Physics teacher banned for relationship with pupil

A Rotherham teacher has been banned from the profession for having an inappropriate relationship with a female pupil over four years.

Lee Nicholson, a physics teacher at Aston Academy in Swallownest, was given the ban having been found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct by a Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) panel.

The TRA said the 39-year-old spent "excessive one-on-one time" with the girl, holding her hand and cuddling her, as the relationship developed from September 2014.

Aston Community Education Trust said it took safeguarding "extremely seriously" and had co-operated fully with the investigation throughout.

Nicholson started teaching at the school in September 2010 and became leader of post-16 provision in 2016.

He chose not to attend the hearing but during evidence he was said to have engaged in "inappropriate communication" with the girl many times between September 2014 and September 2018.

He gave her gifts, locked himself and the girl in a school meeting room several times, and made several sexual video calls with the girl, the TRA report said.

He also encouraged her to take recreational drugs, it added.

In 2023, Nicholson's house was searched and illegal drugs including cocaine were discovered, the report said.

He was suspended from the school and left the following April.

Nicholson was convicted of possessing drugs at Sheffield Magistrates' Court in April 2024, the TRA said.

He had maintained that they were for personal use, left over from music festivals, and he said he had never attended work under the influence of drugs or alcohol or worked when there was any risk of effects, it said.

The panel said Nicholson had many opportunities to raise the issues through safeguarding channels but had not done so.

It said he had admitted his actions had a "devastating" effect on the student at a "vital time" in her development.

The TRA said Nicholson fell "significantly short of the standards expected of his profession", adding that the findings were particularly serious because of the long period of sexually motivated behaviour.

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