Callum Hatch

Introduction

Callum Hatch was a teacher at Abbey College in Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, from September 2020 until his resignation in 2022. Between October 2021 and June 2022 he exchanged Instagram messages with a 16-year-old pupil and a former pupil — offering lifts, telling one girl “Sex is hyped up a lot especially when you are young so it is good if you can finally do it” and “I’m sure you have a great body so there is nothing to be embarrassed about”. Hatch admitted the messages but denied they were sexually motivated; the Teaching Regulation Agency panel found otherwise and he was prohibited from teaching for life in October 2023, with no review period and no entitlement to apply for restoration.

Background Information

Hatch joined Abbey College on 1 September 2020. Concerns surfaced on 16 June 2022, when three pupils told the Head of Sixth Form they were worried about his social-media interaction with students, including a rumour he was messaging Pupil D, a former student who had returned to re-sit her GCSEs as an external candidate. The college referred the concerns to the LADO the same day and opened an investigation on 19 June. On 23 June Pupil D provided screenshots of Instagram conversations with Hatch, triggering a second LADO referral. Police took no further action — Pupil D was 16 when the contact began, above the age of criminal responsibility for the conduct alleged — and Hatch resigned on 19 April 2022, due to leave that August.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Admitted messages; motive found sexual. Hatch admitted exchanging Instagram messages with a pupil and a recently departed former pupil that included “I can drive so I’m happy to pick you up if that’s ok with you”, “You could come over to mine and I could show you some anime”, “Sex is hyped up a lot especially when you are young so it is good if you can finally do it”, and “You’d look great in anything, you are a beautiful girl”. He denied the messages were sexually motivated. The panel found they were.

Hatch admitted the message particulars “in their entirety” but disputed motive. The panel heard the pupils’ disclosure, reviewed the screenshots, and found the messages’ content and targeting spoke for themselves: a teacher proposing private car journeys and home visits to a 16-year-old, commenting on her body, normalizing talk of sex and nudity, and following and liking a second pupil’s photographs on Instagram. The panel found all particulars proved and concluded Hatch had “exhibited extremely harmful behaviour in engaging with children on social media”, with the sexually motivated comments “a significant factor in forming that opinion”. It found his conduct amounted to unacceptable professional conduct.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The panel identified a strong public interest in the safeguarding of pupils and in confidence in a profession whose members hold positions of trust; a teacher who initiates private, body-focused messaging with current and just-departed pupils exploits that trust directly. It noted the conduct sat squarely within the categories of behaviour incompatible with teaching, including inappropriate communication with a child and abuse of position. Hatch gave evidence at the hearing but the panel found his insight and remorse lacking, concluding that “there would be a continuing risk present if Mr Hatch was permitted to teach again”. It recommended prohibition with immediate effect and no review period.

Current Status

Decision maker Sarah Buxcey, acting for the Secretary of State on 17 October 2023, imposed the order: Hatch “is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England”. Because of the seriousness of the allegations found proved, she ruled that he “shall not be entitled to apply for restoration of his eligibility to teach” — a permanent ban with no route back. The judgment gave considerable weight to the lack of full insight or remorse, recording that this “means that there is some risk of the repetition of this behaviour and this puts at risk the future wellbeing of pupils”.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Hatch left Abbey College in 2022 with his resignation ahead of a disciplinary process he never faced — the police having declined the case — and the October 2023 prohibition order closed the door the resignation left ajar. The decision is a template for the regulator’s treatment of social-media grooming: no physical contact is required where a teacher’s messages to pupils are found sexually motivated. His teaching career in England is over permanently, and no public professional role since is recorded.

Sources

• Department for Education, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Mr Callum Hatch” — source