Shovan Tamjidi

Introduction

Shovan Tamjidi was a teacher at JFS School in Middlesex. On 3 December 2019 he was convicted at North West London Magistrates’ Court of three counts of making an indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child, contrary to section 1(1) of the Protection of Children Act 1978, and was sentenced at Harrow Crown Court on 9 January 2020 to a suspended term of imprisonment, registration on the sex offenders register, and a ten-year sexual harm prevention order. He took no part in the regulatory proceedings that followed: the Teaching Regulation Agency’s notice went to his last known address, he never responded, and a professional conduct panel convened on 15 November 2021 accepted the certificate of conviction as conclusive proof and found him convicted of a relevant offence. Decision maker Sarah Buxcey banned him from teaching for life with no review period and no entitlement ever to apply for restoration.

Background Information

The decision records almost nothing of Tamjidi’s teaching history beyond his employer: JFS School, a large Jewish comprehensive in Middlesex, listed as his former employer at the date of determination. The panel was told only that documentation before it referred to a previously good history, with no issues raised about either his conduct or his ability to teach. The criminal case moved on a separate track: the three counts of making indecent images were heard at North West London Magistrates’ Court, where he was convicted on 3 December 2019, and sentence was passed at Harrow Crown Court on 9 January 2020 — imprisonment suspended rather than immediate, but combined with sex offender registration and a sexual harm prevention order lasting ten years, a package the panel later treated as indicative of the seriousness of the offending. At no stage in the TRA proceedings did he make any admission of facts, submit mitigation, or seek an adjournment.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted of three counts of making indecent images of children; suspended sentence, register and a ten-year order; banned for life after declining to engage with the regulator. The panel accepted the conviction certificate as conclusive and did not re-examine the underlying facts.

Under the regulator’s rules, a criminal conviction at any time of a relevant offence is accepted as conclusive proof — the panel does not rehear the case. The panel received the certificate of conviction from Harrow Crown Court detailing the three counts of making an indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child, found the allegation proved, and turned to consequence. It noted the offence fell squarely within the class of conduct — viewing, taking or making indecent images of children — that the Advice treats as likely relevant offences even as one-off incidents. The panel found his actions relevant to teaching and to working with children, capable of affecting pupil and public safety, and damaging to confidence in the profession given the influence teachers hold. The presenting officer applied to amend the allegation to remove duplicated statutory wording — a change the panel accepted without notice to Tamjidi, finding it altered nothing of nature, scope or seriousness. His absence was found voluntary: he knew the hearing would proceed and chose not to engage.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The panel weighed the conviction against a previously good teaching history and whatever material appeared in the bundle about him, which it could not verify because no mitigation evidence or update was ever provided. Against him it found no evidence the actions were not deliberate, no duress, and — decisively — the panel’s own observation that the offending “was not an isolated incident and that the behaviour had occurred over several years”, with nothing presented to indicate any reduction in the ongoing risk identified by the sentencing judge. Publication of the findings alone was held to unacceptably compromise the public interest. The panel recommended prohibition with immediate effect and no review period. Because the case proceeded entirely in his absence, no public statement, apology or account from Tamjidi exists anywhere in the record; the sentencing court’s package — suspended custody, registration, and the ten-year order — remains the only other public accounting of the conduct.

Current Status

Tamjidi is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. Buxcey adopted the no-review recommendation on 17 November 2021, holding that the seriousness of the conviction and the lack of evidence of insight or remorse made even a two-year review insufficient, and decided he shall not be entitled to apply for restoration of his eligibility to teach. The order took effect on service, with a right of appeal to the High Court within 28 days of notice. The determination is dated 15 November 2021. His criminal sentence ran separately: the custodial term suspended at Harrow Crown Court on 9 January 2020, sex offender registration, and the sexual harm prevention order expiring in 2030.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The case shows the outer edge of the regulator’s conviction track: a teacher with a previously clean record, a suspended rather than immediate sentence, and still the most severe outcome available — lifetime prohibition with no review and no restoration — because the offence class itself forecloses leniency. The panel’s note that the offending spanned several years came from the bundle rather than any argument, illustrating how sentencing materials silently shape regulatory outcomes when the teacher never appears. For JFS and for employers generally, the two-year gap between the January 2020 sentence and the November 2021 hearing shows the pace of the regulatory tail even for uncontested cases. For Tamjidi, silence had a price the decision makes explicit: the same conviction, engaged with and mitigated, has elsewhere drawn panels’ attention to insight and remorse — here their absence was itself an aggravating factor.

Sources

• Dept for Education, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Mr Shovan Tamjidi” — source