archbishop’s School in Canterbury from 1 September 2018.

In January 2019, he began an unsolicited email correspondence with Pupil A’s mother regarding Pupil A. The mother indicated she did not wish to continue the correspondence and reported the situation when Mr Howe continued to email her. In February, despite being told not to contact her by the school’s management, he sent a further email.

The panel report does not disclose the topic of the email correspondence, but it notes: “The panel was concerned that, in offering Pupil A [redacted], Mr Howe was seeking to gain and/or increase his access to Pupil A.”

After this incident, Mr Howe told Pupil A he liked her and asked her to be his girlfriend. He was subsequently suspended on 8 March 2019 and following a police investigation, the police notified the school that the evidence did not meet the threshold for a criminal prosecution.

Mr Howe was subsequently dismissed from the school in October 2019, a decision that he unsuccessfully appealed against.

Although Mr Howe admitted to telling Pupil A that he liked her, he said it was not in the context alleged.

The panel report notes his comments: “Telling someone you like them is not a safeguarding issue. The word like is being misconstrued. I had already told the whole class I liked them as they were the nicest and most hard-working class I’ve ever taught. I was trying to gauge if she respected me enough to listen to my advice and was unable to say what I wanted to say.”

“I wanted to find out if she respect [sic] me as a person and my teaching. When I said, “I like you, what do you think of me.” I wanted to see if she respected me, but I couldn’t get the words out.”

The panel, the report notes, was not persuaded by the explanation provided.

The panel was also provided with evidence from Pupil A and other witnesses that Mr Howe had told her that he wanted to ask her to be his girlfriend once she left school. Mr Howe, according to the report, initially admitted to saying this.

Following his arrest in March 2019, Mr Howe told a police officer that he had said: “If I asked you a question after you left school would you be my girlfriend?”.

Mr Howe went on to clarify “after you leave school means after completion of education not of her school day”. These comments were recorded in the police officer’s pocketbook and Mr Howe signed it.

However, Mr Howe subsequently changed his position.

The report notes: “The panel was aware, from the documents provided to it, that Mr Howe had subsequently changed his position in this regard and had asserted at various times that: there was a pause between the words “girl” and “friend”; he had only said “friend”; and that he did not intend to say this to Pupil A at all.

“The panel was not compelled by Mr Howe’s later explanation.”

In recommending a ban, the panel expressed concern that Mr Howe, although he had apologised, demonstrated a complete lack of insight into his actions.

He also claimed that Pupil A blew him a kiss once, but there was no evidence that he had reported it to the designated safeguarding lead, and he also said that she had lied in respect of certain details.

The panel “took a dim view” of these assertions and thought that Mr Howe was trying to denigrate Pupil A.

The panel praised Pupil A’s courage to report the incident.

The report reads: “The panel felt strongly that, had it not been for Pupil A’s courage in reporting this incident, it may never have come to light. The panel commended Pupil A’s bravery and it took account of the impact the incident has had on her.”