A teacher formed an inappropriate relationship with a former pupil by arranging to meet up with her outside of school and telling her not to tell her mother.
Cathryn Williams sent WhatsApp messages to a former pupil arranging to meet up with her and pay for a day out.
Williams, formerly a teacher in Hastings, also told the pupil, who cannot be named for legal reasons, not to tell her mother, telling her she was “worried she’d make trouble if she knew it was me”.
A disciplinary hearing this month heard how Ms Williams, 59, joined Uplands Academy in Wadhurst as a geography teacher in June 2022.
Later that month she began to send WhatsApp messages to a pupil at her former school, Hastings Academy.
The pair continued to message for over five months before Ms Williams suggested that they should meet in October 2022.
Ms Williams told the hearing that she was motivated by a need to “be there” for Pupil A and to “take personal responsibility for her welfare”. She spoke at length about her concerns about the pupil - which she did not report to Hastings Academy at the time.
She sent to the pupil: “We’re going to [redacted] this Friday. I’ll collect u from Hastings, we’ll drive there, spend some time, then I’ll drive u to [redacted] for u to go back to Hstings. I’ll pay. [sic]”
The pupil told her that she “did not know if that would be possible unless my mum knew” – to which Ms Williams replied that she had “already bought the tickets”.
When the pupil asked whether or not she should ask her mother about the day out, Ms Williams said: “I’m worried she’d make trouble if she knew it was me. If I just came to Hastings someone is bound to see me with you.”
The pair later met up in Hastings, with Ms Williams telling the child she “can say we bumped into each other”.
The pupil told her mother that she was “meeting a friend” – but the mother later checked her child’s phone to find the messages between the pair.
Ms Williams later admitted sending the messages when confronted and was later suspended.
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The disciplinary hearing heard that Ms Williams admitted exchanging messages with the former pupil and forming an inappropriate relationship with her by arranging to meet up with her.
She also admitted that she did not safeguard the pupil and did not report concerns she had about her.
She admitted to completing an application form for her teaching post at Uplands and falsely writing that she had not been the subject of child safety allegations.
The panel found it “inappropriate” for Ms Williams to have formed the relationship without the consent of the pupil's mother and “in a manner that was orchestrated to appear happenchance in nature”.
However, it accepted that Ms Williams’ incorrect responses to the questions in the application form were made in error.
A spokesman for the panel added: “No parent would expect a teacher to be privately messaging their child without their knowledge and encouraging their child to deceive their parent.”
Ms Williams was banned from teaching indefinitely - but will be allowed to request for the ban to be reviewed from July 11, 2026.
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