Stanbridge Earls School Criticised For ‘Failing’ Disabled Girl
A school has been accused of failing to protect a pupil who said she was raped twice by students.
Stanbridge Earls School for children with special educational needs in Romsey, Hampshire, was found to have discriminated against the girl by excluding her following the allegation.
A tribunal said the school found she had breached rules prohibiting engagement in sexual activity.
The tribunal said it had cause for “grave concerns” about safeguarding.
The girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, no longer attends the boarding school.
‘Inexcusable’
The First-tier Tribunal Special Educational Needs and Disability found the school failed to protect a vulnerable disabled pupil who was a victim of grooming and sexual abuse by male pupils at the school.
It branded the failure “inexcusable” and said serious concerns need to be addressed by the authorities.
The tribunal said head teacher Peter Trythall’s conduct “borders on contempt for statutory duties”.
In a letter to parents, Mr Trythall said they took the tribunal decision “extremely seriously” and would rectify the shortcomings identified.
He wrote: “This was a complicated and distressing case and the first of its kind ever experienced by the school, and is not representative of the way we normally meet the needs of our pupils.
“We are writing personally to the pupil concerned to apologise.”
The tribunal heard the girl visited the school nurse and said she had had sex.
It said the school did not contact the girl’s parents, believing she had consented to the intercourse.
She later told her mother what had happened and she contacted the school.
The claim was reported to the police via Hampshire Social Services.
No prosecution
The following term the girl says she was raped again and the school said she would have to be excluded because she had broken rules by having sex on school grounds.
Speaking to the BBC, the girl’s father called for some staff to be removed from the school to protect pupils.
He said: “There is an enormous amount of retraining there to protect others and I think there’s also some staff removal needed to safeguard the people that are there.”
Hampshire Constabulary said it thoroughly investigated the two sexual assault allegations before passing a file to Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) which decided not to prosecute.
The girl’s parents appealed against the decision but it was upheld following two reviews.
A CPS spokesman said in a statement there was “insufficient evidence” to provide a realistic prospect of conviction for rape.
It added: “The CPS was satisfied that there was sufficient evidence to prove that offences of unlawful sexual activity with a child had taken place, but that it was not in the public interest to prosecute the two boys concerned.”
Same Difference 
Stanbridge Earls school is for children with dyslexia, dyspraxia and mild Aspergers. Whilst these conditions are covered by the definitions of disability in the Equality Act, all the media in this case have failed to make this clear. This young lady to attend the school would not have had any impaired cognitive reasoning. The facts are that this was a consensual situation between teenagers and the parents won’t accept that. That’s why the CPS have made it clear that they will not prosecute as the family want to focus on the fact that she was underage, simply that’s not viable given the number of kids who do have underage sex. What is tragic in this case is that there are a number of pupils at that school who have had wonderful, life affirming experience and a quality education that they would never have had in mainstream. My son, who at 19 has the reading age of an 8 year old went to SE as it was named after a SENDIST tribunal, he left with GCSE’s and has the chance of a career. He needed speech and language therapy and lots of support. The tragedy of this is how many children will be denied a place at this school by LEA’s and SENDIST panels because of this case.
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I agree 100% with this comment. The findings are serious but I support the school completely. It seems to have made errors of judgement but I know that their current safeguards are excellent. I have a daughter at the school and am totally confident that her welfare is being well taken care of. In terms of education and self-esteem the school has turned our daughter’s life around.
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There are many other centres for children with disabilities that offer the same if not better levels of service. I am happy that your daughter is safe, but that young girl’s life will never be the same again. I hope that you or your daughter are never put in a situation where you experience life from her eyes, twice. Unable to tell anyone because the support system you need is not available at that school.
So when your daughter goes to that school and her welfare is being taken care of, imagine her walking through the halls and the places where a girl was once raped, sorry twice raped. And I hope you imagine how many other children may have been raped there and had their cases hushed up, in a similar fashion to this.
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My daughter went to stanbridge she knew the girl extremely well She says this girl was not raped. The girl was 15 when she had sex with a 16 year old boy so technically speaking you could call it rape. So you better close down every school in the uk because unfortunately kids have sex with each other.
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I Agree with Annette Garrett!
I heard the rumor of what was going on yesterday and thought that it was just a rumor!
To my dismay I find that it is not just a rumor but it is becoming a serious threat to the place we all once called home.
I cant help much cause I am all the way here, but you guys need to defend this place! Not just out of our memory or just OUR year groups, but for the memory of every person that has gone to this place since those doors first opened!
This place had it’s bad times, but we need to make people see that the reality is every school has a moment of ugliness. Wether it would be from students passing away or drugs or run aways etc the list can go on, my point is every school either public or private, have all shared one or two of these moments. And yes when they are confronted of these issues there is the schools reputation on the line, and when types of situations like these arise the school will have to be as discreet as possible due to the media being jackals.
