A teacher who made homophobic comments about pupils, calling them "poofs" and "batty boys" has been barred from teaching indefinitely.

Jason Gibbs faced allegations from four schools where he taught either as a permanent or supply teacher between 2000 and 2009.

During his employment at East Brighton College of Media Arts in 2003, Gibbs made several "homophobic comments", telling one male student, "don't go into the shower because this group will start bending you over and do you up the ass". He also called one group of boys "poofs" and "batty boys", one pupil a "wanker" and another a "fat twat".

While at the school, Gibbs held a pupil by the back of the neck, threw him down a grass bank and kneed him in the pupil's already injured knee, causing it to bleed, a disciplinary panel heard.

When he was employed at Glenmoor Girls School, Bournemouth, he addressed a pupil as "chinky" and "china doll" and told her to "turn round you Chinese". Despite denying the remarks and claiming there was "a conspiracy among the girls", the General Teaching Council for England (GTCE) found Gibbs guilty of the accusations.

He also asked one pupil: "Is your mother still single? Don't tell anyone I asked."

Gibbs, who qualified as a teacher in 2000, failed to tell two of the schools he taught at that he had suffered from depression since 2003 and was later diagnosed in 2008 with bi-polar disorder.

While at a post at Upton House School, Windsor, Gibbs was tasked with supervising swimming sessions. Not only did he "often talk on the phone rather than watch the children", he "dunked" a child, described by another teacher as a poor swimmer.

"Pupil N, a very weak swimmer, was playing in the pool and had hold of a flotation aid. Mr Gibbs took hold of the aid and pushed it down, resulting in the young child going under the water," the panel said in their summing up of the verdict.

"This happened twice and caused the child to be very distressed to the point Ms Harding asked another member of staff to go into the pool and take the child out, which he did and in front of Mr Gibbs."

Again Gibbs denied the allegation, saying he was "guiding him underwater to build his confidence".

Gibbs, who had previously been convicted for drink driving, told the GTCE he had "always wanted to be a teacher and cares deeply about the education of young people".

The teacher also went to "great lengths" to explain the impact of his bi-polar disorder and depression, claiming it had "significantly affected his teaching career".

But Minna Nathoo, chair of the panel, said: "Such remarks tend to humiliate and offend pupils. They also show a lack of respect by the teacher, who in addition is expected to be a role model. 

"This is a teacher who has resigned from one school after another, at a point when disciplinary action was being initiated as a result of inappropriate behaviour. This misbehaviour was then repeated at the next school," she continued.

"He appears to have learnt nothing from this experience. Further, in order to obtain his later jobs, he withheld relevant information. His misconduct is serious. It resulted in pupils being put at serious risk of physical harm."

As a result, Gibbs has been struck off the teaching register indefinitely and cannot challenge the order for at least two years.