Top school threatened with closure after ‘mock slave auction’

A top state secondary school, where a group of boys allegedly whipped and chained another pupil in a “mock slave auction”, has been threatened with closure.

Beechen Cliff School, one of the highest-ranking state schools in Bath, “has been given a termination warning notice by the government, threatening to withdraw its funding”, reports The Sunday Times.

According to the Bath Chronicle, at least seven white teenage pupils allegedly chained a fellow black student to a lamppost and whipped him with sticks during one lunchtime in January, “calling him extreme racist names harking back to the slave trade”.

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Andrew Davies, headmaster of Beechen Cliff, initially expelled three of the pupils said to be involved - but governors later ruled that they could return to class. Four others were suspended and Avon and Somerset Constabulary interviewed all the accused pupils.

Following the police investigation, some parents at the school told local media the decision to return three of the pupils to school was the wrong one.

“It just sends the wrong message out to the children. I’ve got a mixed-race son. He’s thinking ‘they’re going to stick up for the white kids but we get in trouble if we do something wrong’,” one father told the Bath Chronicle.

‘Serious cause for concern’

The termination warning notice comes after an inspection by the school standards agency Ofsted in May.

Ofsted said the school was inadequate in two out of five measures of education standards and required improvement in the other three. Inspectors said the language used by leaders and governors during the inspection to describe the alleged racist incident gave “serious cause for concern”.

“They still do not appreciate its true gravity, and little appears to have been learnt from the way that this issue was handled,” said the report. “The school’s current plans to improve safeguarding are weak.”

According to The Sunday Times, some parents, however, came out in support of the school after the Ofsted report was published, signing an open letter that said their boys were “happy” and felt safe at the school.

But in a separate incident a source told the paper that a French boarding pupil had also been called a “dirty croissant” by a teacher, an incident thought to also be under investigation.

The Department for Education said it was awaiting a response from the school to its termination warning notice before deciding what to do. It added: “The department is working to ensure there is rapid and sustained improvement in Beechen Cliff School.”

Future of school ‘not in question’

The school insists its future is “not in question” and says the termination warning notice is a “‘standard’ process letter” after an institution has been graded inadequate. While the Government has outlined its right to withdraw funding, the school claims the focus is on putting in place the right support to improve.

“The future of Beechen Cliff School is not in question and the Governors, Head and staff are focussed on implementing Ofsted’s recommendations ensuring Beechen Cliff is an excellent, safe and happy school for all its pupils,” it said in a statement to parents and the community.