Richard Halladay

Introduction

Richard Halladay is a former English teacher at Alleyn’s School, an independent school in Dulwich, London, whose three-decade teaching career ended in a public findings publication rather than a teaching ban. In November 2025, a professional conduct panel of the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) found proved that, in or around 1990, he engaged in a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old pupil at the school, and that the conduct was sexually motivated. The panel found the conduct amounted to conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute, but not unacceptable professional conduct. Unusually, the Secretary of State’s decision maker, Sarah Buxcey, concluded that “I have concluded that a prohibition order is not proportionate or in the public interest.” Halladay therefore remains legally free to teach. The case stands as a rare example of a finding of sexually motivated misconduct with a pupil ending without a prohibition order, resting on the era’s absent safeguarding rules, Halladay’s admissions, and a one-off relationship three decades in the past.

Background Information

Halladay joined Alleyn’s School in September 1991, where his duties included the planning and delivery of English lessons. He was later promoted to deputy Head of Middle School. The panel noted he had worked as a teacher since 1986. There is no record of a criminal investigation or prosecution in the decision; the panel found that his conduct “did not constitute a criminal offence at the time, although such conduct later became criminalised.” The relationship only surfaced decades later, on 29 November 2021, when the school received an anonymous report that Halladay had engaged in a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old pupil (“Pupil A”) in approximately 1990. Halladay was interviewed on 20 April 2022 and admitted the relationship.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Admitted all allegations; findings published, no prohibition order. A TRA professional conduct panel considered the case on paper on 6 November 2025, after the TRA agreed to deal with it without a hearing, and the Secretary of State declined to impose a ban on 13 November 2025.

The allegations, set out in a notice of meeting dated 30 October 2025, were that whilst employed as a teacher at Alleyn’s School, in or around 1990, he “engaged in and/or encouraged an intimate relationship with Pupil A”, and that the conduct was sexually motivated. Halladay admitted both allegations.

The panel’s findings rest on a statement of agreed facts signed on 17 September 2025, in which Halladay admitted that he “engaged in and/or encouraged an intimate relationship with Pupil A” — in concrete terms, a sexual relationship with a pupil who “was aged 17 years old when the sexual relationship began.” He accepted he held a position of position of trust, that Pupil A was vulnerable to exploitation or harm, and that his conduct had the potential to cause her harm. Pupil A, contacted during a suitability assessment, said she did not “feel a victim” and was “not angry”; she described a relationship of a few months, spent mostly at his flat, which she said “fizzled out”. The panel noted she was not motivated to bring the allegation and had only confided in a friend; her account was corroborated by Halladay’s admissions. Finding 2 was proved: given the sexual relationship, the panel found it impossible to infer any motivation other than sexual gratification.

In mitigation, the panel stressed that in 1990 the school had no safeguarding policy, no staff training on relationships with pupils, and no explicit professional standards covering such conduct. It called the relationship a “one-off relationship at a time when there were no explicit standards in place that would have indicated such conduct was unacceptable.” Notably, the panel did not find Halladay guilty of unacceptable professional conduct, because it was not satisfied his conduct fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession at the time. It did find conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The consequences were institutional rather than criminal or public in the conventional sense: Halladay was dismissed by Alleyn’s School on 23 June 2022 and referred to the TRA on 9 September 2022. The panel weighed public confidence in the profession against the public interest in keeping an experienced teacher, deciding “there was a public interest consideration in retaining the teacher in the profession, since no doubt had been cast upon his abilities as an educator”. It recommended that no prohibition order be made and that publication of the findings was itself proportionate. A suitability assessment commissioned by the school had concluded it would be “entirely unreasonable to suggest [Mr Halladay] was not suitable to work with children, based on one grave error of judgement nearly 30 years ago.”

Current Status

Halladay is not banned from teaching. After the panel’s recommendation, the Secretary of State’s decision maker, Sarah Buxcey, gave her decision on behalf of the Secretary of State on 13 November 2025. She concluded that publishing the findings “would be sufficient to send an appropriate message to the teacher as to the standards of behaviour that were not acceptable”. There is, therefore, no prohibition order, no review period, and no set-aside date; the published finding of conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute is the sanction in its entirety. Because no order was made, no appeal against prohibition arises. The finding remains on the public record through the TRA’s published outcome, and Halladay’s teaching registration remains intact unless separately revoked.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The direct career consequence was the end of his long tenure at Alleyn’s School, where he was dismissed in June 2022 after more than thirty years. The TRA outcome, however, leaves him free to seek teaching work: no prohibition order restricts him, and the decision maker expressly weighted the contribution he could still make to the profession. The cost is the published finding itself — a permanent, public record of sexually motivated misconduct with a pupil, which the panel accepted would likely damage his status as a teacher. Halladay’s reputation now rests on that tension: found to have exploited a position of trust, yet judged by the regulator to pose no present risk and worth retaining in the classroom.

Sources

• Department for Education, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Mr Richard Halladay” — source