An inquiry into the running of a prestigious private school said it uncovered a string of “serious abuse allegations” committed against pupils by monks and staff within the last decade.
The Charity Commission’s report found “significant weaknesses” in the safeguarding, governance and management of the two trusts responsible for running Ampleforth College, a Catholic private school in North Yorkshire founded more than 200 years ago by Benedictine monks and Ampleforth Abbey.
The report said that the St Laurence Educational Trust and the Ampleforth Abbey trust “experienced difficulties” in reforming their safeguarding procedures, and warned: “They must continue to maintain high standards and ensure that going forwards there is a robust safeguarding environment that protects vulnerable people that come into contact with the charities.”
Ampleforth and its former prep school have been at the centre of multiple cases of sexual assault committed against children since the 1960s, and was the subject of a report by the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse, which stated: “Appalling sexual abuse [was] inflicted over decades on children as young as seven at Ampleforth school.”
Amy Spiller, head of investigations at the Charity Commission, said: “The inquiry found several weaknesses and failures in the approach to and handling of safeguarding matters across both charities which exposed pupils to risk of harm. We expect safeguarding to be a priority for all charities, and the lack of oversight demonstrated mismanagement in the administration of these charities.
“We recognise the progress made by both charities during the inquiry, including recent compliance with regulatory standards, but the findings of our inquiry underscored the importance of maintaining high safeguarding standards and rebuilding public trust.”
Nicknamed “the Catholic Eton”, Ampleforth was a boys-only boarding school whose alumni include the actor and writer Julian Fellowes, the artist Antony Gormley and the businessman Anthony Bamford, chair of JCB. The college is now co-educational, and charges day fees of £32,000 a year.
The Charity Commission’s statutory inquiry was opened in 2016 after allegations of sexual abuse at Ampleforth were published in the Times. Investigators were then told of a further nine previously unreported serious abuse allegations and convictions recorded at the school between 2014 and 2016.
“The majority of these were reported to have been committed or alleged to have been committed against pupils by staff and monks in place at the time,” the report said.
In 2018 the commission stripped the charitable trusts of their safeguarding oversight, and appointed an interim manager who remained in place for more than two years.
But the report said that even “at times during the inquiry” there remained serious weaknesses in the St Laurence Educational Trust’s approach and management of safeguarding, “which has exposed pupils at the college to undue risk”.
The report details the school’s repeated failures to pass inspections carried out by the Independent Schools Inspectorate and Ofsted. In 2019 the college’s interim head resigned after a snap inspection found child protection risks including bullying and poor leadership. In 2020 the college was temporarily barred from taking on new pupils by the Department for Education, and in 2021 an Ofsted inspection rated its leadership as inadequate and reported that “some younger pupils with identified [special needs] engaged in sexual activity during the school day while not supervised sufficiently well”.
Since an inspection in late 2023 Ampleforth has been rated “good” by Ofsted.
The commission did not respond to a question about why the report had taken more than seven years to be published. The report said: “The length of the class inquiry has been impacted significantly by the charities satisfying the commission and other regulators of the effectiveness of safeguarding at both charities.”
