Teacher at £30,000-a-year boarding school struck off after declaring love to pupil
A boarding school teacher earning more than £30,000 a year has been sacked after repeatedly declaring his love for a pupil.
Benjamin Phelps, 31, has been banned from teaching indefinitely after a disciplinary panel found he committed serious misconduct in a relationship with a pupil at St Bede’s School in East Sussex.
During their relationship, Mr. Phelps texted the student inappropriately, they met outside of class, hugged and kissed each other on the cheek, and asked them to skip school and “eat in the car” together.
He was fired in April 2024 following an investigation and the Teaching Regulation Agency’s professional conduct panel dismissed him on January 16 this year.
A WhatsApp message he sent read: “I hope you had a good night, I fall asleep with my phone in my hand. I love you and wish you sweet dreams! Contact me about anything xxxxxx”.
Another said: “A warm feeling washed over me, I shivered slightly (kind of weird but true), then I felt a warm glow and I can’t stop looking at it.
“I feel love, like pure love on a level I’m not sure I’ve ever felt before. It’s a special feeling. (I’m so sorry about this but you want the truth) it totally turned me on.”
“I just want to grab you and lift you up and wrap you around me. Also (less rude now!) I feel like there’s not a single thought in my brain but you.”
She also told the student: “I love you more and more every day. My heart was fluttering every time you caught my eye x also, I love hearts! Prepare them they will stay close to me xx”
She once wrote on a napkin: “I just want to say.. I (heart symbol) with all my strength (heart symbol), xxxx, I miss you today”.
Mr. Phelps received a call from the student in October 2023, and their relationship became increasingly personal between November and January 2024, as evidenced by messages sent over the school’s main digital communications system.
These Google chat messages, full of kisses and emojis, included expressions such as “but you have such a beautiful mind, it is so pure and sincere, I always said this”, “I hug the pillow big” and “if they look at your phone, you will delete this conversation too”.
The panel said the student disclosed an issue to him in November 2023 that should have prompted him to follow security procedures, but he did not do so.
In January 2024, she moved their correspondence to WhatsApp, which is not a school-approved form of communication, and they spent more time together outside of class and exchanged photos.
Their relationship “came to a head” when the student tried to kiss Mr Phelps in February 2024, the panel said.
It was stated that the teacher did not reciprocate the kiss and then tried to return their relationship to a “more professional basis”.
However, she did not report the kiss and admitted to the court that there were occasional kisses on the cheek.
The panel said references to hugs in their messages made it clear that “hugs were taking place between them”.
During the hearing, Mr Phelps acknowledged that “in retrospect he was probably flattered that he was receiving attention” and that some of the messages he sent “suggested he had developed romantic feelings”.
The panel found that the “activities, both individually and cumulatively” amounted to “serious breaches of professional boundaries” and that by February 2024 the relationship between Mr Phelps and Student A had become personal and romantic.
The claim that he followed a “grooming-like pattern” could not be proven.
Mr Phelps can apply to have the restraining order set aside, but not until January 2030, and has the right to appeal to the High Court.
