Married deputy head banned from teaching for romping in cupboards with colleague

A married deputy headteacher at a top girls' grammar school had sex with a colleague in locked cupboards and classrooms - sometimes while pupilswere nearby.

Liyarna Beamish, 39, and art teacher Gareth Collins, 45, engaged in a two-year affair at Ribston Hall High School in Gloucestershire, regularly meeting for sex in the artroom and supply cupboards, including during the school day. Both have now been banned from teaching for “unacceptable professional conduct”. In damning findings by the TeachingRegulation Agency (TRA), the pair admitted to the sexual relationship, with Beamish confirming it took place “during the school day and after school” on “multiple occasions” over “a couple of years”. Explicit sexual messages exchanged between them on encrypted apps helped expose the affair in June 2023.

Investigators were told how they would lock themselves in rooms to avoid being seen. “Ms Beamish expressly admitted that she had engaged in sexual activities and sexual intercourse on the school premises during working hours with a member of teaching staff,” said panel chair Laura Mullin.

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“She also expressly admitted that she used her mobile phone during school hours to send and receive messages of an explicit sexual nature.”

Beamish said they always took precautions to avoid being discovered. “The implications for any pupil who had discovered them could have been serious,” Ms Mullin added.

Mr Collins, who taught for 18 years, also admitted having sex with Beamish “sporadically” in his classroom over several years. Both were dismissed in July 2024. The TRA panel concluded their actions were sexually motivated and said the pair fell “significantly short” of professional standards.

Despite Beamish's claims that she had been “emotionally manipulated” and that Mr Collins had initiated the relationship, the panel found both were willing participants. “The panel felt that Ms Beamish’s conduct had fallen very far short of the standard of behaviour which was required of her as a teacher and had seriously breached professional boundaries,” the report said.

Beamish, who joined the school in 2016, defended herself by saying the messages were “private” and “encrypted”. Mr Collins, when confronted, admitted to the affair and expressed “deep regret”.

The regulator said both were seeking “sexual gratification” and that their misconduct was especially serious as it happened on school premises and during working hours.

Signing off the ban, civil servant David Oatley said: “The findings of misconduct are serious as they include a finding of engaging in sexual intercourse and/or activity with a colleague on school premises and during school hours.”