A sacked Norfolk teacher has been banned from the classroom for bullying and intimidating primary school children.

Former Corpusty Primary School teacher Adrian Brett has been struck off by a disciplinary panel for mocking and shouting at pupils and making sarcastic and ridiculing comments to demean children, especially in front of classmates.

Allegations of “bullying behaviour” by Mr Brett, who had taught at the school, part of Synergy Multi-Academy Trust, since 1994, spanned a decade before he was sacked in January 2019 following an investigation.

A Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) panel found that the teacher “had favourites” and treated other pupils less favourably.

It heard one child was called an "idiot", a term that was “in line with other derogatory comments that the panel also found had been made by Mr Brett to pupils”.

North Norfolk News: Corpusty Primary School.Corpusty Primary School. (Image: Archant)

Another pupil was accused of "causing a scene" and told he was a "disgrace" after crying following an injury.

The panel said Mr Brett had asked the pupil if he wanted to "call his mummy" in a “mocking rather than caring way”.

It also heard he told another pupil that he "hated him" and threw a pen at him.

In his evidence Mr Brett accepted that “I should not have said what I did” and that it was “inappropriate”.

He also accepted that throwing the pen “was wrong”.

Mr Brett, 55, was also accused of making pupils stand to read out loud to the class despite knowing they struggled to do so.

The panel found the approach “unlikely to be considered appropriate, necessary or conducive for pupils who lacked confidence in their ability”, especially where pupils had expressed a reluctance but had been made to “under threat of punishment”.

Recommending he be struck off, TRA decision maker Sarah Buxcey said: “In light of the panel’s findings against Mr Brett which involved inappropriate and unprofessional behaviour amounting to bullying and intimidation of pupils, there was a strong public interest consideration in respect of the protection of pupils.

“The panel further noted that the conduct of Mr Brett affected the education and wellbeing of pupils and his behaviour had a continuing impact upon at least one pupil.”

Mr Brett will be able to apply for his teaching ban to be lifted after two years if he can convince another panel that he is fit to return to the classroom.