Bad press for Eton, St Paul's School and Latymer Upper

[Siblingrivalries]

The Telegraph is carrying a horrible story about “Eton College, St Paul's School in Barnes and Latymer Upper School” having a culture of sexual assault.

St Paul’s of course has been through this before and is now paying compensation after tutors were found guilty.

This seems to involve pupils and the allegations were posted on Instagram. No doubt more will come out in time.

Would you consider sending your child to these schools?

All such reports should be taken seriously and documented from the moment it’s reported right through to its conclusion, whatever that may be.

R4 Today program had a segment today with a Met Officer which has been reported in Evening Standard. My questions is this - why haven't private schools had the same SafeSchools support as State. Is this the same beyond London where private schools do not have the same support from police as the state schools?

*The head of the Metropolitan Police’s sexual offence unit has called on London’s private schools to take more action to protect pupils from becoming victims of assault.

Detective Superintendent Mel Laremore said that state schools across the capital had a network to support schoolchildren in making complaints over abuse while the private sector did not.*

Why is it down to the school?
In the state system if a pupil reports an incident outside of school or if a staff member has concerns about a pupil they contact safeguarding within the school. Decisions then flow as to whether police or social services or 'merely' some pastoral care is appropriate. Whether or not the problem occurred in school.
It seems that in these recent high profile cases there were concerns swirling about but nothing was done. Now was that mere inertia or about protecting a school's reputation?
You can bet that if a state school missed something that social services should have known about they'd be hauled over the coals. There seems to be belief tho that some environments are havens away from the nastier aspects of life

Agree there does seem to be a less rigid reporting procedure in the fee paying sector. When I was at school it often depended on how many siblings the perpetrator of a wrong doing had and therefore how many sets of fees the school had to lose. I hope that is no longer the case. But it seems very strange that fee paying schools do not have the SafeSchools link with police that state schools do, why would they choose not to take that up?

Never. St. Paul's has a bad history, as does Latymer (I live near both and have known children who've gone onto both following primary school). I walk by the school gates of Latymer Upper every day, have done so for years and years. It's all the proof you need to know that the school is covered in wankers. The students walking out of those gates are assholes of the highest order. For that reason alone, I wouldn't send my children there. Why would anyone want to send their child to a school where abhorrent behaviour by staff and pupils is continuously condoned and covered up?

Why would anyone want to send their child to a school where abhorrent behaviour by staff and pupils is continuously condoned and covered up?

Because people genuinely do not realise. We thought we had researched one of the schools named elsewhere, visited twice, spoke extensively to current parents and yet never heard of its apparent well-known reputation of misogynistic behaviour amongst pupils.

When I was at school it often depended on how many siblings the perpetrator of a wrong doing had and therefore how many sets of fees the school had to lose

Not for these schools - they can fill a place many times over.

@TheVanguardSix

Never. St. Paul's has a bad history, as does Latymer (I live near both and have known children who've gone onto both following primary school). I walk by the school gates of Latymer Upper every day, have done so for years and years. It's all the proof you need to know that the school is covered in wankers. The students walking out of those gates are assholes of the highest order. For that reason alone, I wouldn't send my children there. Why would anyone want to send their child to a school where abhorrent behaviour by staff and pupils is continuously condoned and covered up?

@TheVanguardSix- you sound quite the charmer!

My DS and DD are both at Latymer- they love it, are happy and have good friends of both sexes and they and I would definitely choose the school again.
They personally haven't experienced or known of any of the types of behaviour that are on the website but the school is being very proactive about the whole situation.
I also walk past the school regularly and in fact when choosing schools I specifically did look at school gate behaviour, behaviour on tubes, buses etc. Can't say I noticed any difference in LU to any of the others. In fact compared to the school next door they seem very well behaved.

This feels like a good idea - the Met have offered to send officers in to fee paying schools to teach boys about consent
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/27/police-offer-go-private-schools-tackle-rape-culture/

Police going into the private schools to say ‘don’t rape’? So this doesn’t happen in state? Ever?

