Sylvia Sams

Introduction

Sylvia Sams is a former Business Manager at The Lambs Christian School in Birmingham who was banned from teaching in 2026 after being convicted of participating in the conduct of an unregistered independent educational institution — the same prosecution that ensnared the school’s proprietor, Patricia Ekhuemelo, whose own TRA ban was decided days later. Sams, who did not attend her regulatory hearing and was not represented, received a prohibition order with a three-year review period.

Background Information

Sams was employed as Business Manager at The Lambs Christian School, registered as an independent school since 22 January 2003, of which another individual was the proprietor. In March 2023 Sams sent the Department for Education a letter, on the proprietor’s behalf, stating the school would “cease to exist” at the end of the spring term and would remain open only as a pre-school with extended early-years provision. In June 2023 the department confirmed the school’s deletion from the register of independent schools and set out that continuing under-5s provision would require an Ofsted Early Years application. The establishment continued operating as a tuition centre.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated vs. alleged. Sams pleaded guilty and the conviction is a matter of court record accepted by the TRA panel; nothing in this section is an unadjudicated allegation.

Between 31 August 2023 and 22 February 2024, Sams together with two others conducted an unregistered independent educational institution at The Lambs (Christian) Tuition Centre, an offence under section 96(1) and (2) of the Education and Skills Act 2008. She was convicted at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court on 26 September 2024 and sentenced to a 12-month community order with 60 hours of unpaid work, a £114 victim surcharge, and £200 towards prosecution costs. In a handwritten letter to the TRA dated June 2025 she confirmed she had pleaded guilty in court; the panel found the allegation proved.

The TRA hearing took place in public in March 2026 with Sams neither present nor represented. The panel determined the case on the documentary evidence, including the conviction record and the correspondence trail with the Department for Education showing the school knew its registration had been deleted. The panel noted she had worked at the school since well before the deregistration and that the offence covered a six-month period in which the tuition centre operated outside any statutory oversight — no inspections, no welfare checks, and no register entry against which concerns about children could be raised. Her conviction was part of the same enforcement action that reached the proprietor, Patricia Ekhuemelo, whose prohibition order was signed six days after Sams’s.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The panel recommended a prohibition order with a three-year review period, finding that unregistered schooling carried inherent safeguarding risk because the children enrolled sat outside statutory inspection and welfare oversight. The Secretary of State’s decision maker agreed, weighing the absence of evidence of insight and remorse against the panel’s note that Sams “has the capacity to reflect on her actions” — a slightly more hopeful reading than the contemporaneous finding in the proprietor’s case. No mainstream press coverage carrying her name has been located; the public record is the regulator’s published decision.

Current Status

The determination is dated 19 March 2026 and the order was signed on 20 March 2026. Sams is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth-form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. She may apply for the order to be set aside from 27 March 2029 — three years from the order — with any application judged against the conviction and the findings made. She retains a right of appeal to the High Court within 28 days of notice.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The conviction and lifetime bar close out Sams’s career in school administration and place a criminal record for an unregistered-school offence on every future DBS check. Her case sits alongside the proprietor’s as part of the same enforcement action — the first criminal prosecution of the Lambs operation after its registration was deleted, and a demonstration that the offence reaches everyone who runs such an institution, not only the person at the top.

Sources

• Teaching Regulation Agency, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Ms Sylvia Sams,” published 7 April 2026 — source