Ampleforth: A British public school and a scandal
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 10 December 2020
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The leading Catholic school Ampleforth College has been temporarily banned by the government from taking on new pupils because of safety concerns. The boarding school is challenging a poor Ofsted report but the government said it was too slow in making improvements highlighted by repeated inspections dating back to March 2018. How did the school get here and what will happen now?
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Guests:
Sian Griffiths, Education and families editor for The Sunday Times.
A30, a former pupil at Ampleforth.
Robin Dyer, Headmaster of Ampleforth College.
Host: David Aaronovitch.
Links to useful charities:
Rape Crisis for England and Wales, NSPCC, Safeline, The Survivors Trust.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Ampleforth College, the very name suggests wealth, learning and distinction. |
| 0:07.0 | For two centuries, the sons and more recently the daughters of wealthy Catholics have come to live and study here in the lush |
| 0:15.3 | countryside of North Yorkshire, earning ample forth the sobriquet of the Catholic Eaton. |
| 0:22.4 | But has that tradition just come to a sudden and disgraceful end? |
| 0:27.0 | There is an Ofsted report which has still not been published which finds serious failings in meeting safeguarding and leadership standards. |
| 0:36.0 | Last month it was announced that the school is fighting a government notice to the effect that because of safety concerns, |
| 0:42.0 | it may no longer accept any new pupils. |
| 0:45.4 | You're listening to stories of our times and the Times and the Sunday Times. |
| 0:49.3 | I'm David Aronovich. |
| 0:50.4 | Today the school and the scandal will ample forth close. |
| 0:57.0 | I came when I was I was 13 from a state school background. I thought it was beautiful |
| 1:10.1 | and I felt I felt very very overwhelmed by the place it's quite the buildings are quite |
| 1:16.6 | formidable looking that's the voice of a former student from Amperforth College. |
| 1:24.0 | Between 2007 and 2010, she was sexually assaulted at the school by her music teacher. |
| 1:30.0 | So a warning before we continue, some listeners may find the content of today's episode upsetting. |
| 1:36.0 | His exact words were to me at the time I can be a proxy father figure to you. I can be a proxy dad. It's not my job but it's what I do because you're so special because you're a special student because I was from a very different background. My parents were not wealthy. I was a scholarship student too. |
| 1:53.6 | This is the first time this woman has spoken to a journalist. |
| 1:56.3 | She's agreed for us to use her voice, |
| 1:58.4 | but to help protect her identity, |
| 2:00.2 | we'll refer to her as A30, her pseudonym used as an official inquiry. |
| 2:06.0 | He presented to me as you know you're a special student and I'll help you and I was groomed by someone for three years who presented himself in this very very caring way and then |
| 2:21.6 | started abusing me in the most horrific manner possible. |
... |
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