Matthew Chown

Introduction

Matthew Chown is a former teacher at Litcham School in Norfolk who was prohibited from teaching indefinitely in March 2025 after a Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) panel found he had engaged in nearly a year of frequent email and letter contact with a Year 11 pupil, discussing running away with her, threatening to quit unless he kept teaching her, and sending sexualised comments and innuendo. Decision maker David Oatley imposed a prohibition order with a two-year review period, noting that Chown’s actions were deliberate even though he did not intend their impact.

Background Information

Chown taught at Litcham School and served as form tutor for a Year 11 class. The pupil at the centre of the case, Pupil A, was taught by him but was not in his form group. Between November 2022 and November 2023 he engaged in frequent contact with her via email and letter, in which he discussed running away with her, referenced that he had threatened to quit the school if he were not teaching her, talked about being depressed that she would finish schooling in one year, complained about the speed of her replies, and stated in a November 2023 letter that he and Pupil A have ‘another 50 years of “this”’, by which he meant their communication. In a 5 November 2023 email he wrote that he worried ‘we might run out of things to talk about when you’re in your mid 70’s and I’m planning my 90th birthday’.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated vs. alleged. Chown admitted the conduct in the statement of agreed facts and the panel found the allegations proved on his admissions; the case was decided at a meeting without a contested hearing.

The allegations also covered a second pupil, Pupil C, whose relationship with Chown he admitted discussing with Pupil A, including jokes about her being married to a house guest. The panel found he made sexualised comments to Pupil A — referencing her skirt length, referencing her being naked and/or asking if she was naked, and referencing the wearing of crop-tops and hot pants — and engaged in sexual innuendo, including referring to “late evening blowing” in an email and describing Pupil A as a “well above average blower of a saxophone”. The contact came to light on 5 October 2023 when Pupil A’s parents emailed the school; the same day a LADO meeting was held and the police were alerted, and Chown was suspended pending a formal investigation. The panel found his conduct sexually motivated.

Public Reaction and Consequences

No press coverage attaches to the case; the published decision is the public record. The panel treated the period of contact — daily-adjacent correspondence sustained across a school year, much of it while the pupil was preparing for her GCSEs — as a serious breach of the boundary standards that protect pupils from exactly this kind of dependency. In mitigation the panel noted that although Chown’s actions were deliberate, he did not intend the impact they had on the student. Oatley weighed that against the nature of the misconduct and concluded that public confidence required a prohibition order, adopting the panel’s recommended two-year review period.

Current Status

Chown 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 for the prohibition order to be set aside, but not until 12 March 2027 — two years from the date of the order — at the earliest. That is not an automatic right: if he applies, a panel will meet to consider whether the order should be set aside, and without a successful application he remains prohibited indefinitely. The determination is dated 27 February 2025, with the decision maker’s order dated 4 March 2025, effective from service.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The case shows how the regulator grades emotional boundary-breaking: no sexual relationship was ever found, yet a sustained correspondence that positioned a teacher as a pupil’s confidant, future companion and escape route was treated as deliberate misconduct demanding a ban. Chown’s own words — the 50-years pledge, the depression at her leaving, the threat to quit unless he kept teaching her — became the panel’s evidence that the relationship had inverted the professional dynamic. The two-year review gate means he can seek restoration in 2027, but the published findings of sexualised comment and motivation will follow any future application.

Sources

• Dept for Education, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Mr Matthew Chown” — source