@toffeebutterpopcorn if you read @Oohhhbetty's earlier post the Met police say that state schools across the capital already have a network to support children making complaints while private schools don't.

I don't think anyone has said that doesn't happen in state schools have they?

I’ll have a look - I just looked at the news article (first para as it’s behind the paywall) and it just mentioned the private schools. I’m sure they must have complaints procedures too - surely boys have been a laws by older boys and staff since forever?

@toffeebutterpopcorn

Police going into the private schools to say ‘don’t rape’? So this doesn’t happen in state? Ever?

State schools seem to have a better reporting mechanism. I've only worked as a TA in a very average and large comp but it was drilled into us that if a pupil had been abused or even if we suspected it then we went to Safeguarding, who then decided whether to take it to the police or social services or merely keep on eye on things. The message was better safe than sorry. This step seems to be missing from some of the named schools (maybe they believe if you're rich you're better behaved? Or maybe its about reputation). But reporting rather than ignoring has an effect on offending as well as helping the victims. Perhaps Dulwich et al could learn...

My sons attend (ed) a state school close to one of the highlighted boys independent schools and have been horrified for years at the behaviour of the boys from that school, on the bus and at parties and social events.

They both say that there is a toxic male culture that snowballs. And that the boys from that school act in an entitled way in many contexts.

They have both listened to their female friends distressed at the behaviour of boys from that school, and they had told me about it before.

Their reaction is ‘told you so, and it’s good that it is all coming out’.

Not a problem in my time at Latymer, but
that was over 60 years ago. Tolerance and fair play to all was the watchword, but we had a brilliant Head in Fred Wilkinson. I came from a working class background, but not many of my peers would have been aware of that.

The Guardian-

The chief inspector of schools in England asked for greater powers to monitor independent schools over “potential safeguarding issues”, but was ignored by ministers, the Guardian can reveal.
Despite concerns raised by Amanda Spielman, Ofsted’s chief inspector, the body was later stripped of its role in overseeing the inspections of private schools now engulfed by a wave of sexual assault allegations.
Documents seen by the Guardian show Spielman complained to the Department for Education in 2018 and 2019 that her organisation was unable to monitor the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI), to which the DfE delegates inspections of elite private schools such as Westminster and Dulwich College.

Annoying that The Guardian is still reporting this as a private school issue, when the founder of EI has gone on record saying that as more accounts arrive at the website, it is now clear that both sectors and universities are all,affected.

It's as if people don't go beyond the first couple of pages.

This should have been the wake up call to change how we socialise young men, to make a difference to this generation and all that follow. Instead, it's been turned into a private school issue, when it should have been all schools

@AuntieStella

Annoying that The Guardian is still reporting this as a private school issue, when the founder of EI has gone on record saying that as more accounts arrive at the website, it is now clear that both sectors and universities are all,affected.

It's as if people don't go beyond the first couple of pages.

This should have been the wake up call to change how we socialise young men, to make a difference to this generation and all that follow. Instead, it's been turned into a private school issue, when it should have been all schools

I think it is important that it is, as you say, recognised as an issue with the socialisation of boys, wherever they are educated.

But I think it also fair to look at how being in an all boys environment affects that, along with a competitive, pushy culture, and a level of privilege which some translate as entitlement.

My sons see it as an explosive mix.

Different environments have different pressures and issues. Some State schools (ours!) deal with pupils who are in gangs and other manifestations of urban deprivation, private schools deal with the side effects of privilege (round us, free access to expensive drugs like cocaine and other behaviours, including treating girls like some sort of bonus scheme)

Yes, I totally agree it is about socialisation of boys.

All boys, whatever school they attend.

Financial Times, Saturday 2nd April

Tom Oliver, a 27-year-old former Eton pupil, agrees that rape culture is an issue across society. But he believes that reputation, a drive for achievement, and a lack of pastoral or mental health support could be acting as a driver of the toxic culture in fee-paying, elite schools.

“When your parents are paying 35k a year, you don’t feel you can complain about your welfare,” he said. “A lot of money has been spent on our education — they want to see results, and everything else gets sidelined.”