Farooq Ahmed
Introduction
Farooq Ahmed taught at Oasis Academy Lister Park in Bradford from 1 September 2023. A panel later found that during a lesson on 24 November 2023 he pushed and/or kicked a pupil’s chair and hit another pupil with a ruler; in January 2024 he accepted a conditional caution from West Yorkshire Police for assault. He was suspended on 27 November 2023 and resigned on 15 January 2024. In September 2025 a Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) panel found all allegations proved, and on 19 September 2025 Marc Cavey, deciding for the Secretary of State for Education, prohibited Ahmed from teaching indefinitely.
Background Information
Ahmed had a lengthy teaching career before joining the school. After two students reported at lunch that he had struck a pupil with a ruler in the previous lesson, the principal obtained CCTV footage. The investigation was paused for the police inquiry; Ahmed resigned on 15 January 2024, the day he signed the conditional caution. The panel convened virtually on 15 and 16 September 2025; Ahmed was not present or represented, so the allegations were not admitted and it heard a single witness.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Classroom assault on pupils and a police conditional caution.
The panel watched the lesson’s CCTV footage. Though blurred, it showed Ahmed pushing a chair on which a child was sitting, the child adjusting position, then a leg movement after which the child flinched — a reasonable inference, it found, that he had kicked the chair; it found proved that he pushed and/or kicked the chair on which Pupil A was sitting. It also saw Ahmed flick a ruler that appeared to make contact with Pupil B’s arm, having shortly before taken it from a pupil nearby while in an agitated state. Pupil B’s same-day statement said Ahmed yelled at him and then “hit me with a ruler”; the footage corroborated it and the panel found proved that he hit Pupil B with a ruler. Both actions, it found, breached the school’s policy on physical contact with students, there being no legitimate aim.
The panel placed no weight on a note of an investigation interview dated 23 February 2024, because no such interview had taken place — written questions went to his representative via a third party — and the note was unsigned; it likewise gave no weight to a 2 February 2024 note, relying instead on explanations given directly by Ahmed or his representative. Those explanations shifted: his email that evening accepted only a “slim possibility” that a ruler “may have brushed his hand”; in his police interview he attributed the contact to the pupil’s own sudden movement; and his 2 October 2024 representations denied any contact at all. Finding these shifting accounts incredible against the footage, the panel concluded he had more likely than not hit Pupil B with a ruler.
The third allegation concerned the criminal outcome. The panel had the caution Ahmed signed on 15 January 2024, recording the offence as “On 31/12/2023 at Oasis Academy assaulted [redacted].” In signing the form, Ahmed declared: “I admit to the offence(s) set out above. I understand I have the right to legal advice”. The caution was for assault by beating contrary to section 39 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988, though the document itself recorded an assault without stipulating that it was by beating. Ahmed has not disputed that he signed the caution; on 2 September 2025 he told the firm instructing the presenting officer that he had made a mistake but did not deny accepting the caution, saying he “cannot undo the caution”. The panel found all three allegations proven.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The published decision is a regulatory record with no press coverage. The panel found Ahmed’s actions deliberate and no evidence of duress. For insight it noted his account of growing frustrations with the conduct and learning of the pupils, including that he “may have tossed the book back at him in a frustrated manner” when Pupil B had not written his name on his book, and his statement that “I apologise to the Trust and the school as I could have managed the situation much better.” It accepted he had previously shown some insight, but found no appreciation of the effect of his actions on the pupils; his later representations effectively denied any misconduct, leaving no current assurance against repetition. Recognising a likely one-off loss of control at the lower end of violence, with no injury to either pupil, it nonetheless recommended a prohibition order with immediate effect and a review period of two years.
Current Status
Decision maker Marc Cavey, deciding on 19 September 2025 on behalf of the Secretary of State, imposed a prohibition order: Ahmed is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. Cavey judged that “the lack of evidence that Mr Ahmed has developed full insight means that there is some risk of the repetition of this behaviour” and gave that element considerable weight. Ahmed may apply for the order to be set aside, but not until 2027, two years from the date of the order at the earliest; “This is not an automatic right to have the prohibition order removed”. He has a right of appeal to the High Court within 28 days of notice of the order. The decision was published on 9 October 2025.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The order formally ends Ahmed’s long teaching career in England unless a future set-aside application succeeds. The conditional caution remains a matter of record alongside the findings of unnecessary physical contact with pupils. Cavey placed considerable weight on the misconduct’s seriousness — the findings include violence that “resulted in the acceptance of a Police Caution” — and on the risk of repetition, giving less weight to the valuable contribution his lengthy career could have made to the profession.