A primary school teacher has been banned from the classroom for his involvement in a sexist and homophobic group chat. 

Matthew Clare was teaching at Engayne Primary School in Upminster when he was involved in a demeaning WhatsApp group chat with three other colleagues. 

A report from the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) said messages sent by other members of the group between July 2019 and February 2020 described female colleagues in a derogatory way, including "kinky", "dirty" and "filthy" as well as stronger language.

Other messages said a colleague "wasn’t wearing a bra today" and said she should be in a pornographic video.

Another message spoke about "donkey punching" a female member of staff – a reference to the Donkey Punch film where a girl dies from a punch after an urban myth that hitting women during sex will enhance their orgasm.     

Mr Clare commented on how a colleague’s breasts "looked cracking".

The 36-year-old was suspended by the school in April 2021 and resigned the following month after a disciplinary meeting. 

In June this year the TRA decided Mr Clare should be banned from teaching indefinitely. 

A second member of the group chat, Grant Twist, also faced a TRA panel which decided he was not involved enough to warrant a ban from the profession. 

Mr Twist sent messages about "tagging" a colleague with his penis and referred to pupils in his English class in a derogatory way. 

The TRA panel said Mr Twist had shown great insight into his misconduct so banning him would not serve any useful purpose. 

Professor Anthony Moss, chair of governors at Engayne Primary School, said: “As soon as this matter was brought to our attention, the teachers involved were immediately suspended in the interest of pupils and staff.  

 “Engayne Primary School leadership conducted a thorough investigation and passed the findings to the relevant bodies, including the TRA, to ensure this matter was dealt with as quickly as possible so sanctions could be brought.  

 “We were shocked and appalled by this incident and the behaviour of the teachers named in the report. We have a zero-tolerance approach to this type of behaviour. 

 “We recognise this news will impact members of the school community and have already offered support to those directly affected.” 

Mr Twist no longer works at Engayne Primary School. The report said he is now employed at Snaresbrook Preparatory School.

At Mr Clare’s misconduct hearing he told the panel he was a contributor to the group chat but did not instigate the messages. 

He said he was ashamed that he joined in but did it to “show off” to his friends. 

The report said he "profusely" apologised for his actions but the panel said “there was little evidence that Mr Clare recognised that these were, in reality, damaging conversations".

The TRA panel concluded: “The messages Mr Clare sent and received were, by their very nature, explicitly sexual and contained graphic sexual comments about Mr Clare’s female colleagues.” 

Mr Clare will be able to apply for the prohibition order to be set aside from June 2026 at the earliest.