The head of maths at a £56,000-a-year girls' school has been struck off after he was caught looking for pornography while working.

Dr Andrew Moore made more than 100 attempts to access adult content while using the school's wifi, a misconduct hearing was told.

The 59-year-old, who had worked at the school for almost 20 years, tried to access seven websites that fell into the school's category of 'sex' internet addresses.

He admitted the allegations at first, but claimed later that he had clicked on a phishing site impersonating the Money Saving Expert financial advice website and the content had popped up.

He was sacked, and a misconduct hearing has now struck him off from working as a teacher.

Dr Moore began working at Sherborne Girls, a private school in Dorset for pupils aged between 11 and 18, as a maths teacher in January 2006 and became head of maths in September 2024.

One month later, the school's IT system revealed that attempts by Dr Moore to access pornographic websites the previous day had been blocked.

The incident was reported to the headteacher, but eight days later Dr Moore made another attempt to access five pornography websites between 4pm and 8pm while on duty in one of the girls' boarding houses during a prep class.

It was found that on that date there had been more than 100 attempts to access adult sites over a short period of time.

In a contrite email to a colleague, he said: 'I am sending this email to say how devastated I am for letting myself, you and the school down so badly.

'I feel incredibly stupid and ashamed in equal measure for what has happened and can only ask for your forgiveness. It goes without saying that this will never happen again. I can only apologise unreservedly again for my stupidity and poor judgment.'

However, when he attended a disciplinary meeting his 'demeanour had changed' and he denied the allegations, claiming he'd been the victim of the phishing attempt.

He was dismissed in November 2024 and the case was sent to a misconduct hearing.

Dr Moore did not attend the Teaching Regulation Agency hearing in Coventry and was not represented. All the allegations against him were found proven on the balance of probabilities.

Stuart Blomfield, decision-maker on behalf of Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, concluded: 'The findings of misconduct are serious.

'The lack of full insight and remorse means there is some risk of the repetition of this behaviour, and this puts at risk the future wellbeing of pupils.'