A Northolt school teacher has been allowed to continue her career in education after she was found to have been gossiping with a student on WhatsApp. Although the interactions were highly unprofessional, they were not sexual or malicious in nature.
Miss Amani Choudhury was an early career teacher of religious studies at The Alec Reed Academy in Northolt. Her conversations started about schoolwork, but eventually devolved into discussing school gossip.
Miss Choudhury went as far as to instruct the pupil to “block and delete” the chats when she feared being investigated. She was also sanctioned over her failure to report a safeguarding incident involving a colleague giving a student a lift.
The first messages in October 2023, only a month into her employment, were related to Pupil N missing a mock examination. Messages also included checking if the pupil was okay after an absence and sending links to homework.
The pupil stated that Miss Choudhury messaged her about schoolwork such as links to homework, but that she did not have screenshots of these messages because Miss Choudhury made her delete them. She stated that on February 7, 2024, while she was on her way home, Miss Choudhury messaged her on WhatsApp accusing her of gossiping and spreading rumours about her and Pupil A.
She stated that later that afternoon, Miss Choudhury sent a further message asking her to delete her phone number and the record of their conversations, stating “head is onto me”, and that she deleted the messages because she was told to and then blocked Miss Choudhury.
In one WhatsApp message, Miss Choudhury said to the pupil: “I know you guys have issues with him but idk [I don’t know] how the comments came to light” and “He’s really annoyed and upset cuz [because] he feels like people are spreading rumours about him when it wasn’t true” and “Could you tell me who told you what he said.”
The panel also found that Miss Choudhury responded to a TikTok message after her suspension in February 2024 from Pupil A regarding a meeting. She felt that due to the nature of the specific message it was appropriate to respond, although admitted she should have blocked his account.
Miss Choudhury accepted that the screenshots of these messages contained in the bundle were messaged between herself and the pupil. On the accusation of instructing students to delete the messages, Miss Choudhury stated that her actions were not motivated by a desire to delete evidence.
She said her intention was to bring the communication to an end and to prevent any further communication, rather than to conceal or destroy evidence. The allegation was found proven in respect of asking Pupil N to delete messages.
The religious studies teacher was also reprimanded for failing to report a safeguarding incident involving a colleague. In February 2024, Miss Choudhury was a passenger in a car driven by another teacher who had given an unauthorised lift to two sixth-form pupils off school grounds.
The panel found that Miss Choudhury failed to intervene and failed to report this incident to the school’s safeguarding team, despite having access to the reporting system and knowing that travelling in a car with pupils was against the rules. The panel specifically ruled that her failure to report this safeguarding concern demonstrated a “lack of integrity” and fell significantly below the standards expected of a teacher.
She explained that the journey took her by surprise, and said that the teacher offered them a lift as they were running late for work. She claimed that she felt “uncomfortable about the situation.”
The panel acknowledged her defence that intervening or walking away would have been a “difficult situation socially and professionally, particularly given her relative inexperience and proximity in age to the pupils”. She argued that she had been reassured by a more experienced teacher, and her lapse in judgement was a result of being “overwhelmed by difficulties with behaviour… and the demands of her role.”
Miss Choudhury was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct which could bring the profession into disrepute, however agreed with her defence that her actions lacked malicious intent. No teaching ban was imposed.
The Secretary of State concluded that her actions “were the result of inexperience, lack of confidence, and errors of judgment made at an early stage in her career, rather than conduct demonstrating a fundamental incompatibility with continued practice as a teacher.”
The Alec Reed Academy were contacted for comment but failed to respond by the time of publication.
