Kieran Harker
Introduction
Kieran Harker was an ICT and Computer Science teacher at Newmarket Academy in Newmarket. In November 2022 pupils raised concerns about his behaviour towards female students, and he was suspended on 14 November 2022, dismissed in 2023. In July 2025 a professional conduct panel of the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) found he had failed to maintain appropriate boundaries by touching pupils and had engaged in inappropriate communication with them, and on 16 July 2025 David Oatley, for the Secretary of State, prohibited him from teaching indefinitely.
Background Information
Harker taught at the school from September 2021 until his suspension, the panel accepting the conduct fell within that period. Concerns were raised on 4 and 7 November 2022; the school investigated and dismissed him in 2023. The panel convened virtually on 7 to 10 July 2025. Harker was not present or represented, gave no evidence, and produced no mitigation, character references or witnesses, so the panel made its own findings on the balance of probabilities.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Boundary breaches: touching pupils and personal emails.
The first allegation was that between about September 2021 and November 2022 Harker failed to maintain appropriate boundaries with pupils. The panel heard Pupils E and F, admitting the written accounts of Pupils D and I as hearsay with less weight. Pupil E said: “During [REDACTED], Kieran Harker became very touchy with me. He would often touch my back through the hole in the school chair.” and “I do not know why he did this. I was not upset, so he was not doing it to comfort me.” Pupil F said the rubs became “very regular. This happened nearly every time I had an [REDACTED] lesson with him.” Pupil D wrote that Harker “started to rub my back and my thigh. I felt uncomfortable. It has happened more than once.” Pupil I wrote of a hand on her lower back “in very unnessicery [sic] situations, like just walking past me”.
Asked about allegations of touching students’ thighs and lower backs, Harker said: “I have never touched a student’s thigh or lower back. But it is a natural reaction when someone is upset for me to touch the top of their back to console them, but I have never touched the lower back.” The panel understood from his responses that he admitted touching pupils’ backs when they were upset. It found he touched Pupil I’s back and rubbed Pupil D’s back (giving the hearsay of Pupils D and I less weight than oral evidence but sufficient to find them proved), found Pupil E’s and Pupil F’s oral accounts of back-touching proved, and on the thigh limb found he touched Pupil E’s thigh and, on the written evidence, the thighs of Pupils D and I. It also found proved that he ran his hands down Pupil B’s back, grabbed Pupil E around the waist and hugged Pupils E and F.
The second allegation concerned inappropriate communication. The panel found he emailed Pupil C “I saw you across the playground and thought how lovely you looked! Had to tell you immediately”, told Pupil A “just don’t get me into trouble either” — implying, the panel found, “a shared secret between teacher and pupil” — and sent Pupil C emails including “you are still my favourite”, “I’m actually sad I haven’t got a reason to email next week” and the sign-off “Kieran Harker will miss you”. It also found he suggested Pupil E take photos in a bikini on holiday and later asked to see them, wrote “happy birthday, love you, from Mr Harker” in her planner, and told Pupil A she “won’t struggle to get a boyfriend”. One limb was not proved: the panel was satisfied he sent “it genuinely saddens me that this is the last time I can send you a good luck email” but found that comment alone would not be inappropriate, and it had not been put to him in the school’s investigation. No sexually motivated allegation was before the panel. It noted his disciplinary hearing statement: “On reflection I recognise that any form of contact is inappropriate with a student and that I whole-heartedly regret this and would never do it again. I never meant to make the students feel uncomfortable, but they never made that clear and were always the first to come to me and ask for my guidance.”
Public Reaction and Consequences
The published decision is a regulatory record with no press coverage. The panel found the proved allegations amounted to unacceptable professional conduct and conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute, breaching the Teachers’ Standards and Keeping Children Safe in Education. It found his actions deliberate, on the whole, and no duress, and did not accept that the incident was out of character; it found the conduct breached the Teachers’ Standards and Keeping Children Safe in Education 2022. It recommended a prohibition order with immediate effect and a review period after 2 years.
Current Status
Decision maker David Oatley, deciding on 16 July 2025 on behalf of the Secretary of State, imposed a prohibition order: Harker is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. He may apply to set the order aside, but not until 23 July 2027 at the earliest — “This is not an automatic right to have the prohibition order removed”. He has a right of appeal to the High Court within 28 days of notice of the order. The decision was published on 31 July 2025.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The prohibition order ends Harker’s teaching career in England unless a set-aside application succeeds, with the findings on the public record any review panel would consider. Oatley placed considerable weight on the panel’s finding that a prohibition order was proportionate and appropriate to the serious misconduct found proven — citing the nature of the touching, the casual communications and their timings — and gave less weight to the contribution he might make to the profession.