“Terrifying” abuse of pupils went unchecked for years at Dunblane’s Queen Victoria School, an inquiry has concluded.
Lady Smith, chair of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, this week published her 13th volume of findings relating to the provision of residential care for children at the boarding school, concluding that numerous abusive practices perpetrated by members of staff and pupils went unchecked.
QVS has since apologised for abuse experienced by children who had been entrusted into its care.
Lady Smith added that the current management of QVS, the Commissioners, and the Ministry of Defence (MOD) now also understand that there is no room for complacency given the abuse that has taken place since 2010 despite the child protection systems and policies that had been put in place.
Lady Smith said: “The pupils at QVS were all boarders and they were exposed to risks of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse. For many of them, those risks materialised and children suffered abuse.
“I have no difficulty in finding that children were abused by staff whose abusive practices were such that they must or at least ought to have been obvious to those in positions of responsibility.
“Further, they were abused by senior and other pupils, some of whose practices must or ought to have been obvious.”
QVS was constituted by a Royal Warrant initiated by Queen Victoria but enacted by her son, King Edward VII, who signed it in 1905.
The initial aim was to provide support and education, in a stable boarding environment, for sons of Scottish servicemen of ranks other than officers.
The governance of QVS reflected those aims with oversight and management carried out by HM Commissioners who were, and are, largely made up of senior military officers of the services of which pupils’ parents are members.
Lady Smith said: “It was mistakenly assumed the background and governance of the school would be enough to provide appropriate residential care.
“Throughout many decades, particularly the late 1950s to the early 1990s, that assumption was ill-founded, and, in fact, children for whose care the school was responsible were abused.
“Factors that enabled abuse to occur included inadequate management and oversight, not enough staff, and undue adherence to a robust military culture.
“The culture of the school was such that pupils were subjected to initiation ceremonies, there was a hierarchy that enabled abuse of power by senior pupils, differences were not tolerated, and pupils were, at times, not treated as the children they were.
“A culture of silence was the norm. Staff encouraged pupils not to clipe or report, and some ignored obvious abuse.
“Violence was allowed to prevail at QVS.
“A small number of teachers abused children physically and emotionally under the guise of corporal punishment, using belts, slippers, a cricket bat, and heavy wooden dusters, and instilling fear.
“Violence by older boys towards younger boys was endemic. It included unofficial punishments by boys in authority, either prefects or monitors, especially up to the 1980s.
“Cruel and terrifying behaviour by older boys towards junior boys was commonplace in the senior boarding houses. It included tying boys to chairs, putting bags over their heads, and, in one case, threatening to throw a child down a lift shaft.”
Lady Smith added: “In 1991, a concerned teacher, Glenn Harrison, wrote to the press and to parents to expose his genuine anxieties about bullying and violence which he described as ‘a dark side of the school’. His actions contributed to improvements in child protection being achieved.”
Two teachers were said to have sexually abused pupils, in different decades, one between 1973 and 1993 and another from 2011 to 2019, by which time a system for child protection had supposedly been established.
But Lady Smith said the existence of the system did not prevent the occurrence of significant abuse, nor did it give rise to the abuse being promptly detected.
Lady Smith said: “QVS apologised for the abuse experienced by children who had been entrusted into its care.”
The abuse found to have taken place at QVS was said, in many respects, to be similar to the abuse found to have taken place at other boarding schools, including Loretto School, Morrison’s Academy, and Gordonstoun, and the boarding schools run by two male religious orders, the Benedictines and the Marist Brothers.
There were also said to be similarities in relation to causative factors such as staff who lacked the appropriate skills and training; inappropriate recruitment policies; and insufficient oversight of pupils and teachers.
Further case study findings in relation to others boarding schools are expected to follow.