A science teacher at a Catholic girls’ school who encouraged pupils to send her ‘affective’ emails has been banned from the profession.
Jennifer Farron was excluded from teaching indefinitely after disciplinary proceedings found that she “fostered a culture” in which her students could contact her in the middle of the night and “express affection” towards her.
The 34-year-old was employed at St John Bosco Arts College in Liverpool from September 2017 before being suspended in June 2024.
The investigation found “excessive” communication between Ms Farron and two students, including one pupil emailing her at 2.14am to say that New Year’s Eve “was the worst 24 hours of (their) life”.
Ms Farron was also found to have deleted emails relevant to the allegations, and asked her students to delete them too.
In the 90 days prior to the allegations being made in June 2024, Ms Farron had sent 79 emails to one pupil, and received 80 in return.
Those included that student telling Ms Farron they “missed” her during the school holidays.
Ms Farron was also alleged to have encouraged a student to get a tattoo like hers, or visit her partner’s cafe outside of school.
The Teaching Regulation Agency found that the communications outside of work effectively blurred “a professional relationship with a more personal one”.
“The panel considered that Ms Farron had fostered a culture whereby pupils felt they were able to send emails to her during the night and expressing affection towards her.”
Ms Farron appeared to be talking to them about issues they were experiencing, and was found to have not taken “appropriate action” to safeguard “vulnerable” pupils.
Emails sent to and from pupils via their school accounts to Ms Farron ranged between 2.14am and 11.13pm.
She admitted all of the allegations against her, but those relating to the tattoo and cafe were not proved by the panel.
Ms Farron told the panel that “with the benefit of hindsight”, there were things she would do differently and should have sought “further help” from her colleagues.
She also said it “saddens” her that, “anyone might think that I would do anything other than safeguard a child”.
Ms Farron has now been prohibited from teaching indefinitely in a decision handed down on 11 May 2026.
She can apply for the prohibition order to be set aside but not until May 2029, and she has a right of appeal at the High Court.