Jake Green

Introduction

Jake Green was a PE teacher at Nicholas Breakspear Catholic School in Hertfordshire from 2016 to 2019. In May 2022 an anonymous email to his then-employer alleged he had slept with a pupil from his previous school; Green admitted the sexual encounter but insisted the girl was over 18 and no longer a pupil. The Teaching Regulation Agency panel rejected that account, finding on the balance of probabilities that the 2017 encounter took place while Pupil A was still enrolled in the school’s sixth form, and that the conduct was sexually motivated. He was prohibited from teaching indefinitely in May 2025, with the option to apply for review after five years.

Background Information

Green joined Nicholas Breakspear Catholic School on 1 September 2016 as a PE teacher; Pupil A was a sixth-form pupil there. He moved to St Columba’s College on 1 September 2019. On 20 May 2022 St Columba’s received an anonymous email saying Green “should not be employed” because he had slept with a student from his previous school while a teacher there. On 23 May the college met him; he admitted the encounter but maintained she was over 18 and a former student. The college referred the matter to the LADO and suspended him; police were informed, but Pupil A did not wish to press charges. Green’s employment at the college ended on 11 May 2023.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Found proved: sexual activity with a pupil. The panel found that Green engaged in sexual activity with Pupil A while she was a pupil at the school, and that the conduct was sexually motivated. Green admitted the encounter throughout but disputed only her status at the time; the panel rejected his account as not credible.

Green’s account was that he met her by chance at an over-18s nightclub on a drunken night out, “did not know she was a student or even a former student at the time”, and only learned of her connection months later when she messaged him on Facebook — after which, he said, he was frightened of losing everything. Pupil A’s evidence was that the sex took place when she was at the sixth form. The panel, hearing both live, preferred her account and found allegation 1 proved: the encounter occurred while she was enrolled. It found the conduct sexually motivated, and rejected Green’s framing of a chance meeting with an unknown woman as unreliable against the evidence and the timing.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The panel found the conduct breached the Teachers’ Standards and safeguarding duties in Keeping Children Safe in Education: a teacher having sex with a child enrolled at his own school is the paradigm abuse of a position of trust, regardless of where the encounter occurred. It noted the harm to Pupil A and Green’s response when the allegation surfaced — a Facebook exchange in which he said he was “frightened if this came out as I would lose everything” — which showed awareness of wrongdoing rather than concern for her. The panel expressed concern about his insight and recommended prohibition with a five-year review period, the panel noting his admission of the encounter itself as the case’s only mitigating feature.

Current Status

Decision maker Sarah Buxcey, acting for the Secretary of State on 19 May 2025, prohibited Green from teaching indefinitely — barring him from any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. He may apply for the order to be set aside after five years; an application does not guarantee success. The decision maker gave considerable weight to the panel’s concern about Green’s insight, recording that “the lack of full insight means that there is some risk of the repetition of this behaviour and this puts at risk the future wellbeing of pupils”. No criminal conviction followed — the complainant did not press charges — so the ban rests on the panel’s civil-standard findings.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Green lost his second teaching post when St Columba’s ended his employment in May 2023, and the May 2025 prohibition order forecloses the profession across England unless a future review panel intervenes after 2030. The case turns on the panel’s credibility finding: his entire defence was that the girl was not his pupil, and the panel disbelieved him. It is also a case study in delayed exposure — the anonymous email arrived five years after the encounter and cost him the career he had rebuilt. No public statement from Green beyond his evidence to the panel is recorded.

Sources

• Department for Education, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Mr Jake Green” — source