Convicted headteacher from Walcott banned from profession for running unregistered school near Boston

The professional conduct panel has recommended to the Secretary of State for Education that Dr Clement Earle, of East View, Walcott, near Billinghay cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England and the order can only be reviewed after a minimum of three years.

Headteacher Earle was convicted on a guilty plea on September 26, 2019 at Lincoln Magistrates’ Court of running an unregistered and illegal school, Freiston Hall, near Boston, which closed in September 2018 after Ofsted issued the associated children’s home with a suspension notice. The children were removed and placed elsewhere.

He received a conditional discharge and was ordered to pay £1,000 costs and a £20 victim surcharge.

Freiston Hall was set up around April 2017 and looked after children with highly complex physical and mental health needs with pupils living on site.

An Ofsted investigation into the school found six local authorities were misled into paying hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money for children to be educated there.

Ofsted found the school had failed to carry out necessary staff suitability checks, to give first aid training to staff, or to supervise pupils adequately, finding unsupervised children wandering the premises and staff struggling to keep reasonable order and calm.

Earle did not attend the panel hearing in June and was not represented. The panel found that Earle failed to uphold public trust in the profession and felt his conduct fell “significantly short of the standards expected of the profession”. The panel noted that Earle showed no evidence of remorse and lacked insight in respect of the potential safeguarding risk to vulnerable pupils attending an unregistered school without the required standards.