Child Abuse by Teachers at Colet Court, Southbank, etc...

[vegimal]

Do the reports of abuse by teachers at Colet Court, Southbank, etc... deter you from sending your DC to these schools? I am registering my DS for school exams and I wonder at what point do you decide it is worth the risk because a school has had such a successful track record?

[rhondaepinstall]

A fourth teacher at SP/CC was arrested this week as part of Operation Winthorpe according to newspapers. Colleagues with young boys say there is no way they would send their sons there given the child abuse being revealed at the school.

[truthseeker2014]

Not surprised whatsoever. So much low level corruption going on among teachers in independent London schools that no one running the school dares to stand up to. Parents inviting teachers to children's birthday parties, buying them presents in order to ingratiate themselves and curry favour. Teachers knowing that they are untouchable because the parents who the school depends on for survival, are on their side.

All of this creates an environment in which corruption is rife and no child is truly safe. And that's just the day to day, low level stuff. But when low level corruption goes unchallenged (and anyone daring to challenge what goes on in these schools would soon no longer have a school), higher level corruption starts to creep in. And this is what you end up with.

[douglas123]

I am actually quite astounded at the naivety of some of the comments I have been reading here and that parents are even weighing up the pros and cons of putting their children at risk for the sake of academic achievement. Child abuse ruins lives and is never forgotten. Just because the "reported" cases have happened in the past does not mean they are not happening right now, from which it might takes years for victims to come forward. Moreover, the last arrest was only last year!! If the culture of the school has been to cover up such allegations, it is highly likely that it will continue to do so in order to preserve reputation. Having worked with victims of child abuse I strongly recommend that parents revise their opinions that child abuse is something that happened "back then", as it continues to be as much of an issue in the past as it is in the present.

[JaneParker]

The within M25 schools with which we have been involved over 30 years (private day schools) have been excellent. As we all know most child abuse is in the home and some of course is also in state and private schools. It has been more common in boarding than day schools as obviously the children sleep there.

St Paul's and CC remain just about the best schools in London. i don't know about its policy on presents. I know that at least one of my girls' schools - NLCS and Habs there was a prohibition for some of the time they were there on presents to teachers. I never buy a teacher anything I'm afraid. I have read a few articles about inner London posh and usually posh not very academic private schools full of rich Russians where silly mothers without jobs might buy ridiculous presents for teachers but that it not the norm in my experience.

Most teachers would not be wanting to spend their weekends with the children at their birthday parties! They want a lie in and a weekend doing marking or relaxing not yet more children.

Also I know all this from both sides - married to a day school private teacher for 20 years plus children at private day schools for the last 25 years.

I am very much in favour of investigating very strongly all abuse allegations - my teenagers and I were talking about it in the car today on the way to school and it is great the current climate allows more people to come forward. There was a good man on Today programme at about 8.10 today on the topic. But anyone suggesting St P or CC are today bad schools where you risk abuse is wrong.

[rabbitstew]

And, it would seem, some abuse takes place on national television (literally, according to Vanessa Feltz), some in hospitals, asylums and schools, and some in central government.

I don't think parents buying teachers presents is a prerequisite for them choosing to abuse particular children...

[truthseeker2014]

JaneParker, I cannot believe that you are attempting to stick up for this school. "St Paul's and CC remain just about the best schools in London." Who cares? You'd have to be insane to care. Don't you understand what's going on in this country at the moment, or do you have some kind of vested interest?

[gingerbeard]

I have some personal knowledge of this too through family. Some posters have suggested that CC and SP was no worse than any other school, I would like to float the theory that actually the schools' lack of action may have made the problem very much worse. It could be argued that amongst a paedophile network (whether formal or informal), it would be well-known that the worst that could happen to you at CC/SP was that you would be asked to resign, and then given a reference which would allow you to go onto another school and replicate your crimes there. Despite the passage of time, this needs to be sorted out, both for the victims and for the future.

[LadyGnome]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-28221697

There have now been 6 arrests. Academically these schools may be great but something appears to have gone badly wrong with the pastoral care. I wouldn't just want my children to have great teaching but great teaching in a safe environment.

[summerends]

JaneParker I know nothing about the ins and outs of what has really been going on at these schools. However you seem typical of parents who view academic excellence and charismatic teaching as a protection against these sort of problems. I think sometimes that parents can also feel falsely reassured by their children attending day schools rather than boarding.

[TheLateMrsLizCromwell]

As apparent of DC at these schools - the hysteria that has been whipped up by the press bears no resemblance to what we and our DC know of the reality of the schools. They have had safe and happy time there, and I would recommend them to anybody.
However, - no need to take my word for it - no-one is obliged to apply - so... don't. There are plenty of other schools - if you have any doubts, just don't apply.

[rabbitstew]

Since a child abuser can't realistically work his or her way through every child in a school, it stands to reason many won't have been affected, just as not every child in a school with bullies in it will be bullied... That doesn't mean it's "safe." I would therefore argue it's a bit silly to say that a school in which child abuse almost certainly occurred and teachers were knowingly allowed to go elsewhere to continue their perpetrate their crimes is "safe" merely on the basis that your child was happy there. Would you say you were safe if you had been on the penultimate bow-doors-open voyage of the Herald of Free Enterprise, or just lucky???

