Banned teacher's return refused

John Cole re-applied to teach after a two-year ban

The first teacher struck off by the General Teaching Council for England has had his appeal to be re-admitted to the profession turned down.

John Cole, banned for two years after claims that he swore at pupils, had asked the profession's regulatory body to allow him to return to teaching.

But the council has rejected his bid to be put back on the teachers' register.

Mr Cole had been a maths and religious education teacher at the Grange School in Shrewsbury, Shropshire.

He was struck off in March 2003 following allegations of swearing at pupils, which he disputed, and undermining fellow members of staff.

'No insight'

After serving his ban, Mr Cole had become the first person to apply to be re-admitted to the register of teachers.

But this first "restoration hearing" concluded that Mr Cole was not "a fit and proper person to be re-admitted to the register".

The committee examining the application said that Mr Cole had "demonstrated no insight" into how the original allegations had arisen - and that it was not satisfied that he had "demonstrated a willingness and ability to maintain in the future the standards of conduct expected of teachers".

"We are satisfied that Mr Cole is sorry for the hurt caused by his original misconduct. However, he has made it quite clear that he does not accept the findings of fact made at the original hearing and that his expressions of regret do not extend to these matters," said the GTC's restoration committee.

Since introducing its disciplinary process three years ago, the GTC has imposed "prohibition orders" on 15 teachers, suspensions on seven teachers, 40 conditional registration orders and 19 reprimands.

In only two cases "no sanction was deemed to be necessary" and in 11 cases there was no finding of serious professional incompetence or unacceptable professional conduct.