Kandice Barber

Introduction

Kandice Barber was a form tutor and cover supervisor at Princes Risborough School in Buckinghamshire when, in January 2021, she was convicted at Aylesbury Crown Court of three sexual offences against a 15-year-old male pupil at the school. Sentenced to six years and two months in prison, she was barred from teaching for life in December 2023, when a Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) panel found the convictions proved and the decision maker acting for the Secretary of State for Education imposed an indefinite prohibition order with no review period. Barber has always maintained her innocence and took no part in the regulatory hearing.

Background Information

Born on 10 July 1985, Barber was 33 years old in 2018 and working at the school under TRA reference 18232. She held no teaching qualification — a point she later relied on in challenging the regulator’s jurisdiction over her. In 2019 police investigated an allegation that she had groomed a 15-year-old male pupil, had sex with him and sent him sexual communications, including a video of her engaging in a sexual act and a message containing a sexual innuendo sent while both were in school, in which she referred to teaching him.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Criminal convictions for sexual offences against a 15-year-old pupil, which she disputes to this day.

The offending began in late September 2018. Between 27 September and 20 October 2018, Barber caused or incited a male child under 16 to engage in a sexual act, contrary to section 10(1)(a) of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, and engaged in sexual communication with a child, contrary to section 15A(1). Between 27 September 2018 and 31 January 2019 she caused a child aged 13 to 17 to watch a sexual act — an abuse of her position of trust, contrary to section 19(1)(e)(ii). She was charged with all three offences and pleaded not guilty.

After a trial at Aylesbury Crown Court she was convicted, and on 28 January 2021 she was sentenced to “a total of 6 years and 2 months in prison” and made subject to an indefinite sexual harm prevention order. The regulator’s notice had originally given the conviction date as 15 February 2021; the panel allowed an amendment to 28 January 2021, the date on the certificate of conviction. Sentencing, the trial judge noted that Barber had made threats to the child to stop him disclosing what had happened and had sought to manipulate him; the boy became withdrawn and confined himself to his room as a result.

The panel stressed that the victim was a pupil at the school where she worked, that he would have perceived her as one of his teachers, and that she messaged him in a sexually suggestive manner during the school day while she was in class, referring to teaching him. Her grooming and sexual exploitation of the boy was followed by threats and manipulation, the panel found, demonstrating a callous and selfish disregard for her pupil’s well-being.

Barber’s response to the proceedings was to dispute the regulator’s authority over her altogether. “I am not and never have been a teacher so this is a waste of time!” she wrote in her response to the notice of proceedings, adding that with a place on the sex offenders register she would never work in education again. The panel rejected the argument: on school evidence — a form tutor role, covering a business and IT teacher’s timetable, a teaching load that was on occasion significant, and two pay amendments — it found she was engaged in teaching work within Regulation 3(1) of the Teachers’ (England) Disciplinary Regulations 2012, unsupervised by a qualified teacher, and that this overlapped with the period when the offences took place and came to light.

The TRA’s hearings on 22 March 2023 and 14 December 2023, held in public online via Microsoft Teams, went ahead without her; she was neither present nor represented, and the panel concluded she had voluntarily waived her right to attend.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The panel found all the allegations proved, on the certificate of conviction and supporting material including the transcript of sentencing remarks, and saw no exceptional circumstances that would justify going behind the convictions; it proceeded on the basis that Barber had acted as the trial judge described. Her denial — “Despite the convictions I have always proclaimed my innocentse.” — forms part of the record. The panel found her conduct fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession and amounted to a gross breach of trust and abuse of position: “The public would rightly be appalled by her behaviour.” Finding her conduct so egregious and harmful as to be fundamentally incompatible with being allowed to teach in future, and noting the absence of any evidence of insight or remorse, it recommended a prohibition order with immediate effect and no review period.

Current Status

On 20 December 2023 Sarah Buxcey, deciding on behalf of the Secretary of State, imposed a prohibition order taking effect from the date it was served. Barber is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. There is no review period: because the findings involved sexual misconduct against a child, the panel recommended that no provision be made for review, and the decision maker agreed that allowing one would not maintain public confidence in the profession. Barber is not entitled to apply for restoration of her eligibility to teach. She has a right of appeal to the King’s Bench Division of the High Court within 28 days of notice of the order.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The criminal sentence — more than six years in prison plus an indefinite sexual harm prevention order — ended Barber’s working life in education, and the prohibition order forecloses any return: with no review period and no route to restoration, the ban is for life. The decision maker placed considerable weight on the absence of insight or remorse, finding it created some risk of repetition that put pupils’ future well-being at risk. Barber, who told the regulator she would not want to work in education again, did not attend the hearing and continues to maintain her innocence.

Sources

• Department for Education, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Ms Kandice Barber” — source