Sayyad Rizvi

Introduction

Sayyad Rizvi is a former chemistry teacher at Stantonbury School in Milton Keynes who was banned from teaching for life in November 2024 after a Teaching Regulation Agency panel found he sent sexually motivated Instagram messages to a pupil in August 2022. Rizvi admitted sending only one message, claimed his account had been hacked, and denied the rest; the panel rejected his account, found he sent the messages in the schedule, and found his conduct sexually motivated. Decision maker Marc Cavey prohibited him from teaching indefinitely with no entitlement ever to apply for restoration. Rizvi was present at the hearing but unrepresented.

Background Information

Rizvi taught chemistry at Stantonbury School for approximately two years. During the Covid pandemic he set up an online chemistry channel called “Quinone7” across Instagram and Facebook, and engaged a marketing team in Pakistan to promote the accounts. In July 2022 he flew to Pakistan to care for a sick relative. On 7 August 2022, Pupil A contacted him on Instagram while he was abroad; he admitted replying “U r good looking and gorgeous”, saying he had intended to reassure her as she was worried about failing her chemistry exam. On 12 August 2022 the pupil’s mother complained to the school, attaching screenshots of Instagram messages from the Quinone7 account. That same day Rizvi messaged a senior colleague claiming the channel had been hacked and that he suspected his promotion team — an account the panel later found unpersuasive.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Findings vs. facts. Rizvi admitted one message and denied the rest; nothing was convicted in a criminal court. The panel found the remaining messages proved on the balance of probabilities and the conduct sexually motivated on the evidence before it.

The schedule of messages the panel found he sent included “The room is getting hot, is that bcoz of ur pics”, “Love u my dear…u r great and friendly”, “What sort of bf u r looking..Tall?…Like.me”, “Ur pics r very cool and sexy”, “U look stunning”, “Take ur top off I will giv u a massage” accompanied by a photograph of a naked woman being given a massage, and an image containing the web address of an adult site. Rizvi’s hacking account failed: he could not explain why a Pakistani marketer would send photographs from his own phone gallery, and the panel noted the messages’ grammar — “u”, “r”, offers to bring things back from Pakistan — matched his own verifiable WhatsApp message. It also criticised the school’s investigation for never viewing the messages on the pupil’s phone. The panel found all the messages proved, held they were sent for his immediate sexual gratification, and found the sexual-motivation allegation proved; it found Rizvi guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and conduct likely to bring the profession into disrepute.

Public Reaction and Consequences

No press coverage attaches to the case; the published decision is the public record. The pupil’s mother’s complaint reached the school within days of the messages, and Rizvi’s employment at Stantonbury ended. He attended the hearing but represented himself, denying sexual motivation and arguing that calling someone gorgeous was normal in his culture; the panel found instead that he had lost sight of appropriate professional behaviour. It recommended no review period, his conduct involving numerous sexual communications with a pupil being “entirely incompatible with being a teacher”. Cavey agreed, finding a review period insufficient to maintain public confidence given the very serious nature of the misconduct and the lack of full insight or remorse, which raised the risk of repetition and consequent harm to pupils.

Current Status

Rizvi is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. Because the decision maker also removed his entitlement to apply for restoration, the ban has no review gate: he “shall not be entitled to apply for restoration of his eligibility to teach”. The determination is dated 15 November 2024, with the order dated 20 November 2024, effective from service. He retains a right of appeal to the High Court within 28 days of notice; the published record shows none was filed. No criminal proceedings appear in the published record.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Rizvi’s case shows how the regulator treats direct-messages evidence: screenshots supplied by a parent, even without metadata, can carry a prohibition finding when the writing style matches the teacher’s own verified messages. His defence — hacking, family disputes in Pakistan, a cousin with his phone — was rejected as unverifiable and inconsistent with the evidence. Because his conduct was found sexually motivated toward a pupil, the case lands in the no-review, no-restoration tier despite his presence at the hearing and his partial admission. For schools the case underlines that staff-pupil contact on personal social accounts during holidays is a safeguarding breach on its own, and that a teacher’s own promotional social channels give pupils a direct route of approach the teacher is responsible for policing.

Sources

• Dept for Education, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Mr Sayyad Rizvi” — source