Jordan Emms
Introduction
Jordan Emms is a former English primary school teacher banned from the profession for life after being convicted of sexual offences against a child. Emms taught at Thwaites Primary School in Cumberland, serving as its acting headteacher from March 2020 to April 2023. After a three-year prison sentence in December 2024, a Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) conduct panel recommended — and the Secretary of State’s decision maker imposed — an indefinite prohibition order.
Background Information
Mr Jordan Emms (teacher ref 0837064; TRA reference 23482) was employed as a teacher at Thwaites Primary School from 1 July 2019. From March 2020 to April 2023 he also carried the responsibilities of acting headteacher.
His appointment had been supported by strong references. One former colleague of seven years described Emms as an “excellent teacher who works tirelessly to ensure his children succeed”, and a second referee of a decade recommended him for the post without reservation. At sentencing, the judge likewise referred to Emms as having been of previous positive good character, “clearly well thought of by many people”. The TRA panel later placed little weight on these assessments, noting they were “provided long before Mr Emms’ conviction”.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Adjudicated vs. alleged. Emms’s convictions for assault of a girl under 13 by touching, and causing or inciting a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity without penetration, are a matter of court record: he was tried and convicted on indictment at Preston Crown Court. The subsequent TRA proceedings were regulatory in nature — the panel adjudicated on the civil standard, taking the certificate of conviction as conclusive proof of the conviction and the facts necessarily implied by it, alongside a signed statement of agreed facts. Nothing on this page rests on unproven or redacted allegations.
On or around 1 March 2022, Emms was arrested by police and suspended two days later. The criminal process then ran for more than two years: he denied the allegations during the school’s investigation, pleaded not guilty, and stood trial. He was convicted at Preston Crown Court on or around 25 November 2024 of two counts — assaulting a girl under 13 by touching, and causing or inciting a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity with no penetration. On 16 December 2024 he was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment on each count, concurrent, made subject to a seven-year sexual harm prevention order, placed on the sex offenders’ register and ordered to pay a £170 surcharge.
In its sentencing remarks, the court described the harm in stark terms: “it has also been tragic for [Person A], and this was, at the end of the day, a serious abuse of trust”. By then Emms had already left the school on paper, having resigned on 18 October 2023 and been formally dismissed on 15 December 2023.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The direct institutional consequence came through the Teaching Regulation Agency. A referral led to a Notice of Meeting dated 12 December 2025 alleging that Emms had been convicted of a relevant offence. At his own request the case was considered without a hearing: he signed a statement of agreed facts on 14 October 2025, admitted the conviction, and elected a private virtual panel meeting. Duncan Tilley (lay, in the chair), Melissa West (teacher panellist) and Dr Louise Wallace (lay panellist), advised by legal adviser Luisa Gibbons, met on 10 April 2026 with neither Emms nor the presenting officer present.
The panel’s assessment of Emms’s attitude was unflinching. Representations on his behalf stated that “he knows that prohibition from teaching is the only outcome and has accepted this”, but the panel found no evidence of insight into the impact on his victim, no evidence of rehabilitation, and noted that “Following Mr Emms’ conviction, he has expressed no remorse.” It concluded that publishing the findings alone would “unacceptably compromise the public interest considerations”, stating: “The public would find Mr Emms’ conduct to be abhorrent behaviour for a teacher.” It recommended a prohibition order with immediate effect, with no review period, stating that Emms “has not demonstrated any insight as to the impact of his conduct, nor demonstrated any willingness to rehabilitate” and that it “had no assurance regarding the risk of repetition.”
Current Status
On 13 April 2026, decision maker Marc Cavey, acting on behalf of the Secretary of State, accepted the panel’s recommendation in full. Cavey found that the misconduct “constitutes behaviour fundamentally incompatible with working as a teacher” and ruled that a review period would not be proportionate. The final order prohibits Jordan Emms from teaching indefinitely — barring him from any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England — and goes further than most: he “shall not be entitled to apply for restoration of his eligibility to teach”, leaving only a right of appeal to the High Court within 28 days of notice.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The trajectory is complete: from acting headteacher praised in unreserved references to a permanently barred former teacher whose conviction brought a three-year prison sentence, a seven-year sexual harm prevention order and sex offenders’ register requirements. Professionally, the prohibition order forecloses any return to teaching in England for life — and because no review period was set, there is no mechanism to seek reinstatement, a step the panel justified because a return is something “the public would not tolerate”. The panel expressly discounted his earlier standing, writing that it “placed little weight on these references” from 2019 because the referees did not know of his offending when they wrote them; the conduct found against him was “significantly beyond that which could reasonably be tolerated”.