10:01pm Monday 8th February 2010
By Hayley Court
THE chairman of governors at a Swindon school where a pupil was the victim of a hammer attack said the incident could have happened anywhere else in the country.
However, governor Peter Lay said the memory of what happened to Henry Webster at the Ridgeway School in January 2007 would forever be etched in everyone’s memory.
Henry, now 18, suffered life-threatening injuries after being repeatedly punched, kicked and hit with the sharp end of a claw hammer by a gang on the tennis courts at Wroughton’s Ridgeway School.
The Webster family had pursued a compensation claim against the school, but last Friday a High Court judge sitting in Manchester absolved the school of blame.
Mr Lay said: “It’s a dreadful thing to have happened “It could have happened I guess to any school in the country, but it happened at the Ridgeway School and so it will never be forgotten.
“I think because of the severity of it, lessons are always learned as a consequence of this type of incident.
“But as I say the school didn’t feel it was at fault.”
The High Court hearing in London lasted six weeks and there were a total of 52 witnesses.
Although unable to quantify the legal fees incurred, Mr Lay said they would have been “massive”.
Following the incident, which left Henry with brain damage, he said the governors had conducted their own investigation and found no evidence that the school was to blame.
The school has made significant changes to security partly to reduce the threat of such incidents recurring.
These include increased security camera monitoring, a security fence and restricted access to the building.
But changes have also focused on the behaviour of pupils.
“We’re very focused on the issue of behaviour management because it’s an important part of the education process,” said Mr Lay.
“Anyone who has got an alternate objective and doesn’t want to behave and wants to disrupt the process of education is in the wrong place. This is the ethos we’re trying to create.”
Consequently the school day has been shortened and the periods between lessons, including lunchtime, have been shortened.
There are also more supervised enrichment activities during lunch.
Mr Lay said: “We have got a number of young men going through a difficult period in their lives.
“There is less time in the school day when students are unsupervised, that’s been helpful.“ He added however, that the school had always been open to community use and would continue to be so.
“We have got to find a balance between security and playing your role as a continual part of the community.”
He said now the school could focus entirely on education.
“It’s taken three years to come to where we are now and a lot of work goes into defending the High court action,” he said.
“It has obviously required an awful lot of attention, which does distract from the business of educating children, so the school has done remarkably well.”
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