Simon Clague

Introduction

Simon Clague is a former PE teacher at Repton Independent School in Derbyshire who was prohibited from teaching for life in July 2023 after convictions for indecently assaulting three pupils. Clague taught at the school from September 1989 until 2022 — a span of more than three decades — but in February 2022, at Derby Crown Court proceedings recorded in the decision as 28 February, he was convicted of eight counts of indecent assault on a girl under 16 and one count of gross indecency with a girl under 14, offences committed against pupils at the school in the 1990s. He was sentenced to a total of seven years and eleven months’ imprisonment and registered on the sex offenders register indefinitely. A TRA panel found the allegations proved on his admitted convictions, and the Secretary of State’s decision maker imposed a prohibition order with no review period.

Background Information

Clague, born in March 1966, joined Repton as a PE teacher on 4 September 1989. On 21 February 2018 the school was advised that Derbyshire Police were investigating an allegation brought by a former pupil, and Clague was suspended. The convictions that followed covered abuse of three victims, all pupils at the school: five counts of indecent assault and the gross indecency count related to Victim P, conduct commencing on 24 June 1993; two counts of indecent assault related to Victim S; and one count related to Victim F, commencing around August 1994. A letter Clague wrote dated 4 June 2018, seen by the panel, resisted an interim prohibition order while strongly refuting the allegation under investigation and asserting he did not present a risk to children — a position overtaken by his later guilty pleas.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Three decades at the school, nine convictions from its own pupils. The panel found proved Clague’s convictions for eight counts of indecent assault on a girl under 16 and gross indecency with a girl under 14 — all three victims pupils at his school.

The panel recorded that Clague admitted both the facts and that he had been convicted of a relevant offence, with a certificate of conviction accepted as conclusive proof. It found his actions deliberate — “he groomed children for his own sexual pleasure”, the decision states, irrespective of the harm he caused. The panel noted there had been a number of occasions on which the school had cause to remind him of its expectations of professional conduct, and that he eventually pleaded guilty, so the victims were spared giving evidence, but only some considerable time after the police investigation began, leaving the victims in uncertainty about whether they would have to testify. The sentencing judge recognised there may have been reasons Clague held back from pleading earlier. His case was decided at a private virtual meeting on 30 June 2023 without a hearing, on a signed statement of agreed facts.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The published decision records no press coverage; the documented consequences are the near-eight-year sentence, indefinite registration, the end of a 33-year career at a single school, and the ban. The panel found a strong public interest in the safeguarding and wellbeing of pupils given the sexual abuse of three children, and in the maintenance of public confidence in a profession whose members hold uniquely influential roles in children’s lives. Because the offences predated the Teachers’ Standards, the panel assessed them against the standards of the era and concluded the sexual abuse of children was a serious breach by any measure, relevant to teaching and to any education setting. It found public confidence in the profession would be seriously weakened if such conduct were not treated with the utmost seriousness.

Current Status

The panel recommended a prohibition order without a review period: sexual misconduct involving a child, and abuse using a professional position, fall within the Advice’s categories that weigh against any review. On 3 July 2023, decision maker Marc Cavey, acting for the Secretary of State, confirmed the order with no provision for a review. Simon Clague is prohibited from teaching indefinitely — the ban covers every school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation and children’s home in England — with no entitlement to apply for restoration. The order took effect on service, with a right of appeal to the High Court within 28 days. He remains subject to the seven-years-and-eleven-months sentence and to indefinite sex offender registration imposed after his 2022 convictions.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Clague’s case closes the loop on an era: abuse of three pupils in the mid-1990s, a school suspension when police came asking in 2018, convictions in 2022, and a lifetime ban in 2023 — with the panel finding along the way that the school had repeatedly had to remind him of professional-conduct expectations during his tenure. His 2018 letter insisting he posed no risk to children, written while refuting the investigation, now sits in the public record next to nine convictions and the panel’s finding that he groomed children for his own sexual pleasure. Because no review period was set, the 33-year Repton career ends not just in dismissal but in a prohibition that can never be revisited, running alongside a prison term and indefinite registration.

Sources

• Teaching Regulation Agency, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Mr Simon Clague” — source