A HEAD TEACHER will face no further action from education watchdogs following complaints that parents at a Hampshire school were misled over a disgraced ex-tutor.

Geography teacher Tyrone Mark was sacked from The Arnewood School in New Milton after giving a teenage pupil alcohol, condoms and the key to his house.

He was dismissed from the school and subsequently banned from teaching for life by the National Council for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL), which is sponsored by the Department for Education, after being found guilty of professional misconduct.

After his sacking was revealed last year The Arnewood School head teacher Chris Hummerstone and the school’s head of governors Elizabeth Cook said that a police investigation had found no evidence of any criminal behaviour by the teacher.

But New Milton resident John Caine, whose son was taught by Mr Mark, told the Daily Echo he submitted a Freedom of Information request and discovered that no such probe had been held.

The NCTL then agreed to scrutinise the actions of Mr Hummerstone.

Ms Cook said in a statement that the NCTL concluded Mr Hummerstone sought and acted upon appropriate advice and guidance at all times.

She said: “Mr Hummerstone is one of the longest standing head teachers in Hampshire.

“We had every faith that he had followed the correct safeguarding procedures throughout and has always acted in complete propriety in all his communications with parents. We are pleased that the findings from the NCTL bear this out.”

However the Department for Education refused to comment on the outcome. A spokesman said: “We do not comment on whether or not we have received a referral about any individual unless and until a case is listed for a professional conduct panel hearing.”

As previously reported by the Daily Echo, Mr Mark gave the pupil driving lessons – despite her being too young to legally get behind the wheel – and wrote sexually explicit notes about many of her fellow pupils.

Following the revelations the school said it was “shocked and disgusted” and accused Mr Mark of betraying the trust placed in him.

The announcement comes as Sue Berelowitz, deputy Children’s Commissioner, said that incidents involving Mr Mark should be looked at in the Goddard Inquiry.

Ms Berelowitz wrote to a parent: “I have just spoken with the head of the secretariat for the Goddard Inquiry regarding the need to fully investigate your concerns about institutional failures in relation to the sexual abuse of children at Arnewood.

“She is in agreement that your correspondence should be examined in full by the inquiry however, as the chair is yet to take up her post, there are not as yet any agreed procedures for receiving, storing and processing such information.”

Inquiry Home Secretary Theresa May announced earlier this year that Justice Lowell Goddard, who sits in the New Zealand High Court, will chair the inquiry into historic sexual abuse.

It was instigated last summer following a number of high-profile child abuse scandals and claims that a paedophile ring operated at Westminster in the 1980s.

Representatives for The Arnewood School declined to comment on Ms Berelowitz’s letter when contacted by the Daily Echo.