A teacher in Swindon is banned from teaching after a regulator finds he had an inappropriate relationship with a pupil, including driving to the pupil’s home in the early hours and sending late-night emails. The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) rules the conduct amounts to serious misconduct and results in him being struck off the profession.
The teacher, Mark Fletcher, is linked to Ridgeway School and Sixth Form College. He is said to have suspended himself in July 2023 following disclosures by the former pupil and later disputed the allegations, while a TRA panel heard evidence including accounts of messaging from a personal email and an overnight visit in August 2019. The relationship reportedly shifts over time after the pupil leaves school.
Across outlets, reporting broadly agrees on the core findings: the ban follows regulator findings of inappropriate conduct involving a pupil and a sexual relationship after she left. The differing emphasis is mostly in what details are foregrounded, such as the letter described by one outlet, versus a shorter focus on the night-time driving and the regulator’s decision in others.
