Ms Rebecca Smith

Introduction

Ms Rebecca Smith, known as Rebecca Motley during her teaching career, was a subject team leader in foreign languages at Lyndon School in Solihull and later an assistant principal there. In December 2023 a professional conduct panel of the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) found that, between 2016 and 2018, she pursued a relationship with a former pupil — referred to as Former Student 1 — that became sexual while the young woman was still 17, took her on a school trip without permission or insurance, and defied instructions to have no contact with her. The panel found all fourteen allegations proved, and the Secretary of State banned her from teaching indefinitely with no review period and no right to apply for restoration.

Background Information

Smith joined Lyndon School in 2007 and became an assistant principal on 1 January 2016. From September 2016 onwards, concerns arose about her relationship with Former Student 1, who had left the school that year after completing year 11. On 23 September 2016 the head teacher, Witness D, was notified by a designated safeguarding lead at the college Former Student 1 attended that she had disclosed she lived or intended to live with Smith. Witness D met Smith that day and asked directly whether she was residing with Former Student 1 or intended to; she denied it and said she was “bemused” by the suggestion. He instructed her not to respond to any contact from Former Student 1 and to report any contact to him — instructions repeated at the college weeks later.

The instructions did not hold. Messages between the two showed Smith arranging to meet Former Student 1 at a pub in October 2016, and in May 2017 she led a school trip abroad accompanied by Former Student 1, whose presence was concealed from the trip paperwork, the insurance arrangements and Witness D himself. The school referred the matter to the Local Authority Designated Officer on 5 June 2017, the day the party returned, and Smith was suspended on 6 June 2017. She was interviewed by police in July 2017; no further action followed. After further disclosures in March 2019 the police re-opened the investigation and again took no action. The school referred her to the TRA on 20 July 2018. The panel heard the case remotely from 4 to 7 December 2023; Smith did not attend and was not represented, having expressly confirmed she would not attend.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Allegations and findings. The findings in this section are those of a Teaching Regulation Agency professional conduct panel, which reported proving them on the balance of probabilities at a hearing held in the teacher’s absence. Smith did not attend and was not represented; she did not admit the allegations, and in her absence they were treated as denied.

The trip findings were the most conspicuously documented. Former Student 1, then under 18, appeared on none of the manifests, passport lists, risk assessments or insurance paperwork for the trip — paperwork Smith herself, as trip leader, was responsible for completing, and completed correctly for everyone else. Once there, Witness D learned Former Student 1 was among the group; when he asked Smith why she had not disclosed this, the panel recorded that she “was silent, she did not answer my question”. In her disciplinary interview Smith accepted: “I didn’t discuss or ask permission of anyone for Former Student 1 to join the trip.” The panel found her conduct dishonest. Witnesses described the pair sharing a room — room records corroborated a shared bed — holding hands on the coach, applying sun cream to each other, drinking together every evening purchased by Smith, and finally Smith arranging for Former Student 1 to leave the coach half a mile from school, so Witness D would not see her.

The wider relationship findings were more serious still. Smith obtained Former Student 1’s personal phone number in around May 2016, while she was still a pupil, and messaged her continuously until at least March 2018. After she left school, Smith gave her gifts including her old iPhone and clothing, took her out for dinner weekly, gave her keys to her flat, told her she loved her, and paid for trips away, including a two-night hotel stay shortly before her eighteenth birthday. Former Student 1 gave evidence that the relationship became sexual in December 2016, when she was 17, and ended in January 2018. The panel found the messages — Smith repeatedly calling her “sexy” and “boo” — the shared beds, trips and flat visits corroborated this, and preferred her evidence to Smith’s police-interview denials. It found the conduct sexually motivated, noting its onset while Former Student 1 was still on the school roll and that Smith knew her circumstances.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The panel’s recommendation to the Secretary of State described conduct of the “utmost seriousness”: deliberate, protracted and multi-faceted, involving sexually motivated behaviour towards a child, serious dishonesty and a lack of integrity, with no evidence of insight, regret or remorse — Smith had engaged with the proceedings only to a very limited extent and denied wrongdoing in any respect. The panel noted no doubt had been cast on her abilities as an educator; Witness D spoke effusively of them. The decision maker, Marc Cavey, concluded that the very grave nature of findings involving sexually motivated behaviour towards a child and serious dishonesty, with the absence of insight or remorse, meant no review period could maintain public confidence. The determination was dated 7 December 2023.

Current Status

Ms Rebecca Smith 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 carries no review period, and in view of the seriousness of the allegations found proved the Secretary of State decided she shall not be entitled to apply for restoration of her eligibility to teach. The order took effect when served on her, and she had a right of appeal to the High Court within 28 days of notice.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Smith had risen from subject team leader to assistant principal over a decade at Lyndon School, and the panel recorded an otherwise unblemished record and good character before these matters. That career is now permanently over, with no possibility of review. The case also turned on conduct never charged criminally: two police investigations ended without action, and the prohibition order is the only formal public finding against her. It was the TRA’s civil-standard process that established the sexual relationship with a 17-year-old, the concealed trip attendance and the sustained deception of her head teacher. The panel found the relationship originated from a teacher-student one in which Smith held a position of trust and a formal role in the pupil’s wellbeing.

Sources

• Teaching Regulation Agency, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Ms Rebecca Smith (nee Motley)” — source