Two teachers have been struck off after encouraging two pupils to fight at school while "smiling and laughing".

Adrian Ferguson, 56, and Richard Lewis, 47, watched the two pupils "throw punches and grappling with each other" for 20 seconds at Peak Academy, in Dursley, Gloucestershire, before attempting to stop them in October 2019, according to a Teaching Regulation Agency misconduct panel report.

The report said one of the pupils, referred to as Pupil A, claimed to police in an interview that Ferguson had tried to "fist bump him after the fight to say well done".

The panel banned the teachers from the profession earlier this month for encouraging the fight and failing to safeguard the pair.

The Peak Academy is a special educational needs (SEND) school, which teaches pupils aged between 11 to 16.

The report said Lewis was the school principal at the time of the fight and Ferguson was a science teacher.

According to the report, one of the pupils punched the other "in the head nine or 10 times before there was any intervention", adding it was "good fortune" there were no injuries.

The panel heard that on 21 October 2019 there was a "flare up" between the two pupils during lunch time and the pair were separated to "avoid further conflict", with Pupil A being taken to a sensory room called "basecamp" and Pupil B told to take a walk to "help him regulate".

But after Pupil B was unable to calm down and stated he wanted to speak to Pupil A, Lewis agreed to take him to the basecamp room and said "let's get this sorted".

CCTV footage showed Lewis "put his hand behind Pupil B's back" and said something immediately before Pupil B started the attack on Pupil A.

The report said that "on the balance of probabilities", as the CCTV footage had no audio recording, that Lewis said something like "fight it out".

After the two pupils were separated, Ferguson took Pupil A away but did not remove them from the room, leading to a further physical fight.

During an internal investigation by the school, Lewis said he had not stopped the fight sooner as he had been making a "dynamic risk assessment" and was waiting for a "natural lull in the scuffle".

The report said Ferguson and Lewis' conduct "fell significantly short of the standard of behaviour expected of a teacher", and found both guilty of unacceptable professional conduct.

It said: "The panel considered that ordinary members of the public would be shocked to learn that an experienced, senior teacher had allowed, and encouraged, pupils to engage in a fight."

A police investigation was launched into the incident but was discontinued by the Crown Prosecution Service in February 2021.

Ferguson stopped working at the school on 31 December 2019 after handing his notice in before the incident took place, the report said.

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