![\"Mayville](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/d6f4c610c9702792958322d37d238572.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nA PE teacher who told a female student that she was \u201cPremier League\u201d and one of his \u201cfavourite people on the planet\u201d has been banned from the profession.<\/p>\n
Stuart Smith who worked at Mayville High School in Southsea in Portsmouth, was excluded from teaching indefinitely after a disciplinary panel found he had been \u201coverfamiliar\u201d and developed an \u201cemotional personal relationship\u201d with a pupil.<\/p>\n
The 48-year-old had also been appointed to the roles of assistant head of Year 11 and head of house.<\/p>\n
A misconduct hearing was told that Mr Smith had become \u201cincreasingly close\u201d to a pupil on a school trip and had engaged in regular one-to-one conversations with her.<\/p>\n
It was said that, following their return from the trip, he exchanged several WhatsApp messages with her.<\/p>\n
In one message, seen by the Teaching Regulation Agency\u2019s professional conduct panel, Mr Smith said to the girl: \u201cSo, today I\u2019ve seen a lot of my favourite people and done some fun things but I would have swapped it all for a cup of milo, a game of spoons and just being silly with you.\u201d<\/p>\n
In another, he told the student she was \u201cPremier League and one of my favourite people on the planet\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Smith also told the girl that he was \u201creally proud\u201d of her before referring to her as the best \u201choody stealer\u201d, \u201cbracelet addict\u201d, and \u201cMona Lisa friend\u201d, among other names.<\/p>\n
In his evidence to the panel, the PE teacher acknowledged that his messages at times were \u201ctoo friendly and over familiar, but he thought it was due to spending 16\/17 hours a day with someone\u201d.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mayville High School in Southsea, Portsmouth, costs around \u00a318,000 a year for senior students in year seven to year 11. Credit: Google Maps<\/p>\n
It was said that in his written statement, Mr Smith stated he had gone through the messages and agreed they were unprofessional and \u201cblurred the lines between what is acceptable and not\u201d.<\/p>\n
The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, also told the misconduct hearing that on the journey home from the school trip, she told Mr Smith she was going to sleep and he said she could put her legs over him.<\/p>\n
It was said that the teacher then \u201crubbed\u201d and \u201ctouched\u201d the pupil\u2019s thigh with his hands, an allegation which Mr Smith \u201ccategorically\u201d denied but the panel found proven.<\/p>\n
The panel also found that Mr Smith had photographs of the student, bought her a fabric bracelet, and exchanged personal mobile telephone numbers with one or more pupils.<\/p>\n
In October 2023, Mr Smith was arrested by the police on suspicion of sexual assault and suspended from the school.<\/p>\n
However, in December of that year, the police investigation was closed with no further action.<\/p>\n
That month, the teacher resigned from the school, which costs around \u00a318,000 a year for senior students in year seven to year 11.<\/p>\n
The panel found that the teacher\u2019s conduct \u201cinvolved serious and repeated failures to maintain proper professional boundaries with a pupil and a failure to act in accordance with safeguarding expectations, requirements and responsibilities\u201d.<\/p>\n
The report added: \u201cThe panel considered that these matters seriously undermined the standards expected of a teacher and he sought to exploit his position of trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of the other allegations made against the teacher were found not proven.<\/p>\n
Mr Smith has now been prohibited from teaching indefinitely.<\/p>\n
He can apply for the prohibition order to be set aside but not until 2029, and he has a right of appeal at the High Court.<\/p>\n
Reporting History sees journalists join News At Ten anchor Tom Bradby to revisit their remarkable on-the-day reports of the defining events of the modern age. Listen to the episodes below…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A PE teacher who told a female student that she was \u201cPremier League\u201d and one of his \u201cfavourite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[20028,20025,3631,20027,579,20026,5,6],"class_list":["post-39069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-disciplinary-panel","tag-mayville-high-school","tag-mr-smith","tag-pe-teacher","tag-premier-league","tag-stuart-smith","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116589830055843627","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}