I feel bad for the family and for the young girl and for the horrific ordeal they are all must be going through.
Serious measures should be taken to make sure something like this will never happen again, but to close this school, would be wrong.
People fail to realize when you send your child to a private school your not just sending them to a new education, your sending them to a new home.
A home where you will be sleeping for years and years on end in the same dorm with someone that you will build a connection with that will last their entire lifetime. They become your siblings, you have the sisters and brothers you don’t get along with, then you have the other sisters and brothers you do get along with. Even thoe you don’t get along with the others, they are still a member of the school and that make them one of the team, and they will teach you a lot about yourself even when you don’t realize it but in the long run after you leave you always have the random moment in your life where you will think about them and always have times where your surprised by the fact you actually miss them. And saying this its the same with the staff. Not every kid will like every staff member but they do act like parents, they are caring, and they are at that school to help.
But like any other parent and any other teacher, they cant always be watching them
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If the school had contacted the parents the first time it happened, then I would agree with you. You may not have realised how much this place has since changed.
You say they can’t always be watching them. There’s a difference between always watching someone and ensuring their welfare is taken care of by reporting horrific incidents like this as soon as you find out about them because you’re in a position of responsibility.
To allow a rape to happen once and never report it, most people might, just might understand it. But to let it happen twice? I agree with the comment above from ‘Conscience,’ because if this happened once then it has probably happened many times. That place needs new management if it is to stay open, or it needs to be shut down alltogether. I hope that the young girl’s parents are successfully able to get so much compensation from that school that it closes down.
Nothing in this world is worth more than a ruined life.
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If this school closes down it will be a disaster for our son who is autistic, the care he has had at Stanbridge is second to none.
I do not know all the details of the incident with this girl but i am cionfident that there is more to this case than meets the eye.
Stanbridge is a brilliant school, there are plenty of inner city schools where pupils are not as safe as they should be.
Our son is totally safe at Stanbridge.
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What about all the other lives being saved because of the terrific work this school does?
Are all the rest of the children still at the School to be trashed because of this most unfortunate incident? Do they not have the right to an education?
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Ana do those children not deserve to be safe? All children have a right to education and a good one at that but you seem to have lost the point! If the staff have hid this from parents what else has been hid? How safe are they all? My child received glowing reports but still suffered an immense torrent of abuse at the hands of this school – staff & students!!
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My daughter knew the girl in question extremely well she also went to stanbridge earl she says this girl was not raped. No one has been prosecuted, people are innocent until proven guilty. A 16 year old boy had sex with a 15 year old girl …… End of
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“In June 2011, at the age of 15 years, Miss C (who is autistic) sought assistance from Mrs Bavington, a registered nurse employed by Stanbridge Earls School since 2003, for vaginal injuries including bleeding, abrasions and tears to her vaginal passage, which required immediate medical intervention. It is accepted that the injuries had been caused by an older male peer, on school grounds following an alleged sexual assault of Miss C.”
This is medical evidence acquired by the law firm representing the girl. There are absolutely NO excuses for this, they should all be imprisoned.
Click to access 13.01.16.Press%20Release.pdf
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i went to stanbridge and there is lots that went under the radar, although staff would turn a blind eye there are others that were good and firm with there teaching and social skill building for pupils. but drinking, sex and drugs are a regular occurance.
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Unfortunately like in every other school
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Click to access 13.01.15.SENDT%20Decision%20-%20redacted.pdf
This is the tribunal findings.
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My son attends Stanbridge Earls School, he is autistic, he had a very unhappy and stressful time at junior school. Since attending Stanbridge he now has a few friends, which he never had before, he is making academic progress at a level we never thought would be possible.
My wife and i have only glowing reports for the care and support our son has had at Stanbridge, the staff are all experts in the care of children with learning difficulties, we have total confidence in the staff at Stanbridge and we fully support the school.
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Particularly these private schools have inadequate staff whistle blowing : to whom can concerns be passed ? The Head, Governors ? To go outside the school is massive and likely to end one’s career. Yet Cover ups are a disaster. Hope you (Stanbridge Earls) can help lead the way in showing how to build trust.
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My daughter went to stanbridge earl she knew the girl extremely well. She says the girl was not raped. As with hundreds of other kids she was extremely happy at the school. now the school is destroyed by unproven allegations
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I am deeply concerned that the school does not appear to think it has done anything wrong but more that the whole story has not been told regardless the school has a duty under the law that even if the 15 yr old girl had wanted sex it still should have been reported as if nothing else it is underage sex, how the school thought the parents should not be told is astounding.
What else is going on that we do not know about?
