A SCHOOL has said it has the right procedures in place to protect its pupils after a teacher was struck off for having a sexual affair with a student.

As reported last week, Christopher Hawkes-King, 35, who was a teacher at Furze Platt Senior School, Maidenhead, in 2015 allowed the 18-year-old to masturbate him while on school premises, touched her breasts and exchanged intimate photos with her over Skype.

A disciplinary panel of the National College for Teaching and Leadership, which is part of the Department for Education, found the allegations proven and banned him from the profession for life last week.

In response, this week the school issued a statement saying it does protect pupils in the right way.

Tanya White, headteacher at the school in Furze Platt Road, said: “Mr Hawkes-King no longer works at Furze Platt Senior School and has not done so for more than 18 months.

“The appropriate safeguarding policies and procedures are in place to protect pupils.”

The panel found the teacher, who was suspended from the school in November 2015, guilty of unacceptable professional conduct. He later resigned from his post in December the same year.

The report noted that Mr Hawkes-King and the young woman had been sending each other ‘flirtatious’ emails and this led to sexting each other outside of school.

When a relative reported him having an affair with a student to the school, he admitted it. He also admitted the allegations against him and said his behaviour had been unacceptable.