Sports teacher who let pupils drink alcohol on hockey trip avoids ban
While working for the Wellington School in Somerset, the teacher drank at a hockey game when he was supposed to be umpiring, the hearing was told
Last updated 9th Apr 2025
A sports teacher at a private school who let pupils drink alcohol on a hockey trip to Belgium before telling them "what goes on tour, stays on tour" has avoided a ban.
Gregory Durston "turned a blind eye" as children as young as 15 bought rounds of beers and ciders, a Teaching Regulation Agency panel heard.
While working for the Wellington School in Somerset, which charges between £7,000 and £12,000 per term, the teacher drank at a hockey game when he was supposed to be umpiring, the hearing was told.
But despite ruling that the teacher's behaviour was "inappropriate", the panel concluded his conduct was "out of character", and spared him from a ban.
Mr Durston was employed as a "sport and wellbeing teacher" at the school between September 2021 and January 2023, the panel heard.
In October 2022, he was the leader of a five-day hockey trip to Belgium.
There were five other members of staff and around 40 pupils aged between 15 and 18, the hearing was told.
A witness, who was not named, said Mr Durston told her pupils could legally drink alcohol from the age of 16 in Belgium.
"I was shocked with how much alcohol was being consumed by students ... The pupils had drank on quite a few occasions," she told the panel.
A pupil, who was 16 at the time, told the panel that on the second night of the trip they remembered Mr Durston "coming round to all the pupils in the clubhouse" saying they "could go up to the bar and order alcoholic drinks".
The teacher later came round warning the pupils they could only have two drinks, but "by that time people had already drank so much more, around four and five drinks total", the panel heard.
Another pupil, who was 15 at the time, said they were one of a group who "took it in turns to buy a round of beers and ciders", and that "staff were aware of this".
"Several had too much to drink", the pupil added.
"Turning a blind eye" to pupils under 16 drinking and buying alcohol breached the school's policy, as well as the law in England and Belgium, the panel ruled.
In his written statement to the panel, the teacher referred to a previous school trip where a pupil had to have their stomach pumped after drinking too much.
The panel heard the teacher had also been drinking on the trip, including when he was on the ferry and again when he was supposed to be umpiring a match.
A pupil told the panel: "Individual F and Mr Durston were going to the bar a lot. They were also acting quite merry at times.
"They were drinking at lunch and in the evenings."
A person named only as Individual F told the panel that because they "were the faces of Wellington School", they "had accepted a beer from the hosts as they had said it was the best beer in Belgium".
The panel concluded that Mr Durston's drinking in the presence of pupils was "unnecessary and did amount to inappropriate behaviour".
"Mr Durston was role modelling inappropriate behaviour to pupils, particularly when drinking at a hockey game when he was involved with umpiring," the written ruling said.
Throughout the trip, Mr Durston kept repeating "what goes on tour stays on tour", the hearing was told.
A witness told the panel it "must have been said about 10 times".
"He did a nice speech towards the end of the trip, but he finished with that comment again," the witness added.
When asked about the context of the comment at the hearing, Witness A said it was "controlling others in an unfair way - manipulating others - stuff on tour went wrong so the pupils shouldn't tell their parents".
One pupil recalled an occasion when "Mr Durston told me off after I had got off the phone to my parents because I told them I had been drinking alcohol.
"When I was on the phone, I could feel his eyes on me and after I had got off the phone, he pulled me aside and asked me why I told my parents about the drinking because 'what happens on tour stays on tour'."
The teacher admitted using the phrase three to four times in total, and accepted that his use of this phrase was inappropriate.
Rather than ban the teacher from the profession, the panel concluded that Mr Durston's conduct on the trip was "out of character".
"Aside from this narrow and isolated incident, Mr Durston previously had an unblemished record," the panel said.
A number of pupils "considered the trip to be successful" and Mr Durston received high praise from parents, the hearing was told.
The panel accepted that Mr Durston was "remorseful and reflective of his actions when he spoke about the impact his behaviour could have had".
"The nature and severity of the behaviour were at the less serious end of the possible spectrum ... a prohibition order is not proportionate or in the public interest," a written decision concluded.