What incidents are the school not reporting is it culture that kids will be kids and you can’t lock them up so these things will go on.
I disagree there are always forms of supervision to protect and ensure these kids don’t have the opportunity to go off and have sex in the woods!
If one of the girls goes to the nurse and asks to be put on the pill at boarding school should the parents be informed? I would hope so but don’t count on it which worries me.
The facts needs to be addressed also as much as the CPS decided not to prosecute the CPS did follow with that there WAS sufficient evidence that unlawful sex with a child had taken place but was not in the publics interest to seek a conviction that on its own is damaging for the school reputation which is a shame but should we hide from the truth?
We should support the school but make sure they have learned with detailed explanation of what is now being implemented to ensure this does not have the opportunity to happen again and move forward in making a really good school even better, to close the school would have a devastating effect on so many children’s education, to help it stay open with improved management and communication it surly the best way forward.
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This school needs to close! How can you trust the staff when the houseparent of girls boarding and the head teacher have been accused at the tribunal of lying? How can anyone believe and have faith in these people. What’s worse is everyone seems to think that this a acceptable teenage behaviour, ask yourselves this, is this what you did at that age? You will find the answer to be no! Now ask yourselves why these children are openly talking about it and so accepting of this behaviour and you will find that the boys are groomed by staff into grooming and raping the girls! This is a boys school who just want a few girls to pass amongst each other as sex objects. By supporting the school you are enabling this behaviour to continue.
This is just sickening to the core…..
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unless you are a victim of a similar act from the school im not sure its fair to make that assesment. the fact is there a more males on the grounds as special needs is more common amongst boys and not so much girls.
i am not agreeing with what has happened, or what i have witnessed, or heard rumours of, i have always spoken loudly of what i have heard and questioned it all, perhaps not to the correct people, but silent i am not.
this school has for years now been for years set on renovating and not restructuring.
there are staff that have come and gone that are to the core good people and do good work and others that are the complete opposite.
in my mind the matters that are old need to be settled, apologies need to be made so that it can all restart. the school needs to be stripped and built up agian, not just visually but interally aswel.
i wish stanbridge the best of luck to rebuild and be better, and i am sorry to those who have not gotten what they could out of it.
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My daughter went to stanbridge earl she knew the girl in question extremely well. She says the girl was not raped. the CPS having looked at the Evidence are not prosecuting anyone.
Oh and by the way the reason why there are so few girls at stanbridge is because dyslexia mainly affects boys!
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I don’t have to be a victim to be able to say what I say but I do speak from experience! There might be some good staff but they have (unfortunately) been a victim too as their good spirit will have been tarnished by the staff that have failed the vulnerable people. Also, they too have allowed the abuse to continue by not speaking up to the correct agencies! That in itself make them guilty by association. This is very much becoming another jimmy saville or baby p; all the organisations knew but failed to act due to the schools reputation. Parents of girls are backed into a corner of choosing pastoral or education because there isn’t the provision for girls with SEN because as you rightly point out boys are more susceptible to SEN than girls! That doesn’t make any of this right though, it just means this needs better addressing!
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im not denying there are victims and things have been brought to attention to then be over looked, ive witnessed them and me myself have been accused of breaking rules to have sexual relations with a fellow student.
luckily however i had the right support around me (not from th school) and had those alligations thrown away.
but i think mainly the school has been exposed for there true colours and so should be broken down and built from the ground up, but not just stanbridge, but all special needs schools such as St.Dominics in Surrey for example.
there is a long road ahead of stanbridge and many other schools, fingers crossed.
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I agree with you, but part of the restructuring needs to be new staff first and foremost! Organisations need to start listening to adults/children when they speak up and stop looking at the institutions and placing them on a pedestal. I’m glad you got the help and support you needed but unfortunately like so many before her and since her, my daughter didn’t get the help and support she needed! My only hope now is that with the love from family and friends we can keep her safe from the animals that this place brought into her life! Good luck in all that you do and continue moving forward…..
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i wish you and your daughter the best, thankyou miss.
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All the people who have messaged on here that this is all a big mistake or an outright lie need to wake up and smell the coffee. Please don’t believe this is a recent thing. When i was at SE in the late 80’s the older boys would have what was called a ‘sprog hunt’ once a year where they would chase the new boys and you had to hide or get beaten up. The teachers all knew about it. The amount of bullying at the school was unbelievable, and the teachers did nothing. During my time there a boy was taken away by plain clothes police accused of raping a girl, but later the charges got dropped, and there was defiantly a lot of that kind of thing going on. I am also personally a victim. I was physically bullied every day at that school, and I was sexually abused by an older boy. Any parent who’s child had to leave SE should be glad that their child is out of that cesspit. I am glad they have done something useful with the place and turned it into a retirement community.
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