An Afghan refugee now working as a maths teacher has been allowed to keep his job despite exchanging more than 200 emails with a vulnerable schoolgirl, including messages sent late at night.
Jamil Wali, who arrived in Britain aged seven and taught at King’s Leadership Academy in Liverpool, was found by a Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) tribunal to have engaged in communication that went “well beyond” normally expectations between a teacher and pupil.
The tribunal heard that Mr Wali exchanged emails with the girl between January 9 and March 12 of 2024, including during evenings, early mornings and weekends - with some messages sent as late as 11pm.
In one exchange, he told the pupil: “I am always here” and “I got your back”.
He also offered to help her find the “perfect boyfriend”.
Mr Wali admitted his contact with the pupil had been excessive and inappropriate, but denied that the correspondence was sexual.
The panel found the communication to be “highly personal” and “inappropriate”, but also concluded it was not of a sexual nature.
The teacher said his actions were motivated by concerns about the welfare and wellbeing of a pupil he understood to be vulnerable.
The tribunal heard that he discussed his own romantic relationships with the pupil, and in one message wrote about previously being “obsessed” with someone before deciding to remove her from his life.
He also used informal terms including “bro”, “mate” and “wasteman” when communicating with the pupil, and told her she could come to him with the same problem “1,000 times”.
Mr Wali also continued to communicate with the pupil after another teacher advised him to stop.
The emails were eventually flagged by the school's internal monitoring system on March 14, 2024, after he contacted the pupil despite claiming to have blocked her email address.
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Giving evidence, Mr Wali said he was unaware of a requirement that staff should not email pupils outside school hours.
He told the tribunal that pupils and staff regularly exchanged emails after school, sometimes as late as 10pm or 11pm.
Mr Wali began teaching at the Liverpool academy in September 2022, having previously attended the school himself after arriving in Britain as a refugee from Afghanistan.
His experience as a pupil at the academy are said to have inspired him to become a teacher.
Despite the findings, the tribunal decided that Mr Wali should not be banned from teaching, citing his level of insight, the remedial steps he had taken, the low risk of repetition and the absence of any finding of sexual conduct or evidence of actual harm to the pupil.
The panel said he still had a “positive contribution” to make to the profession.
A senior TRA official acting on behalf of the Education Secretary also concluded that a ban would not be proportionate, nor be in the public interest.
He said publishing the findings would be sufficient to reinforce the standards expected of teachers, and make clear that the conduct identified in the case was unacceptable.
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