Swimming teacher who drank wine before lesson and fell over banned from teaching

A swimming teacher has been banned from the profession after drinking wine before a lesson.

Liam Knight, 30, started teaching at Drayton Junior School near Norwich, Norfolk, in September 2023.

A Teaching Regulation Agency panel heard he bought a bottle of rose during his lunch break, a month after starting his job, which was later found in staff toilets.

Mr Knight said he probably drank the rose in a park close to the school.

When he started the lesson he was ‘unsteady on his feet, struggled to speak articulately and unable to focus or remain orientated’.

The panel heard how he fell over in the pool, ‘slurred his words, had bloodshot eyes and couldn’t focus or remain orientated’.

Mr Knight was on medication which he didn’t tell managers about and one or both of them were ‘causing him to suffer drowsiness’.

He said he had been drinking wine before the lesson and had taken a dose of his medication beforehand as well.

Mr Knight ‘could not recall the specifics of his drinking’, but said he ‘probably would have consumed the wine directly from the wine bottle’.

He admitted he was ‘not in a fit state’ to be in charge of the class or be in the pool.

The panel said: ‘There was evidence that Mr Knight had run the swimming lesson in a different way on this occasion as he had failed to take a headcount or do a register and that his general mannerisms were different.

‘In this case, the panel has found all of the allegations proven and found that those proven facts amount to unacceptable professional conduct.

‘The conduct of Mr Knight fell significantly short of the standards expected.’

Mr Knight now works as an ambulance care assistant and the panel banned him from the teaching profession, with a review period of two years.

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