Special school pupils beaten in 'calming rooms❜

SLx Staff who abused’ youngsters still there, says probe

- Paul Jeeves

PUPILS were locked up in "calming rooms", beaten and left for hours sitting in urine at one of the UK's largest special needs schools, a BBC investigaton has revealed.

Children were filmed being hit and kicked by adults working at Whitefield School in Walthamstow, East London, which is attended by 370 pupils. Some staff involved are still employed while others who left have not been barred from working with children.

One whistleblower said: "You've ended up with staff with no sanctions against them, no learning or awareness, no serious case review to look at what went wrong." The school said it acted in pupils' best interests and was not obliged to make barring referrals.

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A police and local authority investigation into abuse at the school was launched in 2021 after 44 memory sticks of CCTV footage from inside three rooms was discovered by fresh leadership at the establishment.