Crymych teacher banned for two years after striking pupil on trip

A supply teacher who struck a pupil and swore while on a school trip to France has been banned from his profession for two years.

Shôn Rowcliffe, 33, had been suspended from working at Ysgol Bro Preseli while an investigation was conducted into the 2024 trip, an Education Workforce Council, external hearing was told.

A group of Year 7 and 8 football students – aged 12 and 13 – were part of a trip to France to play in a competition with a school twinned with the school in Crymych, Pembrokeshire.

A panel found Rowcliffe had been under the influence of alcohol while being responsible for pupils, struck one pupil across the chest, used obscene language and raised his middle finger at another teacher.

The disciplinary panel was told Rowcliffe did not accept that he was under the influence of alcohol, or that he struck the pupil, but admitted the other allegations.

On the third day of the hearing, the panel concluded that four of the allegations against the supply teacher had been proven.

A fifth allegation, that he asked a pupil to keep the incident a secret, was not proven.

The panel found Rowcliffe had behaved inappropriately in light of the proven allegations, and that his conduct fell short of the standards expected of his role.

Robert Newsome, the panel’s chairman, said a period of suspension would allow Rowcliffe “to reflect on his conduct”.

Newsome said that the panel received “positive comments” from the school’s headteacher and another teacher on the trip in regard to Rowcliffe.

The panel was “satisfied” that this was “an isolated incident,” Newsome said, but that there had been “no genuine expression of regret or apology during these proceedings”.