Joshua Sutcliffe was banned by the Teaching Regulation Authority last MayA Christian headteacher who was banned from teaching for 'misgendering' a pupil who identified as male had his rights to freedom of speech and religion infringed upon by the ban, the High Court has heard.
It also found Mr Sutcliffe failed to safeguard pupils' wellbeing when saying God had stopped a person from being gay because it was wrong, and deemed him 'unprofessional' for sharing his religious beliefs in class.Mr Sutcliffe's ban is based on events that date back to 2017 when he was sacked from Cherwell School, a state secondary in Oxford, after praising a group of students during a maths lesson by saying: 'Well done, girls.
The Department for Education , which accepted the TRA's recommendation to ban Mr Sutcliffe, opposes the appeal bid, arguing it has been brought too late and has 'no merit'. Mr Phillips said it was a breach of Mr Sutcliffe's rights to find that he was required to use 'preferred pronouns' and was not allowed to talk about 'the protected characteristic of"ex-homosexual"' nor show a video on masculinity without debate.
Mr Sutcliffe was found not to have acted 'maliciously', was a 'competent' teacher and showed 'high standards' in his personal life, the court was told.The TRA wrongly analysed his case and refused to recognise his 'conscientious objection' to 'compelled transgender pronoun use' which meant 'his only recourse was to change his job', Mr Phillips said.