Andrew Hardwick, formerly a supply teacher at Belvedere Junior School in Bexley, admitted the allegations made against him but did not think his actions constituted unacceptable professional conduct.
Mr Hardwick was subject to a teacher misconduct panel in October after his former employer the Pioneer Academy—which is based in Keston in Bromley—referred him to the Teaching Regulation Agency.
Mr Hardwick began working as a supply teacher in various schools within the academy in December 2020.
In May 2021, he applied for a permanent position at Belvedere and disclosed he had undertaken tutoring outside of working hours and had social media contact with pupils outside of tutoring time while previously working at the International School Saigon Pearl (ISSP) in Vietnam.
The academy contacted ISSP to clarify what had happened, and following this it withdrew its offer of a permanent position and terminated Mr Hardwick’s employment as a supply teacher.
For a period of nearly 11 months, Mr Hardwick communicated with a pupil of his on Skype and Discord who had recently graduated from ISSP and moved to another school.
Mr Hardwick said the pupil’s father had asked him to do so as “in Vietnamese culture, it was common for pupils and teachers to have life-long relationships” and Mr Hardwick thought he could be of some “moral support to aid the pupil’s confidence” before they started at their new school.
Mr Hardwick admitted to hugging this pupil on one occasion after the pupil was “visibly upset” and had requested the hug from him.
He also admitted to hugging two other pupils, one while they were upset and the other at their graduation with their parents present.
The panel found that Mr Hardwick had been informed by staff members at the Ho Chi Minh City school that the first pupil was thought to be “very tactile and overly close” to him and that he should “maintain professional distancing and self-report anything inappropriate to keep himself professionally safe”.
Mr Hardwick also communicated with other pupils of his during COVID pandemic lockdowns on Discord for nearly six months as “he was concerned that pupils would not check the school designated app to access their work”.
Mr Hardwick secured the account details of several of his pupils and then set up a group chat with nine of them.
He used the chat to “post the work the pupils needed to do and answer their questions when they needed help”.
Mr Hardwick said he did this “out of a misguided sense of wanting the pupils to complete as much of their work as possible”.
During the ISSP investigation, he also admitted to communicating with pupils on Facebook and Skype.
He was asked during this investigation why he had not sought parental consent for these communications, and he could not offer an explanation as to why.
Mr Hardwick admitted “he had failed to maintain professional boundaries and demonstrated overfamiliar behaviour towards pupils” and that on reflection “he recognised the importance of setting and maintaining professional boundaries so as to communicate effectively and safely at all times”.
The teacher misconduct panel did find that Mr Hardwick’s actions constituted “unacceptable professional conduct” and there was a public interest in publishing what had occurred. However, the panel did not feel his actions warranted being struck off from the teaching profession.
It felt that “Mr Hardwick showed remorse and insight in his open and honest evidence to the panel” and “the nature and severity of the behaviour were at the less serious end of the possible spectrum”.
The report concludes: “The panel considered that the publication of the adverse findings it had made was sufficient to send an appropriate message to the teacher as to the standards of behaviour that are not acceptable, and the publication would meet the public interest requirement of declaring proper standards of the profession.”
