Kevin Pratt

Introduction

Kevin Pratt, a teacher employed across the Acorn Multi Academy Trust in Axminster and the Cranbrook Education Campus in Exeter, was banned from teaching for life in October 2024 after admitting a string of misconduct findings: secretive relationships with two subordinate colleagues, sexual activity with one of them on school premises and during school hours, a sexual act performed on himself during a video call from school, explicit propositions sent to a third colleague, and a deliberate failure to disclose any of the relationships to his employers. A Teaching Regulation Agency panel found all allegations proved on his admitted facts, found the concealment dishonest, and decision maker Sarah Buxcey prohibited him with no review period and no right of restoration.

Background Information

Pratt worked at the two Devon academies between 2020 and 2021, holding seniority over at least two of the three colleagues involved. The case emerged when a member of staff’s disclosures to the trust revealed a relationship between Pratt and Person A, a subordinate colleague, and indicated a similar relationship with Person B, a teacher at the Cranbrook campus; the investigation that followed also surfaced explicit messages he had sent to Person D, a colleague at the Axminster school. Pratt requested that his case be decided without a hearing, provided a signed statement of agreed facts, and admitted unacceptable professional conduct and conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute; the panel met privately on the papers without him or his representative present.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Admitted misconduct; lifetime ban. Between June 2020 and April 2021 Pratt pursued sexual relationships with subordinate members of staff, had sex in an office and a cupboard during the school day, and concealed all of it from his employers — conduct he admitted in full and a panel found dishonest.

The panel found that between September 2020 and April 2021 Pratt asked Person A not to tell anybody about their relationship; that in or around October 2020 he messaged Person D suggesting he wanted to have sexual intercourse in her office and asked her to perform a sex act in her office while he watched; and that between June 2020 and April 2021 he engaged in an inappropriate relationship with Person B that included sexual activity on school premises and during school hours, which he admitted had taken place inside her office and inside a school cupboard. It also found that on 29 March 2021 he performed a sexual act upon himself while on a video call with Person B from school. Each finding rested on his own admissions and the message record.

The decisive finding was the concealment. The panel held that Pratt failed to disclose the three relationships promptly or at all, and that the failure was dishonest: he must have known his employers would regard the relationships as requiring disclosure, and the panel was satisfied it could infer dishonesty from that knowledge, testing it against the standards of ordinary decent people. It found the conduct breached the Teachers’ Standards on proper boundaries and integrity, identified sexual activity, serious dishonesty and controlling and coercive behaviour as the relevant features, and noted the power imbalance inherent in relationships with subordinate staff. Person A reported that Pratt had instructed her not to disclose the relationship to anyone.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The panel found strong public interest considerations across the protection of adults in the workplace, proper standards and public confidence, observing that the conduct took place within the learning environment and involved colleagues junior to him. While it cast no doubt on his abilities as an educator, it held that the nature of the conduct undermined any suggestion he could make a particularly valuable contribution to the profession. It recommended prohibition with immediate effect; Buxcey agreed on 3 October 2024 and removed any entitlement to apply for restoration, closing the review route entirely. No criminal proceedings were reported.

Current Status

Pratt is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. The order of 3 October 2024 took effect on service, carries no review period, and because his restoration entitlement was withdrawn there is no application he can make to a future panel; his only avenue is a High Court appeal within 28 days of notice. He has made no public statement beyond his admissions to the regulator.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The case shows the regulator treating workplace sexual misconduct and its concealment as a single, aggravating course of conduct: the relationships alone drew serious findings, but the dishonesty in hiding them from two employers converted a disciplinary matter into a lifetime bar. For the academies, the case underlined that seniority plus secrecy is the pattern safeguarding and HR processes exist to catch, and that voluntary disclosure — absent here — is the difference between a managed exit and a permanent ban. Pratt’s teaching career in England is over on any realistic reading of the order.

Sources

• Dept for Education, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Mr Kevin Pratt” — source