Jemma Kemsley

Introduction

Jemma Kemsley is a former teacher at Sankey Valley St James Church of England Primary School in Warrington who was banned from teaching indefinitely in January 2026 after admitting she drank alcohol on the school premises and taught — or was responsible for teaching — a class of pupils including four- and five-year-olds while under the influence. On 10 September 2021 colleagues found Kemsley disorientated and slurring her words during the school day; she tested positive on two alcohol tests that evening, reading 1.44 and 1.43 per cent breath alcohol, and later admitted she had been drinking wine in the morning before school. The decision maker, Stuart Blomfield, imposed an indefinite prohibition order with a three-year review period on 29 January 2026.

Background Information

Kemsley worked as a teacher at Sankey Valley St James CE Primary School, responsible for a reception class of children aged 4 to 5. On 10 September 2021 staff became concerned with her behaviour whilst she was teaching, as she appeared disorientated and was slurring. A colleague described her voice during a whole-school Teams assembly as sounding “off” — “over emphasising things and her voice was louder than usual”, mixing children’s names up. Another colleague found her “not her normal self”, her hair untidy and dishevelled. When called into a meeting that afternoon she first denied drinking, then admitted as colleagues left to organise an alcohol test that she had been drinking wine in the morning before school, though she said she had drunk nothing since; in the meeting she gave shifting accounts, saying at one point she had had an alcoholic drink at lunchtime. A colleague found an empty half bottle of vodka in her bag. She tested positive on two alcohol tests taken at 18:52 and 19:12 that day. The matter was referred to the TRA on 22 July 2022. Kemsley later requested the case be handled without a hearing, admitting the allegations in a signed statement of agreed facts; the panel met privately on 16 January 2026.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Admitted. Kemsley admitted the facts of all allegations in her notice-of-referral response and statement of agreed facts, and admitted that her conduct amounted to unacceptable professional conduct and conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute. The panel nonetheless made its own determination on the documents, which the published decision records.

The panel found both limbs of the first allegation proved. On drinking on the premises, it had the test results — 1.44 and 1.43 per cent readings taken late in the day, when she had been on the school premises throughout — alongside the empty vodka bottle two colleagues saw in her bag and her own admissions. On teaching under the influence, colleagues’ statements were consistent that she taught or was responsible for pupils that day: one described her giving morning instructions and teaching children in the class; another said she was supposed to be looking after the children. The panel found that in leaving a number of pupils aged 4 or 5 unattended her behaviour “was negligent and neglectful”, engaging the Advice’s child-neglect factors, while noting she had never been prosecuted for any offence. The safeguarding-risk allegation was found proven. Kemsley’s admissions to both misconduct descriptors stood; the panel verified the facts independently of them, as the Procedures require.

Public Reaction and Consequences

No press coverage attaches to the case; the published decision is the public record. The panel recommended prohibition with a three-year review period. Blomfield adopted the recommendation on 29 January 2026, judging that “there is some risk of the repetition of this behaviour and this puts at risk the future wellbeing of pupils” — a repetition-risk finding he placed considerable weight on. The panel itself had concluded that treating publication of the adverse findings as sufficient “would unacceptably compromise the public interest considerations present in this case”, and had found her behaviour “akin to child neglect” — a finding the decision maker cited in weighting the ban. The school’s referral, four years before the order, and the eventual nationwide ban mark the outer length of a regulator case — the conduct predated by months the better-known Warrington alcohol-at-school ban of the same era, and outlasted it.

Current Status

Kemsley is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. She may apply for the order to be set aside from 5 February 2029 — three years from the date of the order at the earliest — but this “is not an automatic right to have the prohibition order removed”; a fresh panel would consider any application against the public interest then. Without a successful application she remains prohibited for life. The determination is dated 16 January 2026, with the decision maker’s order dated 29 January 2026, effective from service. She retains a right of appeal to the High Court within 28 days of notice; the published record shows none was filed.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Kemsley’s case shows the regulator treating alcohol in front of infants as safeguarding conduct, not just health conduct: the panel’s analysis ran through the child-neglect offence factors in the Advice despite no prosecution, and the decision maker’s repetition-risk finding — not the day’s events alone — is what fixed the ban’s length. The three-year review gate places her between the two-year gates given to teachers whose misconduct was judged isolated and the no-review orders given to conviction cases. For schools the decision is a template for the evidence that carries a ban on admissions alone: contemporaneous test readings, consistent colleague statements, and the physical corroboration of the bottle in the bag. For teachers it confirms that being fit to be in the classroom is a threshold duty; crossing it with a reception class is career-ending even where the criminal law never engages.

Sources

• Dept for Education, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Ms Jemma Kemsley” — source