Five teachers from Essex handed teaching bans this year

Offences ranged from sending inappropriate pictures to children to faking NHS documents for time off work.

Here are the reasons these five teachers were handed bans.

Joel Osborne, 31, who worked as a humanities teacher at Harwich and Dovercourt High School, sent pictures of himself in his underwear to pupils over social media.

He admitted sending the image to a pupil over Snapchat, but alleged it was a mistake.

A panel of the Teacher’s Regulation Authority concluded on balance “he knew what he was doing and that his actions were deliberate”.

Mr Osborne also admitted engaging in an inappropriate conversation over social media, discussing condoms with another pupil.

Read more >> Teacher sent underwear pictures to his pupils over social media

The panel found he sent another pupil a picture of himself in his underwear.

During a school trip, he invited pupils into his bedroom to play the game Cards Against Humanity.

He was also found to have left a post-it note on his desk containing sexual references to “one or more” pupils.

Mr Osborne is prohibited from teaching indefinitely in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England.

Robert Salvage, 38, taught at Stanford-le-Hope Primary School from September 2016 until he resigned in September 2019.

In January 2019 he was arrested by police for accessing indecent images of children in October the previous year.

He accepted a police caution for the offence of “making an indecent photograph of a child” and was placed on the sex offenders register for five years.

Following a recommendation by a Teaching Regulation Agency disciplinary panel he has been banned from teaching for life.

The panel, in their findings, found Mr Savage admitted the allegations, and also admitted he was guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute.

Read more >> Primary School teacher warned by cops and banned from classroom over child images

The findings said the panel took the view that his actions were “calculated and motivated” and added there was evidence his actions were “deliberate.”

They also said that although he had admitted the allegations he had not offered any mitigation or insight into his actions.

The ban was imposed with no provision for Mr Salvage to seek to ever have it lifted.

Oliver Ciaravella was the acting head of science at Honywood School in Coggeshall where he logged onto Grindr and spoke to a profile.

Almost immediately, Ciaravella, 41, asked the other person – who was actually not a child but a vigilante- their age. The profile replied they were 15.

But Ciaravella continued the chat, lying about his own age and sending naked pictures.

He swiftly arranged to meet the ‘youngster’ on the same day - September 20 2017 - and discussed a sex act, with Ciaravella even asking why the ‘boy’ was not in school.

But when he arrived at the meeting place in Braintree, police were waiting to arrest him.

Read more >> Teacher who sent naked pictures to '15-year-old boy' banned from teaching for life

The disgraced teacher was suspended from work the next day on September 21, 2017, having worked there since 2010.

He initially denied the charges, but eventually admitted to arrange or facilitate a child sexual offence shortly before a scheduled trial at Chelmsford Crown Court.

Following a professional conduct panel meeting, Ciaravella was found to have breached a series of Teachers’ Standards Ciaravella was banned from teaching in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England.

Daniel Chapman, now known as Alexander Martin, has been banned from teaching for life following his imprisonment for having child abuse images on his computers.

Chapman was the former headteacher of Hilltop Infants School in Wickford.

The 33-year-old was found to have dozens of indecent images of children when police raided his home in Meadgate Avenue, Chelmsford, including several in category A, the most serious kind.

Daniel Chapman was also jailed for his offences.

He was jailed for two and a half years in November 2019, and the Teaching Regulation Agency has barred him from the profession for life.

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The full report of the tribunal has revealed the panel were deeply concerned that Chapman may offend again.

Chapman has also been barred from applying to have his teaching licence restored.

Lisa Howes, 48, used to work at the Hedingham School in Sible Hedingham until 2018 when she was sacked after a school enquiry.

Allegations made against the former languages teacher said she had falsely claimed she would need time away from work for MRI scans.

Ms Howes, who was also a Head of House at the school, is also said to have requested time off for a lumbar puncture appointment and radiotherapy treatment.

Between January and April 2018, the former teacher, who had worked at the school since 2002, requested time away from work numerous times.

She is also said to have supplied fraudulent and fake NHS documents to back up her requests for time off.

Read more >> Teacher banned for two years after 'lying about illness and faking hospital documents'

The school was even told a letter provided to them by Ms Howes from the NHS concerning the radiotherapy treatment "appeared to be fraudulent" by a representative of the West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust.

The teacher attempted to appeal her sacking by the school for gross misconduct but the appeal panel upheld the original decision.

A Teacher Regulation Agency hearing has come to the decision to ban Ms Howes from teaching for two years after finding "all of the allegations proven."