Female PE teacher accused of having sex with pupil admits she was 'immature' and wanted to be popular
Bronwen James also said she took it as a compliment when pupils said they would rather be taught by her than other teachers
A female PE teacher accused of having sex with a 16-year-old pupil has admitted she was "immature" and "wanted to be popular" with her students.
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Bronwen James told a court she was not a very good teacher and was "very lenient" with pupils, letting them use their phones and listen to music during lessons.
James, now 30, is on trial at Winchester Crown Court accused of four charges of sexual activity with a teenager at Bitterne Park School in Southampton, which she denies.
She is said to have taken the pupil to her home for sex after arranging meetings on Snapchat on three or four occasions.
They allegedly had unprotected sex at her home while watching Wimbledon and she asked him to call her 'Miss', the prosecutor told the court.
Read more: 'Flirty' PE teacher accused of having sex with pupil, 16, while watching Wimbledon
Giving evidence on Monday, she said she was "still quite immature" when she started teaching at the age of 21 and admitted she "maybe wasn't there to teach the students".
She continued: "I just don't think I was ready for it. I was there to teach the students but as my career progressed I realised I was seeking validation from the wrong people due to my level of teaching."
The former teacher said she was "immature" and let pupils in a Year 10 and Year 11 coursework class listen to music on their phones because she "didn't want to upset them...I wanted them to do their work."
She admitted that she cared about being popular and "took it as a compliment" when pupils expressed excitement about being in her classes.
Asked if pupils liked being in her lessons, she said: "Yes I think it happened quite frequently.
"I think I took it as a compliment. If a student was to realise that they had me as a teacher they would get excited. They would say can we be with Miss James rather than the other teacher. It felt like a compliment to me."
The court was previously told that James and the teenage boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, "messaged daily" and even discussed the idea of "moving in together".
“Ms James told him she loved him and wanted to move away with her," Edward Culver, prosecuting, told the jury.
The prosecutor said that the school was made aware of the incidents after another student showed a teacher some text messages apparently sent between the defendant and the complainant.
He said: “They suggested a sexually charged relationship, he was named as ‘number 8’ in the messages as a cover, him being the eighth man she had slept with. Her photo was visible on the phone screen.”
The boy said that he kept her contact saved as “Number 8” on his phone because she had told him that she had previously slept with seven other men and added: “It was a code name as I wasn’t going to put her as Miss James on my phone.”
Mr Culver said that James did not answer questions in police interview and instead provided a prepared statement in which she suggested the complainant “had been put up to make up these allegations against her by another student”.
The court previously heard that James told the police that the student had only been to her address once but never inside her car or home.
She later admitted she once dropped him home.
Francesca Mason, the officer in the case, said analysis of her phone showed there was no evidence of Snapchat communication between James and the pupil, and no references to the 'Number 8' codename were uncovered during a key-word search.
The boy cannot be named for legal reasons.
The trial continues.