{"id":14894,"date":"2026-03-22T15:48:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T15:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/2026\/03\/22\/east-sussex-boarding-school-student-banned-from-teaching-man-who-said-i-love-you-uk-news\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T15:48:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T15:48:12","slug":"east-sussex-boarding-school-student-banned-from-teaching-man-who-said-i-love-you-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/2026\/03\/22\/east-sussex-boarding-school-student-banned-from-teaching-man-who-said-i-love-you-uk-news\/","title":{"rendered":"East Sussex: Boarding school student banned from teaching man who said ‘I love you’ uk news"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

A teacher who repeatedly said ‘I love you’ to a boarding school student has been named.<\/p>\n

Benjamin Phelps, 31, was sacked after a disciplinary panel found he committed serious misconduct in his relationship with a pupil at the \u00a330,000-a-year St Bede’s school. East Sussex<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

At that time, she worked as a deputy boarding housemaster, tutor and performing arts technician at the senior school for students aged 13 to 18.<\/p>\n

During their relationship, the panel found that Mr Phelps messaged the student inappropriately, they met outside lessons, hugged and kissed on the cheeks, and he requested they leave school to “eat in the car” together.<\/p>\n

One message sent on WhatsApp read: “I hope you had a good night, I’m sleeping with my phone in my hand. I love you and wish you sweet dreams!! Contact me for anything xxxxxx”<\/p>\n

Another read: “Love you more every day. Every time you come into my sight my heart skips a beat. x too, I love hearts! Just dress them up, they will stay close to me. xx”<\/p>\n

Mr Phelps was fired in April 2024 following an investigation and the Teaching Regulation Agency’s professional conduct panel cleared him on January 16 this year.<\/p>\n

He received a call from the student in October 2023, and their relationship became increasingly personal between November and January 2024, as shown in messages sent over the school’s main system of digital communications.<\/p>\n

Mr Phelps can apply to have the restraining order quashed, but not until January 2030, and he has the right to appeal to the High Court.<\/p>\n

‘Maybe this chat gets deleted’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Google Chat messages scattered with kisses and emojis included: “You have a very beautiful mind though, it’s so pure and real, I’ve always said so”, “Massive hug on the pillow” and “Maybe even delete this chat if they look at your phone”.<\/p>\n

The panel said the student had disclosed a matter to Mr Phelps in November 2023, which should have prompted him to follow safeguarding procedures, but did not.<\/p>\n

They moved their correspondence to WhatsApp, which was not a school-approved form of communication, in January 2024, and they spent more time together outside of lessons and exchanged photos.<\/p>\n

The panel said their relationship turned sour when the student attempted to kiss Mr Phelps in February 2024.<\/p>\n

It was hinted that the teacher did not respond to the kiss and they then attempted to bring their relationship back to a “more professional level”.<\/p>\n

However, he did not report the kiss and admitted before the tribunal that occasional kisses on the cheek had occurred.<\/p>\n

Read more from Sky News:
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During the hearing, Mr Phelps “admitted that she may have used flattery to get attention” and that some of the messages she sent “indicated that he had developed romantic feelings”.<\/p>\n

The panel found that “both the individual and cumulative actions” were a “significant breach of professional boundaries”.<\/p>\n

The allegation that he “engaged in grooming conduct” was not proven.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A teacher who repeatedly said ‘I love you’ to a boarding school student has been named. Benjamin Phelps, 31, was sacked after a disciplinary panel found he committed serious misconduct in his relationship with a pupil at the \u00a330,000-a-year St Bede’s school. East Sussex. At that time, she worked as a deputy boarding housemaster, tutor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[5029,7265,1012,213,682,615,1560,137,7264,119],"class_list":{"0":"post-14894","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bible-verse","8":"tag-banned","9":"tag-boarding","10":"tag-east","11":"tag-love","12":"tag-man","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-school","15":"tag-student","16":"tag-sussex","17":"tag-teaching"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14894"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14897,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14894\/revisions\/14897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}