Ryan Scott

Introduction

Ryan Scott is a former deputy and headteacher whose two-decade career in primary education came before a Teaching Regulation Agency professional conduct panel in November 2025. The case concerned a trove of pupil material — photographs, videos and parental contact details stretching back to 2005 — kept on the Google Drive attached to his school email address. The panel found the data-storage allegations proved, along with one instance of inappropriate physical contact with a pupil, but rejected allegations of sexual motivation. It recommended no ban, and on 19 November 2025 the decision maker agreed: the findings would be published, but Scott was not prohibited from teaching.

Background Information

Scott taught at three schools. Between 2005 and 2009 he was Deputy Headteacher and then Headteacher at St Nicholas Church of England Primary School in Harpenden, resigning in 2009 as a police investigation launched after a parent’s complaint ran on. From September 2009 to March 2013 he taught at St Paul’s Church of England Primary School in King’s Langley, where an investigation was also launched during his employment. From March 2013 to February 2020 he was Assistant Headteacher, then Deputy Headteacher, at Holne Chase Primary School in Milton Keynes. A referral reached the TRA in November 2019, and he had been under an interim prohibition order since May 2020. The panel, chaired by Melissa West with lay panellists Shabana Robertson and Tony Coyne, heard the case virtually from 3 November 2025.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Findings published; no prohibition order — the decision maker concluded a ban was not proportionate. A Teaching Regulation Agency professional conduct panel sat virtually on 3 November 2025; the decision on behalf of the Secretary of State was made by Marc Cavey on 19 November 2025.

The allegations, set out in a notice of proceedings dated 1 August 2025, centred on the My Drive area of Scott’s professional Google Drive at Holne Chase — a personal area only he could grant others access to. The evidence bundle of screenshots ran to over 1,200 pages, and the panel was also provided with 74 videos of children doing gymnastics. Scott admitted that from around 2005 to 2019 he had transferred and kept material from all three of his schools: photographs and videos of children, including pupils in swimming costumes from Holne Chase swim-team folders and St Nicholas swimming events, videos and photographs of gymnastics practice, images of individual pupils on coaches — one asleep, another holding a sick bag — and a 2010 file of St Paul’s parental contact details. He said he kept everything for school purposes and never considered deleting it, comparing the archive to a useful reading book collected over a long career. The panel found all of allegation 1 proved.

The darkest allegations were not proved. It was claimed he kept images on an external hard drive of children in underwear, partially undressed in bed and getting changed, plus slow-motion panning videos — but that drive had been destroyed by police, a witness’s description of its contents did not match the material actually recovered, and police officers who reviewed it found nothing meeting the criminal threshold. Allegations of inappropriate personal-device use at school were not proved either: he stopped using his iPad when told to, and the panel accepted he photographed pupils offsite with the previous headteacher’s permission. Of the physical-contact allegations, only one was proved: a 2019 residential-trip photograph in which a pupil rested a leg over him as he read a story, his posture found “sat in a position which was far too relaxed”. The remaining contact and boundary allegations failed, and the panel found “no evidence that this conduct was of a sexual nature and/or sexually motivated”.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The panel treated the proved findings seriously but placed them at the less serious end of the spectrum. The data storage amounted to an error of judgement rather than unacceptable professional conduct, though it could bring the profession into disrepute — particularly the parental contact details held years after the trip. Witnesses, including TRA witnesses, described a talented teacher held in high regard by parents, pupils and colleagues. The panel noted his remorse and insight, and that he told it “with hindsight, he wished he had never transferred the data”. With no harm to pupils, the data never reaching the public domain, and an incredibly low risk of repetition, the panel recommended publication of the findings alone, with no prohibition order.

Current Status

Scott is not banned from teaching. Decision maker Marc Cavey, deciding on behalf of the Secretary of State on 19 November 2025, concluded that “a prohibition order is not proportionate or in the public interest”, reasoning that publishing the findings would send an appropriate message and meet the public interest in declaring proper standards. There is no prohibition order, no review period and no restriction on his employment; the only sanction is the public record of the adverse findings — breaches of the Teachers’ Standards on treating pupils with dignity, observing proper boundaries, and acting within statutory duties. The interim prohibition order in force since May 2020 did not become permanent.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The consequences were still heavy. Scott spent more than five years under an interim prohibition order — from May 2020 until the November 2025 decision — unable to teach while the case moved forward from the 2019 referral. His employment at Holne Chase ended in February 2020. The published findings now permanently attach disrepute findings to his name, covering the storage of pupils’ images across three schools and one proved instance of inappropriate physical contact. Yet the panel found that no doubt had been cast upon his abilities as an educator, and the decision maker gave significant weight to his insight and low risk of repetition — a reputational scar, but with his teaching career legally intact.

Sources

• Department for Education, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Mr Ryan Scott” — source