William Sharkey

Introduction

Dr William Sharkey is a former religious studies teacher and boarding house resident whose career in English schools ended in an indefinite teaching ban founded on a long pattern of dishonesty. In May 2023 a Teaching Regulation Agency professional conduct panel found all six allegations against him proved, after he admitted a fabricated past in the SAS, false employment histories on two job applications, a pupil taken to his flat against explicit instructions, and over-familiar holiday emails to a vulnerable girl. The Secretary of State for Education prohibited him from teaching indefinitely, with a review possible only after five years.

Background Information

Born on 21 August 1984, Sharkey applied on 1 June 2015 for the post of boarding house resident in religious studies at Bryanston School, a boarding school in Dorset, taking up the role on 1 September 2015. The job meant overseeing pupils in the boarding house, with a limited amount of philosophy teaching alongside. His employment there was terminated with immediate effect on 13 February 2016. In October 2020 he moved to Lymm High School in Warrington as head of religious studies, where he remained until 21 January 2022. References from both schools described him as charismatic, bright and an outstanding teacher in prospect.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Admitted in agreed facts; considered without a hearing.

Dr Sharkey signed a Statement of Agreed Facts on 2 May 2023 admitting all six allegations, and asked for the case to be decided without a hearing; the panel met by virtual means on 19 May 2023, in private, and no criminal proceedings were involved at any stage.

The first incident came early in his Bryanston years. On 1 February 2016 the housemaster told him that pupils were not permitted in his accommodation. The next day he allowed a female pupil into his residential flat when no other adult was present; she had “just turned up” at his door, he said, and he accepted the advice — yet the same pupil was seen leaving the boarding house from the direction of his flat twice, in a house for male pupils. The panel found the allegation proved while noting an absence of malicious or sinister intent.

Two further allegations concerned his Bryanston application and his stories about himself. The application form required a full employment history, stating that as the post had “substantial access to children” candidates must provide one, but Sharkey omitted his time at a call centre for an energy firm between July and September 2009 and a research job for a politician from October 2010 to July 2012, while signing a declaration of truth. He had also told colleagues and pupils that he had served in the SAS and been shot twice in a warzone — an email to colleagues of 29 December 2015 repeated the claim. He later admitted the story was entirely fabricated, that he had maintained it since university, telling it out of panic and habit, that what he had passed off as his wounds was an old running injury, and that the lie had “got out”.

The dishonesty carried into his next job. His October 2020 Lymm High School application stated he had been employed by the University of Southampton from September 2012 to December 2016, when he had in fact worked there only as a part-time lecturer from October 2014 to May 2015. The form omitted Bryanston entirely, including his dismissal; when asked about it, he concealed the pupil-in-the-flat reason and described the affair as a silly joke about the SAS. Bryanston’s dismissal letter had cited his repeated dishonesty. Separately, in July and August 2021, during the summer holidays at Lymm, Sharkey initiated emails to Pupil A, a vulnerable pupil whose vulnerabilities he knew, sharing details of his personal life, trips and a book he was reading, and signing off with “Stay awesome”, laughter and emojis. The panel found this blurred boundaries and risked the pupil misinterpreting the contact; if he was concerned for her welfare he should have gone through colleagues. On the cumulative pattern it found he had acted dishonestly and lacked integrity, the dishonesty exhibited over more than five years.

Public Reaction and Consequences

With the facts agreed, the argument was over sanction. The panel acknowledged strong evidence of teaching ability and goodwill towards him, but was very concerned that he had shown no remorse or insight: he had admitted the allegations to spare a hearing, yet referred only to his wish to have the proceedings concluded because he was shortly moving overseas. Placing the case in the fraud or serious dishonesty category, it found a real risk of repetition and recommended a prohibition order with immediate effect, with provision for review after five years. The decision maker, Sarah Buxcey, acting on behalf of the Secretary of State on 25 May 2023, agreed, giving considerable weight to the lack of insight and remorse and to the finding that public confidence could be seriously weakened if such conduct went untreated. The prohibition was made indefinite, with a five-year review period attached.

Current Status

The order took effect when served and remains in force. Sharkey is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. He may apply for the order to be set aside, but not before 2 June 2028 — five years from the decision — and even then removal is not automatic; a fresh panel would have to agree. His right of appeal to the King’s Bench Division of the High Court ran for 28 days from notice of the order, and no appeal appears in the public record. He had already left Lymm High School in January 2022 and told the regulator he was moving overseas; the decision remains published on GOV.UK.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The ban ended a career that had attracted genuinely strong references, one of which said the writer could not imagine anyone better suited to the post, and it forecloses teaching and regulated work with children in England for at least five years — permanently, unless a review panel ever intervenes. The panel found his dishonesty had undermined schools’ ability to check references and safeguard pupils, and it gave that failure more weight than his acknowledged gifts as an educator. It was the repetition of concealment, more than any single incident, that cost him the classroom.

Sources

• Department for Education, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Dr William Sharkey” — source