Panorama-Undercover schools: Cruelty in the Classroom. 

I am a retired special education teacher. I am sickened by the physical and emotional abuse inflicted on those children. I can only imagine how frightened and hopeless the students felt being mistreated by these ignorant and cruel thugs. Why have they not been arrested?? Where is the protection and oversight for these vulnerable children? How are these untrained and morally corrupt people approved to work with children? Shocking. I'm very glad you exposed this situation.

"The teachers were suspended" how about arrested? They were assaulting those children repeatedly.

A professor of mine said: Whenever you address a student, pretend their parents are standing right behind them. It was great advice!

They’ve let the bullies run the school 🤷🏻‍♀️

Check that sports teachers hard drive! , alarm bells are ringing

How on earth can any adult, let alone professional teachers, justify the way they have behaved to minors. Disgusting. The very people who are meant to be there to provide a safe and respectful learning environment, shocking.

My son is autistic. I can't describe how I feel. Helpless, horror. Just sobbing.

I hope these people were banned from teaching.

Growing up with ADHD, this is pretty standard behaviour towards neurodiverse children, especially by PE staff. No wonder most of us go on to develop CPTSD and substance abuse issues in our adulthoods

A spokesperson said: “LIFE Wirral do not condone the behaviour of a small proportion of staff whose actions were aired on last night’s BBC Panorama programme. We are deeply concerned about our students and their families and would like to apologise to all those affected.” The spokesperson added: “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. “In correspondence from the BBC they stated they had uncovered ‘significant safeguarding issues’, if they were significant (as a responsible school we absolutely agree they were), why did they not report them and put a stop to it there and then? 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. “Indeed, shocking evidence has also revealed that not only did the investigator ignore clear advice to report safeguarding issues she went one step further and falsified official reports in order to claim that situations were handled well on the school’s safeguarding system which would deceive the safeguarding lead and ultimately allow the television programme to proceed. “Life School was a very successful Ofted 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 we can now come to a quick conclusion based on the evidence we now have. How about the school headteacher and other staff flaging safeguarding situations that have happened god knows how many times before this woman filmed anything, they didnt do that.

I cannot BELIEVE they said that head teacher didnt see what he did. (Drawing on the students face). Absolutely APPALING.

😮 My son is autistic, has moderate learning difficulties and other bits and pieces. I’ve trained in dealing with children with SEN and have worked in both special schools and mainstream. I love these kids, most of these members of staff can’t be no older than 14 ? Can’t believe they don’t even know a basic difficulty many on the spectrum have , and that is being able to recall what’s happened 30 seconds after an incident. They need time to process the information . And always give praise where praise is due , even the smallest things a student giving another student the ruler to use , just the little that’s was very kind of you sharing the ruler . I’m very proud of you well done. I’m so sad watching this

I went to some schools like this and you either put up with it untill you can get out or you just dont turn up and end up with no education falling through the net. This video is MANY schools in london. Not just this one in Wirral.

I was SEN at a nursery. You can do so much permanent damage to a child by belittling them and bullying them. Shameful that those so called teachers were behaving in such a cruel way. Thank you for bringing this to light 🙏

This is SICKENING. That head teacher Sarah should be in jail, the principal should be in jail. And I won’t say what I think should happen to those male “teachers” …. 🤬.

Home education is best by far, more needs to be learnt from it!

My old school was sort of like this as well not mentioning any names

A piece of paper saying you passed an exam (in the relevant qualification) does not mean you are qualified to even be near these children let alone teach them. This is disgusting, they all should be prosecuted. Children with additional needs and disabilities can and are challenging, hence you need people with empathy, care, tolerance and understanding of their needs, as well as the appropriate qualifications. None of the people in this video had any of these attributes.

Disgusting!

The same abuse happens in mainstream schools, there is no accountability because the staff close ranks (including those in higher positions in the local authority) and protect themselves rather than the children. There's misconceptions that all SEND children are all of low intelligence which is incorrect and discrimatory and leads to children not receiving the correct support. We need to look at other countries like Sweden where there is a much more rigorous selection process and training for teachers. This is just the tip of the iceburg when it comes to the SEND scandal in this country.

And parents are paying for this place? It’s disgusting, just so far from acceptable. That head teacher of sports, some day he’s going to rag on the wrong pupil. He’s going to get hurt, but he knows he can just blame the pupils and get away with it.

£50,000 a student from government funding. It would be more cost effective to pay for a teacher at £50000 per 4 kids and to learn in the home

Why hasnt it been closed permanently? Why the delay? This is child abuse of the most egregious type

Thanks for sharing. My son 11 with autism and would have hated it if found this happened to him.

Horrific. What are we doing to our most precious the vulnerable young people & children. My heart breaks as a person with autism myself.

This is SO sad...yet headteachers are getting rid of experienced, inclusive, kind staff to employ young graduates to save money. DISGRACE! What is the govt doing about this!!

A family member worked with schools of kids with special needs. She used to continuously come across special schools that were much worse for things like targets (most had no targets for kids and if they did they weren't recorded effectively or worked towards) than mainstream schools. Scary as it's just as important for special needs kids to learn skills that will help them in life. The education seems kind of token like they don't expect they can learn which they totally can. They just need more support to do so. Controversy most (admittedly not all) mainstream schools actually did better meeting their special needs kids needs and helping them progress both with educational and personal/ independent skills.

I couldn't watch all of this, it's too distressing . As a retired nursery nurse and grandmother of a child who is medicated for Adhd, i shudder imagining him being bullied and manhandled like the poor kids in this video . It's not a safe, educational place, more like a gang-hut, with older lads teasing / abusing younger boys . Let's hope there are consequences for this utterly appalling treatment of young vulnerable pupils .

I don't really understand but don't people have training?

These treachers are absolute thugs. Why didnt they get an education? How do they have teaching degrees? How did they even get through school themslves and is this how they were treated by their own teachers.

I was a psych nurse on secure units and we didnt treat violent adults.

Ho lee shit 😮😮😮😮😮

He actually says he fantasised about holding that boy underwater to eliminate his life whilst the kid scratched him whilst trying to breathe... wtaf???

Why is a child who seems to be a compltete tracksuite working in such a job?

Close it down!!

Jesus give the parents 50 thousand pounda a year per pupil!

WTAF 😡