Miss Ayris resigned from Castlebrook High School in Unsworth, Greater Manchester last year and has now received a life ban from the National College for Teaching and Leadership.

A professional conduct panel heard the ‘outstanding’ teacher sent 2,000 messages to the pupil – then aged 15 or 16 – over nine months in 2012.

Police later concluded that no offence had been committed, but the panel said the incident – which became ‘the subject of rumour and gossip’ among pupils and staff’ – amounted to serious misconduct.

Miss Ayris, of Accrington, Lancashire, apologised for her actions.

The teacher had joined Castlebrook High School in Unsworth, near Bury, Greater Manchester, in 2008 and was ‘well-regarded’ as ‘an outstanding, hard-working teacher whose results had been consistently good,’ a report to the panel said.

But in February 2012 she exchanged mobile phone numbers with ‘Pupil A’ – then aged 15 or 16 – and over the next nine months sent him 2,000 messages via WhatsApp.

They would exchange scores of messages each day which included ‘sexual and graphic’ content as well as photographs of herself, although these were not sexual in nature, the panel was told.

Over the months, their relationship became ‘the subject of rumour and gossip amongst other pupils and staff at the school,’ its report found.

Victoria Ayris, 30, used the social networking site to share intimate details of her life and photographs with the boy. When the headteacher became suspicious, she begged the boy to delete the messages

Eventually another pupil informed headteacher Anthony Roberts about the texts, and in November he ordered her to stop contacting him, but she lied that she didn’t have his number, the report said.

However later that day she sent the boy a message reading: ‘Delete my phone number and all messages including WhatsApp — don’t ask why just do it — your mum will want to see your phone when you get home.’

Miss Ayris initially failed to provide Mr Roberts with details of all the texts the pair had swapped, but later handed them over and in April last year resigned from the 780-pupil specialist science and technology college.

Police studied the phone records and text message content and interviewed her under caution but later concluded that no offence had been committed.

She was not represented at the hearing but the panel was told she admitted the allegation, apologised and said she would not repeat such actions in future, while the pupil’s parents were supportive for helping him during ‘a difficult time in his life’.

The panel nevertheless said her actions constituted misconduct of a serious nature, adding:  ‘The panel is satisfied that the conduct of Miss Ayris fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession.’

Miss Ayris, of Accrington, Lancashire, who is now understood to be in in Australia, can ask to have the ban reversed after two years.

A spokesman for Castlebrook High said: ‘When the allegations of misconduct were raised, the matter was immediately reported to the local authority.

‘In accordance with procedure, the teacher was suspended pending investigation of these allegations, and she subsequently resigned in April, 2013.

‘Safeguarding of pupils in all our schools remains paramount, and all of our schools have robust safeguarding procedures, which in this case resulted in a referral to the teachers’ regulatory body and dealt with appropriately.’

Last summer 64 per cent of its pupils achieved grades of C and above in their maths and English GCSEs, slightly above the national average.