Church of England school teacher banned from classroom after searching for female pupils’ Instagram pictures

A Church of England school teacher admitted in a handwritten note to searching for photos of schoolgirls on Instagram to daydream, a court heard.

Jacob Woodland, head of the physics department at a secondary school in Lancaster, admitted that he had been searching for photos of students for several years to “fantasize for my own pleasure”.

The 28-year-old teacher confessed his behavior to the former vice-president of Ripley St Thomas Church of England Academy, handing them a piece of paper that said: “I’m really sorry but I did something inappropriate and I can’t live with myself without being honest.

“I looked at the public Instagram content of some senior female students at school and used them to fantasize for my own pleasure.”

At the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) panel, Mr Woodland admitted looking at photographs of numerous students, three of whom were under 18.

He said the images showed students “clothed or partially nude”, that the images “may” have been in bikinis, and that the students were of a similar “type”.

He was later investigated by the police. The panel was told he did not comment on any questions during the interview and no further action was taken.

Mr. Woodland had worked at the school for nearly five years before his admission in August 2024.

He was suspended the next day and resigned in October.

In a written statement to the fraud panel, Mr Woodland said: “I recognize that I am on a worrying path.

“However, I want to make it clear that having faced this problem for the last 15 months, I have no desire to repeat this behavior.”

The panel said it was “concerned by the limited remorse shown” by the teacher, who “felt he did not harm students because they did not know about his actions until the academy told them.”

Mr Woodland was found to have committed serious misconduct and was banned from teaching indefinitely in a written order published on Thursday.