As head teacher of Scotland’s last remaining all-boys school, Huw Jones believes instilling emotional resilience is key to tackling toxic masculinity… Mr Jones said: “There is a crisis. But my personal take is we’re viewing that crisis the wrong way. “I don’t think boys are broken, or men are broken. I think there’s a real lack of identity, belonging and connection, particularly in men and boys and that manifests itself in a lack of self-esteem.”
A report into the exclusive Merchiston Castle School has concluded that for 60 years, “abusers were protected by tradition”. Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry chairwoman Lady Smith has published her findings on the provision of residential care at the Edinburgh boarding school, concluding that over almost six decades, there was a “more or less continuous line of indecency” from two named perpetrators.
A boys-only private school has been criticised for a culture which involved “dreadful abuse” of children almost continuously for six decades. The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry report into Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh found that from the 1950s to the second decade of the 21st century, there was a “more or less continuous line of indecency” from two named perpetrators.
Abuse at a boarding school for boys in Edinburgh was “normalised for generations”, the chair of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry has said. Lady Smith published her findings on Wednesday relating to the provision of residential care for children at Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh.
Lady Smith delivers the findings about Merchiston Castle School at the release of Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry’s report “Case Study no. 9: Volume 5: The provision of residential care in boarding schools for children at Merchiston Castle School, Edinburgh, between 1930 and 2021”
A group of survivors who gave evidence on the abuse they suffered at private schools have called on the first minister to dismiss the judge leading the inquiry. Lady Smith, who is chairing the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI), has been accused of “thinly veiled favouritism” towards independent schools. The letter, from 28 former pupils, urges John Swinney to remove her from her role.
A senior judge was acting beyond her powers to prevent the BBC from fully reporting a £2.6m legal claim against Scotland’s child abuse inquiry, an appeal court has ruled. Lady Smith, chairwoman of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI), passed orders stopping detail of an employment tribunal claim being reported. A judicial review of the orders brought by the BBC backed Lady Smith’s move. But the appeal court has now ruled she “had no power” to make the orders.
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.
