School at war with bowls club over ‘view’ of girls changing

A PREP school embroiled in a legal struggle with a bowling club claims that members can see young girls getting changed from their clubhouse.

Parents of pupils at Seaton House School in Sutton, south-west London, have complained about players at Carshalton Beeches Bowling Club being able to look through classroom windows during PE lessons.

But while complaints have been made, the head teacher and her predecessor said they had received no allegations of “sexual impropriety”.

Head teacher Ruth Darvill told Central London County Court the school’s future was under threat after the Independent Schools Inspectorate, the private school equivalent of Ofsted, said the £10,000-a-year school was failing in its “safeguarding” duty.

The bowling club has existed on leased land within the school grounds for almost a century, having been established before the school itself was founded in 1930.

The school wants the club out and is refusing to renew the lease on its clubhouse, which it owns and plans to demolish and rebuild as a school outbuilding. The club is suing the school to force it to renew the lease.

In documents supporting its claim, the club explained that it was applying to the court under the Landlord and Tenant Act for the grant of a new business tenancy.

Notice to terminate its current lease was served in August 2017 to take effect in April 2018, along with a message stating that “the school would oppose a claim to the court for a new tenancy”.

The hearing continues.