Angela Hughes

Introduction

Angela Hughes is a former nursery teacher at SS Peter and Paul’s Catholic Primary School in Ilford, east London, who was prohibited from teaching indefinitely in November 2023 after a panel found she had dragged nursery-age children by the arm, snatched toys from them, shouted at them, called them “little gits” and “little shits”, spoken of getting a pupil out of her face before doing “some serious damage”, and condoned another staff member knocking children down by kicking the backs of their knees. Hughes, who was present and unrepresented at a five-day public hearing, denied the allegations through a statement of agreed facts — and the panel found every allegation proved on parents’ eyewitness accounts and staff evidence. Decision maker David Oatley imposed a prohibition order with a two-year review period.

Background Information

Hughes worked at SS Peter and Paul’s Catholic Primary School, Ilford, in the nursery, between 1 September 2016 and 15 February 2019. The case broke open on a morning in September 2018, when two mothers looking through the glass doors of the nursery saw a teacher grab children by the arm and pull them in from the garden. Both wrote letters of complaint that day; one wrote that when she saw it she “felt sicked to my stomach and full of fear because does this happen to my child on a daily basis”, and that her “confidence in your nursery staff has gone”. The school investigated, and Hughes left its employment when the investigatory process concluded in February 2019. The school referred her to the TRA in May 2019.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

All allegations found proved after a contested hearing. The panel found the physical-handling allegations (dragging children by the arm, snatching toys), the language allegations, the shouting, and the safeguarding failure (condoning children being knocked down by kicks to the back of the knee) all proven, amounting to unacceptable professional conduct and conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute. Hughes denied all of it.

The eyewitness core was the 24 September 2018 garden incident. Witness C stated that she saw Hughes ‘grab’ a child by their arm and pull them into the nursery room, and shortly after witnessed her ‘grab’ another child the same way, describing both children as “just playing like the rest of the children before Miss Hughes physically handled them”. Witness D, standing beside her, independently described Hughes harshly taking a toy trolley from a child and dragging the child back inside. Confronted at a disciplinary investigatory meeting in November 2018, Hughes argued no parent could have a clear view into the nursery garden — a proposition the panel rejected against the parents’ contemporaneous letters, each of which included a diagram of where the events were seen.

The language findings came from staff evidence: Hughes referred to pupils as “little gits” and “little shits”, called a pupil “thick”, and on more than one occasion said to other staff, words to the effect of ’to get children out of her face before she did some serious damage’ — said, a witness noted, within earshot of the children. The safeguarding allegation concerned a colleague, Individual E, whom staff saw kicking the backs of children’s legs so they fell as a way of getting them to sit down; the panel found Hughes condoned it rather than taking action. The panel accepted she presented no documentary evidence or character references attesting to her abilities as an educator.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The published decision records no press coverage; the consequences it documents are the parents’ complaints that triggered the school investigation, the end of Hughes’s employment in February 2019, and the prohibition order. The parents’ letters stand in the record as the reaction the school formally received, one of them describing feeling sick and scared at the thought of what might happen day to day. The panel found public interest considerations in the protection of pupils, the maintenance of public confidence in the profession and declaring proper standards, and it identified the relevant behaviours in the Advice as a serious departure from the personal and professional conduct elements of the Teachers’ Standards and misconduct.

Current Status

On 10 November 2023, decision maker David Oatley, acting on behalf of the Secretary of State, prohibited Angela Hughes from teaching indefinitely — she cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. Oatley confirmed the panel’s two-year review recommendation, quoting its view that Hughes was “not incapable of remediating the current risks” and that with clear evidence of increased understanding of positive handling, behaviour management and self-regulation “Miss Hughes might be able to suitably ameliorate those risks.” She may apply for the order to be set aside, but not until 17 November 2025 at the earliest; without a successful application the prohibition stands for life. The order took effect from the date it was served on her, with a right of appeal to the High Court within 28 days.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Hughes lost her nursery career to two mothers with a clear line of sight through a glass door — the entire evidential spine of the case is what they saw in a few minutes of a September morning, written down the same day, and matched by staff accounts of the language and the knee-kicking colleague she tolerated. She denied everything, put forward no character evidence, and lost on every allegation; the panel’s two-year review period is built on the premise that the risks are remediable by training and self-regulation, not that the findings were borderline. Her employment ended in February 2019, and since November 2023 she has been barred from every regulated teaching setting in England unless a future panel accepts a successful set-aside application.

Sources

• Teaching Regulation Agency, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Miss Angela Hughes” — source