Mother surprised by conclusions

A Perthshire mum whose teenage son Jack was one of 24 pupils forced out of Butterstone said she was surprised that child protection issues had played such a significant role in its downfall.

Susan Briggs, speaking after a brief reading of the 87-page report, said: “What struck me was the level of criticism here regarding safeguarding and child protection.

“While, as a parent, I can’t really comment on policies and procedures that need to be followed, I do know that we were really happy with Jack’s progress at the school.

“Before he was at the New School, he’d been to two schools and both those placements failed – ironically, one of them was due to safeguarding issues.”

She said: “He excelled at the New School and he made good relations. “He was happy and felt accepted. “There were rigorous measures put in place to ensure his safety and wellbeing, and I was more than happy with his care, supervision and education.”

She added: “I find it hard to understand why the report states that the school was lacking in basic guidelines.

“That wasn’t my experience at all. “In fact, I would like to thank all the staff at Butterstone for showing my son that school can be such a positive place.”

In his review, Mr Martin said that parents and children were not given “sufficient consideration” in the school’s final week.

He said a parent had told him “of the great distress caused to one young person who boarded at the school who was asked to leave their room and leave the school with an adult social worker whom they had not met before”.

Mr Martin said it was clear that the school would close within a matter of weeks on November 6, meaning more notice could have been given to parents and carers.