A HEAD teacher has been reinstated to his role after he was suspended following a drink driving conviction, with the school's values of friendship, forgiveness and love at the heart of the director's decision.

David Coaché was suspended pending his court hearing which took place on October 11 but has been reinstated and will return full time today (Monday October 7.)

Andy Martyr-Icke, chair of directors for the Bengeworth Multi Academy Trust, said: “We want to reassure everyone that every step of this process was carried out in view of what is best for the children and our school's Christian values of friendship, forgiveness, responsibility, respect, perseverance and love.

"It is easy to use those values when things are good, but it is much more challenging and more important to use them when things are difficult. And that is what we did.”

“We followed a very robust process when investigating this incident and used all available evidence from various sources. The incident happened outside of school and during a very difficult period in Mr Coaché’s personal life."

Mr Martyr- Icke said: “There has been a massive amount of support from the community. We have had unanimously supportive messages from staff. All the emails I have received prior to Mr Coaché’s reinstatement and following it have been positive, all of them ask for his reinstatement.”

“We put in place a process that we would follow if any member of staff or member of our school community experienced a similar difficulty or made a similar mistake, with an aim to understand the context and use our values."

MORE:Retired Malpas Stallard Worcester cashier turns 100

“We continue to believe that Mr Coaché is an outstanding head and a good man who made a bad decision during a bad time in his life.”

Coaché appeared at Warwickshire Magistrates Court and was fined £587 with a victim surcharge of £58 and costs of £135. He was disqualified from driving for 23 months.

A statement from Coaché sent in a letter to parents said: "There is no excuse for drink driving and I am ashamed and extremely regretful to have shown such a lack of judgement, which is not typical of my behaviour professionally or privately. Members of the school community will rightly be disappointed in my actions, for which I am taking responsibility. I am thankful no-one else has been hurt by this incident."