Mr Philip Coales

The Secretary of State does not make these decisions themselves. They are made by a senior official on the recommendation of an independent panel.

Teacher's name: Mr Philip Coales

Location teacher worked: Islington, London

Date of professional conduct panel: 10 to 12 February 2025

Outcome type: No order made

Notice is hereby given that, in accordance with The Teacher's’ Disciplinary (England) Regulations 2012, a professional conduct panel was convened to consider the case of Mr Philip Coales, formerly employed in Islington, London.

Teacher misconduct

Ground Floor, South

Cheylesmore House

5 Quinton RoadCoventryCV1 2WT

Email TRA.Casework@education.gov.uk

Telephone 020 7593 5393

Information about regulating the teaching profession and the process for dealing with serious teacher misconduct.

Mr Philip Coales: Professional conduct panel outcome Panel decision and reasons on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education February 2025 2 Contents Introduction 3 Allegations 4 Preliminary applications 5 Summary of evidence 6 Documents 6 Witnesses 6 Decision and reasons 7 Findings of fact 7 Panel’s recommendation to the Secretary of State 17 Decision and reasons on behalf of the Secretary of State 21 3 Professional conduct panel decision and recommendations, and decision on behalf of the Secretary of State Teacher: TRA reference: Mr Philip Coales 21416 Date of determination: 12 February 2025 Former employer: City of London Academy Highbury Grove, London Introduction A professional conduct panel (‘the panel’) of the Teaching Regulation Agency (‘the TRA’) convened on 10 to 12 February 2025 at Cheylesmore House, 5 Quinton Road, Coventry, CV1 2WT, to consider the case of Mr Philip Coales. The panel members were Mr Paul Burton (lay panellist – in the chair), Ms Jane Gotschel (teacher panellist) and Ms Diana Barry (teacher panellist). The legal adviser to the panel was Ms Natalie Kent of Birketts LLP solicitors. The presenting officer for the TRA was Mr Lee Bridges of Kingsley Napley LLP solicitors. Mr Coales was present and was represented by Mr Colin Henderson of The Reflective Practice. The hearing took place by way of a hearing in public and was recorded. 4 Allegations The panel considered the allegations set out in the notice of proceedings dated 15 October 2024. It was alleged that Mr Coales was guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and/or conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute, in that whilst working as an English Teacher at City of London Academy Highbury Grove: 1. Between January 2022 and July 2022, he: a) Met up with Pupil A and/or Pupil B outside of the School grounds on one or more occasions; and/or b) Purchased and/or permitted consumption of alcohol for Pupil A and/or Pupil B; and/or c) Exchanged messages of an inappropriate and/or sexual nature via email with Pupil A 2. On or around 15 July 2022, in relation to paragraph 1b) he: a) Sent an email to Pupil A saying, “would prefer drinking beer in the park afterwards to be not widely mentioned”; and/or b) Sent an email to Pupil B saying, “I’d rather visiting the park afterwards wasn’t widely discussed for fairly obvious reasons” 3. His actions at paragraph 1a) and/or 1b) and/or 1c were sexually motivated and/or of a sexual nature. 4. His action(s) at paragraph 2: a) Were dishonest; and/or b) Lacked integrity The panel noted that Mr Coales wholly admitted allegations 1(a), 1(b), 2(a), 2(b), 4(a) and 4(b). Mr Coales admitted allegation 1(c) in that he admitted that the emails exchanged were of an inappropriate nature but denied that they were of a sexual nature. Mr Coales denied allegation 3 in its entirety. 5 Preliminary applications Application to admit additional documents The panel considered a preliminary application from the teacher’s representative for the admission of additional documents. The teacher’s documents were: an anthology of poetry and writings from the School’s creative writing club; a booklet which Mr Coales had produced for Student A to complete on their visit to [REDACTED] and a thank you card from [REDACTED] at the School sent in January 2023. The documents subject to the application had not been served in accordance with the requirements of paragraph 5.37 of the Teacher misconduct: Disciplinary procedures for the teaching profession May 2020 (the ‘2020 Procedures’). Therefore, the panel was required to decide whether the documents should be admitted under paragraph 5.34 of the 2020 Procedures. The panel heard representations from the teacher’s representative in respect of the application, who explained that he did not consider that these documents would be controversial and the reason for the late admission was that Mr Coales had only discovered them within the past few days whilst preparing for the hearing. The presenting officer had no objection to the admission of these documents and confirmed that he had been provided with a copy of these documents ahead of the hearing. The panel considered the additional documents may be relevant and that it would be fair to all parties to admit the documents. Accordingly, the documents were added to the bundle. Request for part of the hearing to be heard in private A request was made by the teacher’s representative for part of the hearing - relating to Mr