Hugh Reilly: Model teacher Tasha just doesn't deserve this dressing down

Published on Tuesday 7 April 2009 21:18

THE world of teaching was aghast last week when pictures of scantily-clad Natasha Gray, head of PE at Manor Community School in Cambridge, appeared on a modelling website.

According to tacky press reports, one photograph showed Ms Gray wearing only a thong and lying on her front on a bed. Ever mindful of the media's penchant for exaggerating the failings of teachers, I attempted to visit the website in question to ascertain with my own eyes if, indeed, the aforementioned snaps were completely inappropriate.

Unfortunately, due to the sheer volume of outraged citizenry endeavouring to gain access to her gallery, the site had temporarily crashed.

A furious Ben Slade, her headteacher, had the misfortune to catch sight of Ms Gray's poses. "They were absolutely not pornographic, but do you want to see your teacher in that way? Probably not," he said.

After having finally managed to peruse the portfolio of the drop-dead gorgeous drillie, I think it's fair to say that Mr Slade does not speak for the silent majority. It was hard work trawling through the site trying to find her pictures among scores of other Wag wannabes – 90 per cent perspiration, 10 per cent inspiration, I'd say – a task made more difficult by the fact that Natasha had cunningly changed her name to Tasha to throw amateur sleuths such as yours truly off the scent.

Her headteacher is pressing for the local authority and General Teaching Council to take action against the schoolmistress who won the Sexiest Teacher of the Year in 2002 (yet another award for which I was mysteriously overlooked).

Call me sexist, but a little bit of staffroom eye-candy is good for male teacher morale. Teaching is an ageing, largely female, profession, and on entering a typical staffroom, Sir could be forgiven for believing he had stumbled across a Mrs Doubtfire look-alike convention. Of course, there are honourable exceptions, usually student teachers or foreign-language assistants, but, for the most part, it's a grim spectacle.

There is an argument that posing in lingerie at 35 years of age smacks of desperation, but that is Natasha Gray's choice.

Her school has no business interfering in her legal pursuit of endeavouring to secure modelling assignments, providing her extra-curricular activity does not impair her ability to teach.

This may be news to her headteacher, but kids go on trips abroad with teachers and – shock, horror, probe – female teachers are seen in swimwear. Female staff also attend valedictory dances wearing de-rigueur dcollet dresses.

If we follow Mr Slade's line of logic, teachers should not be allowed to join social networking sites such as Facebook and post tasteful pictures of themselves. Teachers should be banned from internet dating sites where the showing of a slightly provocative photograph increases the number of hits (my pic bucked that particular trend on Match.com).

His puritanical views posing as professional outrage must be challenged. Only a decade or so ago, I taught in a Catholic school where female staff were under strict orders not to wear trousers, as this unisex form of attire greatly upset the rector.

I recall the Rosa Parks moment when a courageous woman strode into the school wearing – gasp – culottes. The headteacher almost exploded at this display of civil disobedience but said nothing.

His spell broken, one by one, more and more women showed the headmaster who was wearing the trousers in his school.

I'm certain that Ms Gray's presence in the school is doing wonders for performance indicators.

Pupil absence must be zero, and Ofsted inspectors must be encouraged by the spike in the number of dads going along to parents' evenings to speak at length to the PE mistress.

Strike a pose and get a life, Mr Slade.