EXCLUSIVE: Education Secretary orders urgent review into ‘unacceptable’ decision to allow pro-Hamas teacher to carry on working
Bridget Phillipson told Jewish News: 'Nobody who glorifies a terrorist organisation should be teaching children'
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has ordered an urgent review into the “unacceptable” decision to allow a teacher who praised Hamas to remain in the profession, stating: “Nobody who glorifies a terrorist organisation should be teaching children.”
Ronan Preston, a Year 9 tutor at Ursuline High School in Wimbledon, southwest London, described the 7 October attacks on Israel as a “justified act of resistance” and called for “glory to Hamas” in social media posts.
He also labelled Hamas terrorists as “defenders of humanity”, writing: “May God grand [sic] them victory in their homeland over the grotesque, barbaric, idol worshipping invaders.”
Following widespread communal anger over the Teaching Regulation Agency’s decision not to ban Preston, Phillipson confirmed to Jewish News she has “asked the Permanent Secretary to carry out an urgent review of the TRA’s processes”.
In particular, she asked for an overview of the body’s “framework of delegations, thresholds and mitigations related to a decision to prohibit a teacher when a finding of unacceptable professional conduct has been made.”
Preston had been suspended and reported to the police over his posts, made between January and April 2024, before being dismissed.
After losing his job, Preston, also known as Ronan Preastuin, returned to Ireland, to work as a substitute teacher.
Although Preston was referred to a misconduct panel and found to have committed “unacceptable professional conduct,” he was spared a ban.
The Teaching Regulation Agency concluded that publishing its findings was sufficient punishment, a move that sparked further anger.
Preston told the TRA he was “remorseful” and claimed the “highly offensive” posts were “a mistake” that had left him “mortified” and “ashamed.”
He said he “wished to apologise unreservedly to the Jewish community.”
Panel chairman Adnan Qureshi said: “He [Mr Preston] stated that at the relevant time he had become ‘rather consumed’ with the events in Israel and Palestine and that he had ‘struggled to look beyond the scenes being portrayed’.”
But Phillipson told Jewish News:““Nobody who glorifies a terrorist organisation should be teaching children – it’s clearly unacceptable.
“Individual decisions by the Teaching Regulation Agency are taken at arm’s length from Ministers but I have asked the Permanent Secretary to carry out an urgent review of the TRA’s processes and in particular, the framework of delegations, thresholds and mitigations related to a decision to prohibit a teacher when a finding of unacceptable professional conduct has been made”.
Phillipson had been among the speakers at last Sunday’s Jewish Labour Movement conference.
She spoke of the need to hold education and university chiefs “to account” over the need to tackle antisemitism in schools and on campuses.
The cabinet minister also praised the work of the Union of Jewish Students in fighting the scourge of anti-Jewish racism.
She also said she had been “encouraged” by the work of Director of Free Speech Arif Ahmed, who she felt “had been very clear that freedom of speech and academic freedom does not mean that Jewish students should be subject to harassment, intimidation, or feel unsafe.”
Phillipson also noted the rise in enforcement action by police over “matters criminal.”
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