Richard Chipchase

Introduction

Richard Chipchase is a former head of the maths department at Woodchurch High School in Birkenhead who was prohibited from teaching indefinitely, with no review period and no right to restoration, after convictions for sexual offences against a pupil. He pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court on 2 March 2021 to three counts of sexual activity with a female child under 16 and one count of attempting to cause or incite a child to engage in sexual activity, and was sentenced to 27 months’ imprisonment. On 15 February 2023, decision maker Sarah Buxcey banned him from the profession for life on behalf of the Secretary of State.

Background Information

Chipchase joined Woodchurch High School’s maths department in 1997 and became head of that department in 2008. The school’s own record is part of the story: in 2009, after concerns were raised about his relationships with female pupils, the school arranged pre-disciplinary counselling and gave him a mentor, and in 2011 it completed an investigation into further concerns, at the end of which his employment ceased. No report was made to the police at that point; that step came only in 2020. Police then interviewed the pupil — referred to as Pupil F, an emotionally vulnerable girl needing a higher level of support — and her account produced the criminal case that the 2011 investigation had never triggered.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted and sentenced. Chipchase admitted the convictions in his response to the TRA’s notice and the panel accepted the certificate of conviction as proof. He was absent from the proceedings.

Pupil F described a course of conduct the panel recited in detail: he was initially friendly, then showed her preferential treatment; the school, once alerted, took steps to keep them apart, and he responded by giving her his mobile phone number. He bought her cigarettes and alcohol and gave her lifts in his car. When they were alone in a store room he told her he would not let her out until she hugged him — she was scared — and during a car lift he sexually assaulted her, placing his hand on her knee and then under her skirt. The sexual activity began when she was under 16 and continued over a period the court punished with 27 months’ imprisonment, a seven-year sexual harm prevention order and ten years on the sex offenders register. The panel found the four convictions proved as alleged, all contrary to the Sexual Offences Act 2003, and noted the police description of the pupil as “emotionally vulnerable, and needing a higher level of support” whose teacher “had initially been friendly towards her, but then began to show her preferential treatment”. It found the offending spanned a four-year period both on and off school premises, and that it had occurred notwithstanding the school’s earlier attempts to address his conduct with female pupils.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The TRA hearing on 14 February 2023 went ahead in his absence: he had indicated in correspondence that he did not intend to attend, and the panel ruled he had voluntarily waived the right. He had admitted the allegations in writing in July 2022. The panel found no evidence of insight or remorse, noted his actions were deliberate and not performed under duress, and concluded that none of the Advice’s mitigating factors was present; no character evidence was filed. The criminal sentence, the school’s failed 2011 intervention and the regulator’s ban now stack as three separate public records of the same conduct.

Current Status

Chipchase is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. Because Buxcey decided no review period should apply and expressly removed his entitlement to apply for restoration of his eligibility to teach, the ban has no route back: the decision states he shall not be entitled to apply for restoration. His criminal sentences run on their own clocks — the seven-year sexual harm prevention order and ten-year registration were imposed in 2021.

Impact on Their Career/Life

A 14-year department headship ended not with the 2011 investigation but with a police report nine years later, and the TRA’s decision is explicit that the school’s earlier intervention did not protect the next pupil: the offending continued “notwithstanding previous attempts to address concerns”. The case is now one of the reference points for the no-review tier — harm to a child, exploitation of professional position, and no remorse — and its published findings permanently foreclose not just teaching but any work setting covered by the prohibition’s terms.

Sources

• Teaching Regulation Agency (GOV.UK), “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Mr Richard Chipchase,” February 2023 — source