Calderdale teacher banned from teaching after being convicted of assaulting a child

The indefinite ban for Harriet Coleman, 30, follows a meeting of a panel from the Teaching Regulation Agency last month.

Ms Coleman provided the panel with a signed statement of agreed facts and admitted “unacceptable professional conduct, conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute and/or conviction of a relevant offence”.

The meeting heard Ms Coleman was convicted of assault of a child by beating in May 2022.

She was also accused of “unacceptable professional conduct and/or conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute” in that, while employed at a Calderdale school, she provided inaccurate accounts of the incident, which happened in January 2022.

This included denying that she pushed and/or kicked the child and/or pulled their hair.

The panel heard that at the beginning of a meeting with the school, Ms Coleman clearly stated: “I promise I didn’t kick him”, and she denied pulling their hair.

Once the existence of CCTV evidence was revealed, Ms Coleman stated: “I may have kicked him…I remember kicking him”.

The full decision report said: “It was clear to the panel that Ms Coleman responded to being made aware of the existence of CCTV by changing her account”.

The panel noted that the behaviour involved in committing the offence "would have been likely to have had an impact on the safety and/or security of pupils”.

And it said: “The panel considered that Ms Coleman’s behaviour in committing the offence would be likely to affect public confidence in the teaching profession, if Ms Coleman was allowed to continue teaching.”

Although the panel found “no compelling evidence” to cast doubt on her abilities as a teacher, it did find that the seriousness of the behaviour that led to the conviction was relevant to her fitness to be a teacher.

The panel was also satisfied that the conduct of Ms Coleman fell significantly short of the standard of behaviour expected of a teacher.

Ms Coleman admitted the facts of the allegations to the Teaching Regulation Agency.

She also admitted that her conviction was a relevant offence, and her conduct amounted to unacceptable professional conduct and/or conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute.