Senior staff at special needs school joked about drowning pupil ‘like a kitten’

A senior staff member at a special needs school said he wanted to drown a pupil in a bath ‘like a kitten’.

In footage recorded by an undercover BBC Panorama investigator, the man said it was the ‘worst thing I’ve probably said – and got away with it’.

‘The thought of squeezing him while he’s scratching me arms, trying to wriggle out’, the man told a colleague in the video, adding he then realised the student was near him.

This was one instance of a pattern of beatings, cruelty and slurs the journalist claimed she saw at the up to £150,000 per student Life Wirral school in Wallasey, a town in the Wirral, Merseyside.

The reporter spent seven weeks at the school, during which its CEO was recorded detailing his knowledge of how to put someone in a headlock.

And the head of sport did just that, the BBC alleged. The teacher mocked the pupil’s reaction before pushing him to the ground. Another employee dragged a pupil and placed them in a headlock.

A mental health wellbeing coach described Life as ‘full of r*****s’ and also said a pupil was behaving well because he had ‘beaten him into being a bit of a [expletive] b***h’.

The programme accused staff members of using homophobic and sexist language towards pupils, including ‘ponce’, ‘b***y boy’ and ‘sketty’, a slang term for promiscuous women.

CEO of Life Wirral, Alastair Saverimutto, told the BBC he ‘does not condone the behaviour revealed by the programme and five members of staff have been suspended’.

Life is for secondary-school-aged youngsters. It was rated ‘good’ by Ofsted in June 2022, with the school watchdog investigators saying students ‘settle well in the safe and nurturing environment that leaders have created’.

In a statement on its website, a Life spokesperson said: ‘The BBC has acted in a highly irresponsible manner putting the interests of a television programme ahead of the interests of vulnerable children.

‘An undercover investigator failed in her basic safeguarding duties to report significant concerns and had she have done so on day one there would be no television programme and nearly twenty at-risk children would still have a safe environment in which they can learn and develop as young adults.’

The spokesperson questioned why the BBC investigator, Sasha Hinde, did ‘not report’ the incidents to ‘put a stop to it there and then’, accusing her of ‘ignoring clear evidence’ and ‘falsifying official reports’.

They added: ‘They chose not to because they had other priorities and the children’s welfare was not their primary concern.

‘As a team of highly respected education specialists, we see no justification whatsoever allowing such incidents to continue; the safeguarding of the children should have come first rather than a television show.

‘It cannot be stressed enough, had these incidents been reported immediately the members of staff would have been instantly suspended; something the reporter knew too well.

They continued: ‘Life School was a very successful Ofsted-rated place of learning, shortlisted by the Times Educational Supplement as Inclusive School of the Year 2023 but regardless of how respected the school was it does not condone the behaviour revealed by the programme and five members of staff have been suspended and will face disciplinary action.

‘This action cannot take place because the BBC has withheld evidence from the school despite asking for it to be handed over on several occasions.’

The school confirmed it had launched an investigation and reported the broadcaster to the police and ‘will be taking all necessary legal steps against the BBC’.

Wirral Council are also investigating.

Countless councils are facing massive shortfalls in budgets, the BBC said in a separate report. There is a £3.2billion deficit for Special Educational Needs or Disabilities (Send), a term describing learning difficulties or disabilities that make it harder for a child to learn.

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