A maths teacher at a top Barnes independent school has been fired for sending inappropriate messages to young girls.

Former St Paul’s junior school teacher Thomas Laessing, 40, was found by a National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) panel to have continued to make contact with a child even after she asked him to stop.

He obtained her number from a ‘crew list’ he had access to while serving as a sailing tutor on an out-of-school course.

The NCTL report said none of the children referred to are current or former pupils of St Paul’s School juniors, formerly known as Colet Court.

St Paul's was responsible for passing the matter on to the NCTL, the school said.

Mr Laessing also attempted to contact the child’s friends through social media, and received a Prevention of Harassment order from the police.

The NCTL panel said: “This case concerns a teacher who made inappropriate telephone, text message and social media contact with children.

“The panel is satisfied that the conduct of Mr Laessing was of a serious nature and fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession.

“By communicating with Child A (and other children) in the way that he did, Mr Laessing breached the policy of the school where he was employed and clearly crossed the boundary of acceptable communications with children.

“This is a serious shortcoming given the position of trust held by Mr Laessing as a teacher.”

A St Paul’s School spokesman said: “St Paul’s School is fully committed to ensuring that our standard of safeguarding provision is of the highest level.

“Working closely with the police and the LADO, Mr Laessing was dismissed following allegations which related to conduct outside of school.

“None of the allegations were relating to any pupils at St Paul’s. The school, acting in accordance with employment law and in line with the school’s statutory safeguarding procedures, passed the matter onto the NCTL.

“This is an excellent example of agencies and schools working together to safeguard children.”

It is the second time St Paul's School has been rocked by scandal; in 2015 a former teacher at the school admitted possessing thousands of indecent images of children.

Anthony Fuggle, who worked as a classics teacher at Colet Court until he resigned after his arrest in September 2013, was found to be in possession of more than 1,000 photographs and videos of children.