Life Wirral owners ‘terrified’ as building vandalised after school exposé by BBC Panorama

The owners of a building where a recently exposed school is based have said they are ‘terrified’ and pleaded with people not to attack their property.

Independent secondary school, Life Wirral, hit the headlines this week following an undercover investigation by BBC Panorama. The shocking 30-minute documentary - Undercover School: Cruelty in the Classroom - appeared on television on June 17 and saw staff members at the school describe pupils as ‘thick’ and ‘retards’. Supposed to be a safe place for pupils aged 11-18 with special educational needs, staff members were recorded physically attacking students and using homophobic slurs.

According to the Department for Education, all pupils have now been removed from the school and Life Wirral says five staff members have been suspended. However, the documentary has caused mass outrage and the building where the school was located on Victoria Road in New Brighton has been targeted several times by vandals.

Despite the school being currently closed, a van donning its name and logo had its windows smashed and this has now been removed following a request by the couple who own the building housing the school. At least a dozen eggs were pelted at the walls and several windows while one window was smashed at the front with two smashed at the back. However the owners, who wish to remain anonymous due to threats made on social media, said they were unaware of the investigation and wanted to stress they had no connections to the school business.

They have now ramped up security on the building and are being supported by the New Brighton Coastal Community Team as well as Dan Davies, a high profile figure within the New Brighton community. The school sign has also been painted over to make it clear the building is not owned by Life Wirral.

The owners said they were under the impression it was a good school based on Ofsted reports and thought they were helping support vulnerable children, adding: “We were very proud of the fact we could give the premises over to facilitate that.” As the school taught vulnerable children, they can’t access the building while investigations take place and were only able to visit with notice when the school was operating.

The couple said they had felt on their own initially, adding: “It’s hard to feel angry against the people doing it. I understand the anger in the community.” They said they were disappointed they were not contacted by BBC Panorama before the documentary aired, adding: “I am terrified that future damage is going to be sustained or even worse.”

The owner said the damage could be dealt with quickly, adding: “The first priority is the children and we were absolutely shocked to think that we rented a premises which according to a programme they were being abused. We understand everyone’s anger and we share it.”

They added: “First and foremost is that we are devastated that the children have been required to be moved and we hope the council will look after them. In terms of the building we would like the community to be aware it’s not owned by Life. It’s just a couple who rented it.”

Sean Martin from the New Brighton Coastal Community Team shared a plea on social media on Thursday (June 20) after meeting with the couple, who said they have not slept since the documentary aired. He noted: “Please let the authorities deal with this and let this couple deal with the people who let them down.”

Since the documentary aired, images of Life Wirral staff members - and speculation about their full names and locations - have been circulating around social media platforms. People have also began to boycott other businesses associated with Life Wirral’s CEO, Alastair Saverimutto, and New Brighton Rugby Club have cut ties with him. In a statement sent to the BBC, Mr Saverimutto said he ‘does not condone the behaviour revealed by the programme’.

In a statement earlier this week, Life Wirral 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.”

They did however say the BBC acted ‘in a highly irresponsible manner putting the interests of a television programme ahead of the interests of vulnerable children’ and said the undercover officer ‘failed in her basic safeguarding duties’.

The statement continued: “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. 

The BBC said in response: “The BBC takes issues of safeguarding and protection of vulnerable individuals extremely seriously and has strict editorial guidelines covering undercover investigations, secret recording and investigations involving children.

“Our investigation was firmly in the public interest and the welfare of the children concerned was our primary consideration. Our undercover reporter gathered evidence over a period of time so we could be confident that what she witnessed demonstrated a clear pattern of behaviour, involving multiple members of staff, and in line with the concerns that had been raised with us.

“Prior to our investigation, the local authority and the school were already aware of safeguarding concerns having previously been made by others, and despite the local authority investigating, this had not resulted in meaningful change. In contrast, when we told the local authority about the findings of our investigation, the placements at the school were suspended and new places are being found elsewhere for the children.”

Merseyside Police has also responded to the BBC investigation and is currently investigating the matter. Wirral Council said it took immediate action after it was informed of the Panorama investigation.