The 36-year-old teacher yesterday pleaded guilty to 12 charges including using the internet to groom a child for sexual activity, using an electronic service to menace, harass or offend and several child pornography offences.

He was committed to the Orange District Court for sentence later this year.

Neither the man nor the school he was employed at can be named, with Orange Local Court placing a non-publication order on any information that may identify the victims.

One victim, an 11-year-old boy, was communicating with the teacher via an internet messaging service on the evening of July 2 last year.

The boy told his mother he was talking to the teacher, who had told the boy he was typing while he was naked and in a spa.

There was a discussion about whether the teacher would turn his webcam on and let the boy see him naked.

The man sent a photo of a naked woman to the boy and made a number of sexual references during the conversation about genitals, nudity and relationships between students.

Police received complaints about the teacher in July last year after he posted an offensive message on an 11-year-old boy’s Facebook page and sent an image of male genitals to a 13-year-old girl.

At the time of the offences the teacher was the subject of a Department of Education investigation and was not working at the school.

According to a statement of police facts tendered to the court, he was previously warned by the school’s principal in 2008 after reports of children going to his home after hours and told not to contact students by electronic means or be alone with them at school.

The man will remain on strict bail until his sentence in September.