An IT teacher who failed to inform her school that she was in a relationship with a sex offender has been banned from the classroom, after paying a pupil to pick up dog poo from her garden.
Natalie Surr, 45, had asked one of her students at Shirebrook Academy in Derbyshire if they knew of anyone who could clear the garden of her property, given that she needed to vacate it imminently.
A teacher’s misconduct panel heard that pupil A had volunteered to carry out the work on 23 September 2023, and that this involved collecting faeces.
Two days later, Miss Surr gave the pupil, who is a vulnerable student, £10 in payment for their services.
She also failed to inform the school that her partner was a sex offender despite having “several opportunities”, with one colleague describing her position as like “getting blood from a stone”.
The Mansfield-based academy had received an email from a member of the public in January 2024 expressing concern that she was knowingly in a relationship with a registered offender.
After the school began an investigation, she admitted in June 2024 that she had been in a relationship for a year and had been aware of her partner’s record, but had not informed the academy as she was unsure if the relationship was going to continue.
In a statement to the Teaching Regulation Agency panel, Miss Surr said: “I fully accept that I made serious mistakes in failing to disclose my relationship to the school. I recognise now that I should have been completely honest and transparent from the outset. I deeply regret not doing so.
“I am ashamed of my actions and truly sorry that I did not act with the level of integrity that my role as a teacher demands. I understand that my choices fell below the professional standards expected of me.”
Upon considering the evidence, the panel found that a prohibition order was “both proportionate and appropriate”, and that the “public interest considerations outweighed the interests” of Miss Surr.
They said: “The length of time that Miss Surr chose to conceal the fact that she was in a relationship with a registered sex offender and her lack of appreciation for the potential risk of harm created by allowing Pupil A to tidy her garden without a supervising adult, whilst Miss Surr was in a relationship with a registered sex offender (a fact which she had at that point still been concealing) were significant factors in forming that opinion.
“Most notably, the degree of dishonesty Miss Surr had demonstrated was serious in the panel’s view.”
They concluded: “For these reasons, the panel was satisfied that the conduct of Miss Surr amounted to misconduct of a serious nature which fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession. Accordingly, the panel was satisfied that Miss Surr was guilty of unacceptable professional conduct.”
She has now been banned from teaching indefinitely and cannot work in any school, sixth form college, youth accommodation or children’s home, and can only apply for the prohibition order to be set aside in three years.
