Independent schools' leader quits

The chairman of the organisation for the most prestigious private schools in the British Isles has resigned.

The Reverend Tim Hastie-Smith is to give up his role with the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC) for "personal reasons".

Earlier this month, a teacher hired by Mr Hastie-Smith was struck off after a sex scandal at a previous school.

Mr Hastie-Smith has also recently withdrawn from moving to the state sector as head teacher of an academy.

A statement from the HMC, which represents 250 of the most famous independent schools, says it has accepted the resignation with "great regret".

A spokesman for the HMC emphasised that there had been no pressure on Mr Hastie-Smith and that it had been his personal decision.

Video camera

Mr Hastie-Smith, head of Dean Close School in Cheltenham, had already cancelled a planned move to become principal of the Kettering Academy. He would have become the first HMC chairman to be a head of a state school.

The resignation follows the outcome of a disciplinary hearing of another teacher, Michael Clarkson. During that hearing it emerged that Mr Hastie-Smith had given him a teaching job despite his having been caught at a previous school making a recording of a teenage pupil having sex.

The General Teaching Council for England (GTC) had found Mr Clarkson "guilty of unacceptable professional conduct" while at Shrewsbury School.

The GTC found that Mr Clarkson, on a school trip to Portugal in 2006, had allowed a pupil to have sex in a room in which he had set up a video camera.

Later that year, Mr Clarkson was employed at Dean Close School - with Mr Hastie-Smith saying that the school "believes in offering forgiveness and giving people a second chance".

"Mr Clarkson demonstrated in his conscientious approach to all aspects of his role that he has put a most regrettable incident behind him."

Mr Clarkson had left his post at Dean Close before the disciplinary hearing at the GTC - which imposed a "prohibition order" barring him from teaching.

Mr Hastie-Smith's decision to cancel his move to Kettering Academy has been welcomed by the sponsors as "an honourable but necessary decision".