Author Archive

Nicholas Debenham & corporal punishment

Nicholas Debenham was the headteacher of St James (seniors) Boys Schools from 1975 to 2004. In 1984 & 1989 St James schools attracted complaints and negative press coverage about excessive physical punishments, including the junior boys school. Debenham promoted his stance as a proponent of corporal punishment in a series of television and newspaper interviews […]

St James & the SES – Media coverage

The first critical newspaper article on the SES appeared in the UK in the Daily Mail in 1968, focusing on secrecy and a cult of obedience. Since then there has been critical media coverage of the SES, its childrens schools, and its sister schools in a number of countries where the SES operates, principly the […]

St James – Leaked critical Governors report

The full extent of management failure and SES control of St James Schools revealed in a confidential internal report. The 1996 St James Report A confidential internal report on St James was leaked and published in 2006, five months after the Townend Inquiry exposed how pupils had been mistreated and “criminally assaulted” in the 1970’s […]