Cheyne Phillips

Introduction

Cheyne Phillips was a PE teacher at Healing Academy in Grimsby from 2016 until 2022. A Teaching Regulation Agency panel found he pursued sexual relationships with two pupils: persistent sexual messaging with Pupil A after she left school, and a full sexual relationship with Pupil B, a child, that began while she was at the school and continued after she left — sexual intercourse, oral sex, and requests for indecent images, followed by demands that she delete the evidence. Phillips denied everything, absented himself from the hearing, and in May 2025 was prohibited from teaching for life with no review period and no entitlement to apply for restoration.

Background Information

Phillips joined Healing Academy as a PE teacher on 6 July 2016. On 6 October 2021 Pupil A’s mother complained to the school after seeing messages she considered sexual in nature; on 15 November 2021 Pupil B’s mother reported that her daughter, who had recently left, had been in a sexual relationship with Phillips since July 2021. Police, the school and the LADO investigated; the matter reached the TRA on 25 October 2023. The panel heard from Pupil A, Pupil B and a school witness, and reviewed emails, Instagram and Snapchat evidence; Phillips denied the allegations in writing but did not attend to give evidence.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Found proved: sexual relationships with pupils, one a child. The panel found Phillips followed Pupil A on Instagram, sent her sexual messages (“is this the part where I get lucky and get a few pics and videos?”, “how’s your head game”, “Ur a secret hahaa”) and tried to meet her. It found he developed a sexual relationship with Pupil B — kissing her, digital penetration, oral sex and sexual intercourse while she was a child — sought and received indecent images of her, and asked her to delete messages to conceal it.

Pupil B told the panel the relationship began with winks in revision sessions and flirty emails from his school account, moved to Snapchat, and became sexual: he collected her in his car, said “are you gonna make the first move or am I”, and on one occasion told her “next time you need to wear something looser” before saying “suck me off”. His messages when she tried to pull away included “let me fuck u then. Stop being a pussy” and “Times ticking baby cakes u either want ur eyes to water or you don’t” — the latter a reference, the panel accepted, to him pushing on her head during oral sex despite her asking him not to. She met him about five times and described feeling pressured. The panel found her “credible and clear”, found the sexual activity allegations proved, and found his demand that she delete messages dishonest.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The panel found the conduct sexually motivated, an exploitation of Phillips’s position of trust, and a pattern: two pupils pursued through the same playbook of persistent private messaging. It noted the school setting itself was implicated — the contact was “facilitated by, and occurred within, a school setting including through his lessons, revision sessions and the School’s e-mail account”. Pupil B said she had felt shame for a long time and that the relationship still hurt her every day. Phillips produced no evidence of insight or remorse and stated he did not intend to return to teaching; the panel found a continuing risk to children and recommended prohibition without review, attaching significant weight to the online facilitation of the relationships.

Current Status

Decision maker Sarah Buxcey, acting for the Secretary of State on 13 May 2025, prohibited Phillips from teaching indefinitely — barring him from any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England — and, in view of the seriousness of the findings, ruled that he “shall not be entitled to apply for restoration of his eligibility to teach”. The decision cites the findings of sexual activity with a child, sexual communication with a child, and possession of indecent images of a child as putting the case in the no-review category, and records that his lack of remorse “means that there is some risk of the repetition of this behaviour”.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Phillips’s resignation from Healing Academy in July 2022 did not end the matter: the panel’s May 2025 findings converted his departure into a lifelong ban with no route back, alongside the criminal-risk findings the panel identified. The decision stands as the regulator’s most serious category — a teacher whose sexual relationships with a child were proved on her live evidence after he declined to face cross-examination. His teaching career is permanently over, and no public statement from Phillips responding to the findings is recorded.

Sources

• Department for Education, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Mr Cheyne Phillips” — source