I was a boy at Haberdashers Aske’s Hatcham Boys School in the 1980’s.
And it was during this time that I was beaten up so badly by a Monster Teacher, that I still suffer with flashbacks and very raw feelings, even now, over 30 years later.
Basically, I didn’t like playing Rugby and refused. The Monster Teacher took exception and took it personally and ordered me run around the playground 6 times.
When I further refused, he physically took me by the hand and pulled me around the playground, slapping me around the head.
I WAS CRYING AND SOBBING MY EYES OUT
Thinking back, I feel the pain, the anger; What an absolute Monster of a Teacher, beating up a 13 year old kid.
He even told me when we get around the corner he will beat me properly. Luckily, there were a couple of boys around the corner so he couldn’t do anything.
However, boys did witness the incident, and when I was in the changing room, still sobbing my eyes out, a couple of boys came up to me and said what he did to you was out of order, if you need help, etc, etc, however, that soon changed, and I was prevented from reporting to Police.
Thus, The Monster left and became a Behaviour Inclusion Plan (BIP) Teacher, guess he had a guilty conscience.
Since I have found the courage to speak about this, I have discovered that there is a culture of cover up, and not wanting to discuss anything that they feel could harm their reputation.
Please think very very carefully before sending your children to these schools, as there have been many, many examples of very serious abuse in the time between I was a boy and the present.
Driver jailed over drugs stored at Haberdashers’ School, Elstree
Police seize 7.7lbs of cocaine worth £200,000 and arrest caretaker in raid on prestigious £21,000-a-year Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School
Cocaine worth more than £200k found after raid on one of UK’s most prestigious private schools
Haberdashers’ Aske’s Federation Trust in £2m fraud probe
Former Haberdashers’ teacher admits sexual assaults on two more boys
Former teacher at top boys’ school jailed for sexually abusing boys
Habs headteacher ‘sympathetic’ after former teacher found guilty of abuse
I often think back to that day when the Monster Teacher beat me. He beat me as if I was his slave and he was the master.
And I often wonder what gave him this sense of entitlement; and it was only after I visited my old school to hand in a letter about this incident that the penny dropped; thus, to understand the culture of cover-up and maintaining a good reputation at all costs, we have to look back in history.
The Worshipful Company of Haberdashers has its origin in medieval times, and over time changed their focus from silk, linen, and hats to property, schools and education.
However, because of the prestige and nobility of the The Worshipful Company of Haberdashers, there is a very strong organisational culture and desire to maintain a perfect reputation at all costs.
Therefore, everything gets covered up, no matter how serious it is. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a £2 or £4 million fraud, paedophilia; pseudo-paedophillia, in that a 40 year old male teacher developed a sexually motivated relationship with a sixth-form girl.
Or when I walk up to the school reception, hand letters to two individual teachers, ask them to ring me, and then get told there is nothing they can do to support me, even though they did not support me when it happened and covered it up. It still gets brushed aside and they attempt to cover it up.
Therefore, I can only conclude that there is an old-fashioned colonial culture that still persists throughout the Aske’s Federation Schools.
Moreover, if we are to prevent these abuses of power and trust occuring again, we need to develop the strength and courage to have some very difficult conversations about the organisational culture of the Aske’s Federation Schools, and whether the organisational culture exhibits unconscious-bias.
The Old Askean 