A teacher at Houghton Kepier School in Houghton le Spring, Tyne and Wear, has been ‘disciplined’ but will be allowed to continue teaching after accessing pornography online during school lessons, but another teacher at the same school who looked at the BNP web site during non-class hours has been suspended and faces being struck off as a teacher.

Darren Adamson, 36, also called sex phone lines from school telephones, the General Teaching Council (GTC) for England has been told. He used the school internet system to log on to camcandy.com and other sites when he should have been teaching. He also used preparation time to log on to the website and to dial ‘premium rate’ numbers, over a two-month period last year.

The GTC issued an order stating that Mr Adamson must not use school equipment to view sexually explicit material and must produce a report from a psychiatrist demonstrating that he was fit to teach before he returned to the classroom.

Contrast this with the case of BNP member Adam Walker, 39, who was suspended from his post at Houghton Kepier College, near Sunderland, last year after accessing the BNP web site. He faces a GTC hearing and could become the first teacher banned for religious intolerance.

So, according to the GTC, teachers accessing hardcore sex web sites during school time is acceptable, but accessing the web site of a legally registered political party is not.