A FORMER Basingstoke drama teacher has been banned from the classroom for life after suggesting a threesome with a pupil.

Grant Foyle, 29, was working at Brighton Hill Community School, in Brighton Way, when the mother of one of his students found flirtatious messages on her son’s phone.

At a National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) hearing, the panel heard that the mother found several text messages and photographs exchanged via WhatsApp between her son and Foyle.

As a result this sparked a police investigation, which led to Foyle being suspended by the school in September 2015 and subsequently resigning from his position in November 2015.

In the NCTL report is said: “On each occasion related to this allegation, it was Mr Foyle who instigated the messages” and “mention was made of a potential 'threesome' with Mr Foyle, the pupil and another person.”

Foyle was also found to have failed to maintain professional boundaries attempting to meet up with the boy on weekends and referring to him as “son”.

In one exchange he said: “Should we meet and talk this weekend" and in another saying "I would happily pick you up son".

Panel members were also concerned at the teacher's repeated attempts to meet the youngster outside of school, and in the chat log Foyle also suggested “hanging out” adding: “"Fancy coming over and chilling…that's not meant to be in a creepy way.”

The NCTL report found that Foyle’s motives were sexual and said: “Mr Foyle did not put forward any credible explanation for the sustained contact with Pupil A over a significant period of time.

“In addition, we saw evidence of Mr Foyle's extensive efforts to secure the communication between himself and Pupil A.

“We had sight of a 10 coding system used by Mr Foyle to verify the identity of the sender and also saw references to deleting the messages and ensuring no-one else was present while the messages were being sent.”

Panel members said Foyle’s actions were a breach of “public trust” and that he “fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession.”

Chair of the NCTL panel Fiona Tankard said: “Throughout the exchange of WhatsApp messages, there were constant references to matters of a sexual nature.

“In this case I have placed considerable weight on the panel’s comments concerning the lack of insight or remorse. The panel has said that it, ‘found the teacher’s actions to be calculated and motivated’.

“I consider therefore that a prohibition with no review period is required to satisfy the maintenance of public confidence in the profession.”

Foyle was prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children's home in England.