A disgraced teacher who used a homophobic slur towards a student before claiming it was a joke has been banned from the classroom.

Terence Wall, 68, failed to appear before a misconduct panel to defend himself last month. It was decided that a hearing could take place in his absence.

It heard how Wall said “don’t be a f****t”, or words to that effect, to a pupil between February and March 2019. Notes from when he asked about the incident detail how Wall said he meant it was a joke and was not aware of the word’s connotations.

He also told another student to “stop being a f**ny” after they walked away from him in a corridor.

Wall was found to have used inappropriate physical force when he pushed a pupil who was trying to leave the common room with some crisps back into the room. The panel said: “The action in pushing Pupil D within the common room was not a restraint, nor was there any indication that this was justified.”

In an interview after the incident Wall did not accept that he should have acted differently and expressed no remorse.

He was working as a teacher at the Hambleton and Richmondshire Pupil Referral Service in Northallerton at the time of the incidents in 2019. He was employed there from July 2016 until February 2020.

Wall was cleared of accusations he shut a door on a pupil’s foot more than once and claims he called a colleague “that f***ing woman” and a “b***h”.

The panel found that he was guilty of “unacceptable professional conduct” in relation to him pushing Pupil D only and that his actions constituted conduct which “may bring the profession into disrepute”.

His conduct in the other allegations found proven was “unprofessional”, the panel said and he fell “significantly short” of the standards expected of a teacher.

It heard that Wall was unqualified and had been experiencing personal difficulties around the time of the alleged incidents.

Wall was banned from the classroom for a minimum of two years and will not be able to teach in any school, sixth form college, youth accommodation or children’s home in England.

The banning order will stay in place unless Wall reapplies for it to be revoked and has it overturned by a panel after two years.