Coales private life and health matters - to be heard in private. The panel was also reminded of the need to ensure that any information which could be used to identify the students involved by “jigsaw identification” may also need to be discussed in private. The panel agreed to accommodate this request as and when necessary, as the panel considered that the areas covered in the request legitimately related to aspects of Mr Coales’ private life and there was no contrary public interest in those areas being discussed in public. The hearing was still being held in public, and these were discrete 6 and limited areas which would not undermine the public's ability to otherwise understand the case. Summary of evidence Documents In advance of the hearing, the panel received a bundle of documents which included: • Section 1: Chronology, anonymised pupil list and list of key people – pages 4 to 7 • Section 2: Notice of proceedings and response – pages 8 to 18 • Section 3: TRA witness statements – pages 19 to 26 • Section 4: TRA documents – pages 27 to 198 • Section 5: Teacher documents – pages 199 to 281. In addition, the panel agreed to accept the following: • An anthology of poetry and writings entitled, “The Arm We Cried On Lost Its Shoulder – Highlights from Highbury Grove’s Creative Writing Club 2018-2019”; • A booklet which Mr Coales had produced for Student A to complete on their visit to [REDACTED] and • A thank you card from [REDACTED] at the School sent in January 2023. The pane l members confirmed that they had read all of the documents within the bundle, in advance of the hearing and the additional documents that the panel decided to admit. Witnesses The panel heard oral evidence from the following witnesses called by the TRA: • Witness A, [REDACTED] • Witness B, [REDACTED] The pane l heard oral evidence from Witness C, Witness D, called by the teacher. Mr Coales also gave oral evidence before the panel. 7 Decision and reasons The panel announced its decision and reasons as follows: The panel carefully considered the case before it and reached a decision. On 1 September 2017, Mr Coales commenced employment at City of London Academy Highbury Grove (‘the School’). Between January and July 2022, Mr Coales allegedly met up with Pupil A and/or Pupil B outside of School grounds; purchased and/or permitted consumption of alcohol for Pupil A and/or Pupil B; exchanged messages of an inappropriate and/or sexual nature via email with Pupil A; and sent emails to Pupil A and Pupil B requesting that they do not disclose the alleged alcohol consumption to anyone. On 29 July 2022, Witness B informed the safeguarding team that she had seen Mr Coales and Pupil A together at [REDACTED] On 30 July 2022, the School contacted Pupil A’s father regarding Witness B’s disclosure. On 31 July 2022, Pupil A’s father provided email correspondence between Pupil A and Mr Coales, which resulted in a LADO allegations meeting which was subsequently held on 4 August 2022. On 30 November 2022, Mr Coales ceased employment at the School. Findings of fact The findings of fact are as follows: The panel found the following particulars of the allegations against you proved, for these reasons: 1. B etween January 2022 and July 2022, you: a) Met up with Pupil A and/or Pupil B outside of the School grounds on one or more occasions; and/or b) Purchased and/or permitted consumption of alcohol for Pupil A and/or Pupil B; and/or c) Exchanged messages of an inappropriate and/or sexual nature via email with Pupil A The panel noted that Mr Coales wholly admitted allegation 1a and 1b and partially admitted allegation 1c, in that he accepted that the messages were of an inappropriate 8 nature but denied that they were of a sexual nature. Notwithstanding these admissions, the panel considered all of the evidence before it to come to its decision. The panel had sight of email correspondence between Pupil A and Pupil B and Mr Coales. The panel noted that the email correspondence evidenced that Mr Coales had arranged to meet with Pupil A and Pupil B outside of School on the following occasions, noting the following comments in particular: a) On 8 April 2022 at 19:34, Mr Coales emailed Pupil A stating, “This store doesn’t have [REDACTED] and I need one for next week, and so I might visit [REDACTED] tomorrow and will say hello if you are there!” During Mr Coales’ oral evidence, the panel heard that the place of work of Pupil A was two miles from his home, and he visited the following day, on a Saturday morning. b) On 3 July 2022 at 23:54, Mr Coales emailed Pupil A and B stating: “I will head to the London Fields Lido at 4 in the hope I might see one or both of you. Maybe [Pupil A] and I can walk to collect [Pupil B]. Equally if you just want to disappear or go home that would be quite understandable, in which case I will enjoy going for a swim!” c) On 11 July 2022 at 22:59, Mr Coales emailed Pupil A stating, “Thursday eve is this: https://www.spanners.club/event-details/two-way-dreaming-fugitive-film- club-6 where my *not from Oxford but cleverer than most people I know* friend is introducing the film, in case you feel like independently organising yourself to also be there. I've also got someone (*from Oxford* sorry but I promise many of the best people in my life aren't, and I still reckon I would be much