“The series of inspections were as follows: January 2015 Education Scotland and Care Inspectorate, May and June 2015 Care Inspectorate and Education Scotland, December 2015 Care Inspectorate, February 2016 Education Scotland, June 2016 Care Inspectorate, September 2016 Care Inspectorate and November 2016 Education Scotland. Prior to this, between 1998 and 2015, the school was inspected regularly by HMIE/Education Scotland and The Care Inspectorate.”—Andrew Hunter, SCAI Witness Statement (17 November 2020)
The headmaster of a leading boarding school [Jonathan Anderson] has acknowledged that a failure to root out child abuse has had a “profound and damaging” impact on the lives of former pupils. Jonathan Anderson, who took over at £35,00-a-year Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh in 2018, said yesterday that his experience of hearing and giving evidence at the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry had taught him that victims remained troubled by their experiences “for ever”.
One of Scotland’s most prestigious boarding schools failed to discipline an abusive housemaster for 15 years, an inquiry heard yesterday. Andrew Hunter, who became head of Edinburgh’s Merchiston Castle School in 1998, admitted in email exchanges that he had become aware of James Rainy Brown’s actions that year.
A teacher at a £29,000 Scottish residential school has agreed to be struck off after having sex with pupils on the premises. But Scotland’s teaching watchdog has been criticised over the case after it agreed to keep the name of the teacher and school secret.
Police are probing claims a former female teacher at a top private school in Edinburgh had inappropriate relationships with pupils. Merchiston Castle, which is already co-operating with an investigation into claims of historical abuse, contacted the single force over alleged behaviour that is said to have occurred more recently. Earlier this year, the Care Inspectorate “identified concerns about the quality of child protection practice” at the elite school.
