A music teacher who admitted smelling of alcohol has avoided a classroom ban after an allegation he was drinking on the school site was found not proven.
Nicholas Smalley worked at Wimbledon Park Primary School as a drum teacher but was dismissed in December 2023 after he was found to be teaching with “alcohol on his breath”, a professional conduct hearing was told.
A witness said she found Mr Smalley teaching a drum lesson with a pupil and noticed a “very strong smell of alcohol immediately”.
In her statement to the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) hearing, the witness added that she told the teacher that the room “smelled of alcohol” and that “it looked like he had been drinking”.
She said that he looked “shocked” and when asked if he had been drinking he said “yes” and proceeded to apologise.
But a panel for the TRA hearing, whose members also heard from witnesses that Mr Smalley was “really friendly and very nice”, concluded that it would be a “loss to schools” to lose the specialist teaching provision which Mr Smalley offered.
The panel also found the allegation Mr Smalley had consumed alcohol while on school premises or teaching pupils was not proven.
During the incident, the witness had said she saw a can of Red Bull and a large 500ml bottle of tonic water on the piano which “contained clear liquid and had just under a half left”.
When she asked what was in the bottle, Mr Smalley replied that it contained water, said the witness, who added that she didn’t think he “had capacity to understand what was going on” as he was “absolutely plastered and not coherent in anything”.
But once he left the room she could not find any alcohol to show he had been drinking.
Mr Smalley said in a statement: “I did arrive smelling of alcohol, however, I did not take it into the school. The plastic tonic bottle was filled with water (sometimes cordial), if it had been alcohol I wouldn’t have openly left it on the table. I think several of my students would vouch that I always brought water to lessons in the same yellow tonic bottle.”
Although the panel accepted the witness’ evidence that Mr Smalley was under the influence of alcohol, there was insufficient evidence that he had consumed any alcohol on the school premises or whilst teaching pupils. The panel also noted that they had no convincing evidence that he had alcohol with him on the school premises that day.
The panel did consider that his actions could “damage the public’s perception of a teacher” as he should not be on “school premises or teaching pupils whilst smelling so strongly of alcohol”.
However, evidence also suggested Mr Smalley’s decision making and judgement was impacted by a number of personal pressures at the time of the incident, including being busy teaching and performing in the evenings. The panel added that he had a long previous history of teaching over 27 years without issue and found this action to be out of character.
TRA chief executive Marc Carvey said: “A prohibition order is not proportionate or in the public interest. I consider that the publication of the findings made would be sufficient to send an appropriate message to the teacher as to the standards of behaviour that were not acceptable and that the publication would meet the public interest requirement of declaring proper standards of the profession.”