[TheLateMrsLizCromwell]

So... don't apply - lots of other schools - just go there instead

[rabbitstew]

I was never planning to apply there in the first place. The current news wouldn't necessarily put me off if I were - it's what the school is doing now that is relevant to anyone thinking of sending their children there, not what happened in the past. I just object to people trying to claim that it was "safe" in the past, when clearly by no stretch of the imagination was it as "safe" for all children as it should have been and, what's more, it allowed other schools to take on former St Paul's/Colet Court teachers who were known not to have squeaky clean histories on the safeguarding front, which was why they were moving on in the first place... There may well have been a culture of all schools doing this to each other, but it's most certainly not one to be proud of.

[summerends]

TheLateMrs I think any parent should realise that no school however prestigious is immune from these individuals who may also be charismatic talented, excellent teachers or coaches. That does n't mean that you would never let your DC attend school, just that complacency and defensiveness reduces the chances of rapid discovery and prevention.

[truthseeker2014]

There's a culture of corruption in these schools. An unspoken understanding that teachers will do exactly as they please, and woe betide anyone who tries to stop them. Parents aren't blameless in this. They 'befriend' teachers, ingratiating themselves in order to curry favour for their own kids. In the process, they make teachers all powerful.

How many threads have there been on these message boards about schools where several teachers have suddenly left? Many. And the consensus is always that the schools are to blame. In fact, teachers leaving en masse is generally an indication that someone is attempting to manage them. That's a good thing, by the way, and in the independent sector, it's unusual: teachers do not like being managed.

The bottom line is that in most independent schools (certainly in London), there is no management of teachers. Teachers are running the show. Which is fine if they're not corrupt, or you know, not child abusers.

Some of the comments on here, particularly from parents of current pupils at Colet Court and St. Paul's are shocking. It's a bad bad parent that would leave their child in an unsafe environment just because those schools "remain just about the best in London."

[expupil79]

I went to both of these schools in the 70s. Violence was standard practise for punishment and commonplace in class simply to assert control. If this is now considered abuse then many more will face charges. And rightly so. As for sexual abuse I am not aware of this going on.

[TheLateMrsLizCromwell]

Everything has changed enormously from the 1970s! At my (state school) in the 70s things went on that would never be tolerated now, and parents were oblivious.
By all means pursue perpetrators of historic crimes if it gives closure to the victims, but don't claim that conditions are the same then as now - there is no comparison. I have DC at those schools, know numerous people with DC there who wholeheartedly recommend the schools - not because of the results, but because they have a fantastic learning opportunity with motivated, knowledgeable and enthusiastic teachers. If people are out off by scaremongering, fine, no need to send their DC there.

[Greengrow]

And today Highgate Wood comp - in the Times. Robert Peston's school. A day school in London. the school apparently employed the teacher concerned right up to 2010 and is still saying this is "all in past" (when that was only four years ago - much less historic than at many schools).

Extract:
"a few weeks ago to tell me that he had been systematically abused by a teacher who was a pillar of the school for most of its existence (Highgate Wood was created out of a secondary modern school in the mid-1960s).

He give me harrowing details about how Andy Adams, a man who was games teacher when I was there in the 1970s and who went on to become assistant head — in a career at Highgate Wood lasting well over 30 years — had used him for sex for many years from the time he was 13. In the process, Adams permanently wrecked this student’s relationship with his family, undermined his education and made it impossible for him to find happiness as an adult.

The victim says: “My personality and emotions are so fractured that it is impossible to recognise anything resembling a whole, a me.” He attempted suicide, spent months as a psychiatric in-patient and with the help of therapy is desperately trying to reduce what he calls his “terrible feelings” to a manageable level. What he described to me was such a challenge to how I remembered the school that for a brief moment I wondered if it was really true.

I was never close to Adams because I was a swot not a jock, although I remember him as a bit of a bully. One of my best friends of the time tells me the only activity Adams ever joined in with was a sadistic game called murder ball. And on the evidence of Facebook posts, most former students now think it is significant that Adams was obsessed with making sure no student kept their shorts on in the showers.

When the victim sent me the charge sheet and his witness statement, it became clear that Adams was a paedophile. The victim approached me, as a relatively well-known former student of the school, because he wanted the world to know how Andy Adams had been caught and was facing sentence — so that if there were others who had been abused they would perhaps feel it was now safe to come forward and seek help.

There had been no interest from local papers. So I briefed the Broadway edition of the Ham & High. The victim’s strong sense was that the local council, Haringey, and the school were hoping that no one would notice the case.

At the time the victim got in touch, Adams had pleaded guilty to multiple charges of buggery and indecent assault with a minor over several years. But when I contacted Haringey’s head of news, Sally Lowe, for a comment, she told me she knew nothing about it — which surprised me, given that sentencing was scheduled for just one week later. Lowe said she would find out what she could.

This was on Friday, July 4. On the following Wednesday, Lowe texted me: “Sentencing on Friday and your source is very much legit. I’ve been speaking with the school this week and they are all v shocked of course. No real sense of anyone knowing at the time but obs v distressing.” "....

[TheLateMrsLizCromwell]

Haringey Council - no surprises there.

[robert1234]

This may seem an odd question given that even possible victims are likely to be dead by now, but is there any evidence of sexual abuse at Colet Court or St. Paul's (girls or boys in the case of St. Paul's) between about 1910 and 1925? Long shot, but . . . . .