Education

A controversial private school was subject to allegations of sexual abuse going back more than a decade - and the scale of the problem may have been even greater.

While the school’s recordkeeping is strongly criticised in the report, at least two previous incidents are believed to have occurred over the past 15 years.

While safeguarding was first raised as a problem at RSSKL by Ofsted inspectors two-and-a-half years ago, the investigation found that schools bosses “failed to keep records appropriately” until its final 12 months.

Following the suspension of one teacher at RSSKL, parents who were believed to have complained were sent anonymous threats.

The report also makes a reference to drug-dealing at the site, as raised at a meeting of trustees in 2016.

Rudolf Steiner School Kings Langley shut its doors last May 2018, following a saga which lasted years.

Earlier this year a former RSSKL teacher appeared before a professional conduct panel for a hearing which saw him handed an indefinite ban from teaching.

Although RSSKL closed 11 months ago, this was far from the end of the story.

Headteachers are asking parents to help buy classroom essentials as they struggle to balance their budgets.

During a three-week hearing a range of allegations were made against Denis McCarthy, relating to six different students.

Denis McCarthy taught at Rudolf Steiner School Kings Langley (RSSKL) for 34 years until he was dismissed in January 2017.

A teacher has been handed a lifelong ban from his profession, after it was found his behaviour “amounted to misconduct of a serious nature which fell significantly short of the standards expected”.

A teacher at a £9,857-a-year private school has been banned from teaching for life.

Denis McCarthy was accused of victimising a student from an ethnic minority background by making him read out a poem about a gay monkey every week for a year, the hearing was told on Monday.

A teacher who is accused of inappropriate behaviour, including sexual assaulting a pupil, began giving his testimony this week at a professional conduct panel.

A teenage girl broke down in tears on Monday when she told a hearing how her teacher had sexually assaulted her when she was 10 years old.

A private school teacher has denied inappropriate behaviour including a sexual assault on a pupil, at a professional hearing this week.