Teacher quits school to be a rapper

An English teacher has quit school for a hip-hop career after beating one of his students in a rap battle.

A clip of Mark Grist's victory over 17-year-old MC Blizzard has been watched by more than 1.5 million people on YouTube.

Now, Mr Grist, 30, of Peterborough, is to swap Shakespeare and Chaucer for Snoop Dog and Dr Dre.

He started by using rap in class to try to get his pupils interested in poetry, reports The Sun.

"It has helped to inspire my pupils to achieve, and given them a much stronger interest in English," he said.

"I've always loved poetry and my interest in rap stemmed from there. I am not a cool rapper. I'm probably the squarest one you'll meet."

In the viral clip, suit-wearing Mr Grist is seen using his superior linguistic skills to demolish his teenage opponent.

MC Blizzard taunts him with: "You k*** head, I hope you drop dead, if I punch you in the face who are you going to call? Ofsted?"

But the teacher responds: "To those at home who are sitting watching YouTube don't start clicking. I know this might look like some kind of extreme babysitting.

"It's actually a rap battle between two grown men b***hing. Just one of us isn't legally allowed to drink inside the building.

"And now Bradly is going to try and act less infantile by pretending he is proper riled. So now sit back and watch him reconcile with his lack of breast feeding as a child."

Mr Grist is now in a group called Dead Poets, which fuses rap music with poetry and performs at venues nationwide. He still works as a supply teacher when not on tour