A former teacher at Brigidine School in Windsor has been banned from teaching for three years after a professional conduct panel learned he had failed to reveal his dismissal from Slough's Foxborough School for gross misconduct.

The National College for Teaching and Leadership panel was told that Joseph O'Connell, 41, failed to tell his potential employers at Brigidine when he applied for the job about the earlier dismissal.

He worked at Brigidine from January 2013 to May 2015. On April 27, 2015 a parent at the school told a member of staff about Mr O'Connell being fired from his earlier job.

The school contacted Foxborough to confirm the facts and Mr O'Connell was dismissed, after admitting he had been fired from Foxborough for 'improper use of the internet' and that he had left this out of his application to Brigidine because he 'knew he would not get the job if he put it on the application form.'

The conduct panel's lead member Alan Meyrick announced on April 28 that Mr O'Connell was suspended from teaching until May 5, 2020 when he may apply for the prohibition order to be set aside.

He said: "I consider that a three year review period is required to satisfy the maintenance of public confidence in the profession."