Sam Piggott
Introduction
Sam Piggott is a former assistant principal at North Shore Academy in Stockton-on-Tees, England, who was banned from teaching for life in October 2026 after a professional conduct panel found he made a stream of sexual comments towards colleagues, frequently in front of pupils. A Teaching Regulation Agency panel sitting virtually from 5 to 9 October 2026 found eleven remarks proved and of a sexual nature, and the decision maker acting for the Secretary of State concluded that a prohibition order was proportionate and in the public interest. The order was signed on 15 October 2026, and Piggott, who was 33, is prohibited indefinitely from teaching in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England.
Background Information
Piggott joined North Shore Academy, which is run by Northern Education Trust, as a teaching assistant in 2018 and was promoted to assistant principal on 8 January 2024. The panel found that between June 2024 and March 2025 he made inappropriate comments of a sexual nature in front of pupils and staff, and he was suspended on 19 March 2025. The trust said that as soon as the serious allegations were raised, the academy “immediately followed the trust’s established procedures to investigate the matter”. Piggott did not attend the hearing and was not represented, though he had sent a detailed written statement responding to the allegations, which the panel admitted and weighed alongside the live evidence of nine witnesses called by the regulator.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Prohibition order. A Teaching Regulation Agency panel found eleven of his remarks proved and of a sexual nature, and found Piggott guilty of unacceptable professional conduct. The Secretary of State’s decision maker concluded that a prohibition order was proportionate and in the public interest, and imposed an indefinite ban with a two-year review period. He may apply for the order to be set aside, but not until 19 October 2028, two years from the date of the order, at the earliest.
The findings catalogue comments made to and in front of staff and pupils. When a colleague told him a present had been left in his classroom to thank him for covering her lesson, he replied “I hope it is a blow job”. In front of a class he said “I’ve got a big one”, and, nearly colliding with a teacher leading her year 8 girls’ class along a corridor, said “Sorry Miss, I’ve just nearly put my sausage into you there” while carrying a plate of sausages and mash — a witness who told the panel she felt “disgusted, objectified and embarrassed”. To a female subordinate colleague he said “do you have feeling for me?”, “You’re just not used to men being direct with you” and “I know what girls like you are like”, conduct the panel treated as sexual attention towards a colleague on school premises. At an office Christmas party he told a subordinate member of staff “one day I will fuck you”, and on another occasion said of a pub’s clientele “just imagine they are a slag at the bar”. The panel also found he had said “I cannot be trusted around drunk children” — a remark Piggott called “false and vexatious” — but it was not satisfied the comment was sexual in nature, judging instead that it could bring the profession into disrepute.
In his written response, Piggott said conversations that could be “classed as inappropriate had been mutual” and that colleagues had responded in a like manner; he suggested he may have “rubbed a few of his colleagues up the wrong way” while working his way up, and accepted he may have misread situations. The panel was unpersuaded. It found a “repeated pattern of wholly inappropriate conduct towards his colleagues, frequently in the presence of pupils”, behaviour displaying what it called a deep-seated and wholly inappropriate attitude towards women, and sexist and misogynistic comments made in front of children who were entitled to see him as a role model. It found no material evidence of insight or remorse and warned he would be at risk of repeating his actions on returning to the workplace.
Public Reaction and Consequences
Northern Education Trust said it “took concerns of this nature very seriously and appropriate support was offered to those impacted”. The panel’s finding that sexualised and misogynistic language had been used repeatedly, often in front of pupils, drew the regulator’s most severe sanction short of criminal referral: a lifetime bar, published on the government’s Teacher misconduct panel outcomes feed where any future employer can see it. The decision maker agreed that public confidence in the profession would be seriously weakened if such conduct were not treated with the utmost seriousness, and gave considerable weight to the lack of evidence that Piggott had developed full insight into his behaviour.
Current Status
Piggott is prohibited from teaching indefinitely, with the bar in force across every school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation and children’s home in England. The order takes effect from the date it is served on him, and he has a right of appeal to the High Court within 28 days of being given notice. He may apply for the prohibition order to be set aside, but not until 19 October 2028 at the earliest; that is not an automatic right, and any application would go before a fresh panel. Without a successful application, he remains prohibited from teaching for life.
Impact on Their Career/Life
A rise that took Piggott from teaching assistant in 2018 to assistant principal in January 2024 ended with a published finding of unacceptable professional conduct and conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute. The panel noted repeated evidence of his abilities as a teacher, that no previous formal concerns had been raised about him, and that his proven conduct fell at the lower end of the serious band, short of its bar for “serious sexual misconduct” — which is why a two-year review was recommended rather than none. Even so, the panel described his behaviour and attitude as far from the level of trust the profession requires, and any return depends on convincing a future panel, no earlier than October 2028, that the risk of repetition is negligible.