A private prep school has been fined £80,000 after a classroom ceiling collapsed with tables and chairs crashing down on to a room full of seven and eight-year-olds.
Year Three pupils at the £4,950-a-term Rosemead Prep School were in the middle of a handwriting lesson when the roof - overloaded with furniture in storage - caved in.
Teacher Margaret Rautenbach and several of the children were taken to hospital with serious wounds, fractured limbs, and heavy bruising from the incident, on November 15, 2021.
Westminster magistrates court heard some of the children have been left with permanent physical scars as well as lingering trauma, persistent nightmares, and fears of loud noises.
The Thurlow Educational Trust – the charity which runs the prep school in Dulwich – pleaded guilty to two health and safety breaches, and District Judge John Zani ordered it to pay an £80,000 fine plus £7,116 in costs.
“This incident was clearly very distressing for the school, particularly for the parents and the children involved”, he said.
Acknowledging parents who attended court for the sentencing hearing, he added: “I don’t think anybody could ignore the fact of the distress all of this will have caused the parents, and I hope this will afford them some degree of closure.”
The prep school, founded in 1936, is housed in a historic Georgian building in Thurlow Park Road, and counts actress Prunella Scales among its notable past pupils.
Prosecutor Richard Padley said the collapse happened at around 9.20am, shortly after registration and as 15 children aged seven and eight were sitting down for a handwriting class.
“There was a huge noise, suddenly, like a thunderous kind of noise”, Ms Rautenbach said in her statement.
“The whole ceiling appeared to be flashing with lights, and we saw the roof just about to fall on top of us.”
She said she shouted for the pupils to hide under their desks and threw herself to the ground as the ceiling caved in.
The court heard tables and chairs had been stored above the classroom in an attic, on roof boards only designed to take light weights.
Other teachers at the prep school rushed in to see a scene of devastation, with children covered in soot, injured, and some trapped underneath the rubble and broken furniture.
One of the pupils, a seven-year-old girl, was left with deep head wound and exposed skull bone which is likely to leave a lasting scar.
Her mother told the court her daughter “looked like a zombie from a horror movie” as she was treated in hospital, and she has endure nightmares of “hands and feet sticking out of furniture” since the accident.
“She was just about to stand up when she noticed a crack travelling up the wall”, her mother said, of her daughter’s recollection. “She remembers a very loud sharp bank and one of the lighting units coming down, flashing and banging as it fell.”
She added that her daughter was left “terrified” of thunder and lightning, anxious on the Tube and in lifts, screaming in fear once when a fire alarm went off, and she carries out “subconscious structural surveys” whenever she enters an unfamiliar building.
Mr Padley said the “greatest fear” of the children is “they don’t know when this is going to end”.
The school was criticised in court for “poor communication” with parents in the aftermath, including allegedly refusing to divulge details of how the accident happened. Parents also complained that head of governors Nick Crawford went on TV to say there had been no “life changing” injuries, even as pupils were still being assessed and treated in hospital.
“It was appalling and distressing to hear it played down like that”, said the mother of a seven-year-old girl who was injured.
“I feel the school was keen on sweeping it under the carpet and underplaying how serious it was.”
She said her daughter becomes “hysterical” when there is thunder, repeatedly saying “I’m not safe, I’m not safe”, and he recalled sitting with her for hours each night to help her get to sleep.
Some of the pupils were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, the court heard, and underwent counselling.
Headteacher Graeme McCafferty and Mr Crawford were in court, as the school’s barrister James Leonard KC said it is “mortified” at what happened.
“We accept it should never have happened, and for it to have happened represents a breach of a trust they commit their children into (the school’s) safe care”, he said.
He said work costing more than £400,000 had been undertaken on the school after the incident.
HSE inspector Samuel Brown said: “This incident has resulted in injuries to multiple young children due to the failings of the school to ensure that chairs and tables were safely stored above their classroom.
“Schools should be a place where children can come to learn from teachers and one another without having to worry about their safety.
“Fortunately, this incident did not cause any more serious injuries, but the mental and emotional impact of such an event should not be understated.
“Employers need to take action to ensure that building stability and solidity problems are not caused through overloading areas not designed to bear weight. As proven, the failure to do so can have severe consequences.”
The charity has been given until April next year to settle the legal bill totalling £87,116.
Following the court hearing, Mr Crawford said in a statement: “The events of 15th November 2021 will forever be marked as one of the most challenging in the school’s history. We recognise how deeply distressing it was for those involved. On behalf of the school, we would like to express our sincere regret and apologies that the incident happened.
“The health and safety of our pupils, staff and the wider school community is of paramount concern to us. The school has fully cooperated with the HSE investigation and taken significant steps since the incident to ensure that its health and safety arrangements are as robust as they can be.”
