Four teachers have been banned after a boarding school descended into anarchy over lockdown, when staff played cricket with a dead pheasant, hurled eggs and rocks at pupils, and called children ‘donkey f*****s’ and ‘spastics’.
Headteacher Adam Webb, deputy headteacher Alison Simmons, woodwork teacher Thomas Hayward, and Matthew Oyitch, a tutor, presided over chaos at the independent Build-a-Future school in Lincolnshire, over the winter of 2020.
Teachers threw aerosols into bonfires – which were lit daily on school grounds – children were encouraged to ride a cherry picker onto a roof, where they were pelted with projectiles, and staff were involved in play fights and ‘pile-ons’.
While some of these antics might sound appealingly like a St Trinian’s sequel, there were reports of even more disturbing behaviour.
Mr Hayward was found to have lain and thrusted on a pupil, teachers singled out certain children and bullied them, students were refused food for being ‘too fat’, and racist slurs were used.
Mr Webb’s conduct, particularly against one pupil, who he ‘mocked’ and ‘shamed’, amounted to ‘borderline child cruelty’, the panel found.
All four were arrested in January 2021 after a whistleblower went to the police with a dossier of evidence, and an investigation was launched into assault and neglect.
Criminal proceedings were dropped, but the group have now all been barred from teaching after professional conduct hearings.
Tom Hayward (right) was found to have encouraged pupils to play sports with dead birds
Matthew Oyitch (centre) worked as a tutor at the school, and was one of the four arrested in January 2021
The entrance to the West Ashby Build-a-Future site near Horncastle, Lincolnshire, which has been sold since four teachers there were arrested
Build-a-Future was a private boarding school for children who could not attend mainstream education. The misconduct dates from September 2020 to January 2021 – which includes the second Covid lockdown in November 2020.
It had two sites in Lincolnshire: one in East Heckington, near Boston, and one in West Ashby, near Horncastle.
Neighbours told the Daily Mail the West Ashby site was sold a couple of years ago, while the East Heckington is still run under a new name, and has managed to turn things around.
Mr Hayward, now 39, a keen outdoorsman, was found to have brought a dead pheasant into school during the November lockdown, and, along with Mr Webb, encouraged a pupil to hit it ‘like a ball’.
Later that month, he killed some baby chicks in front of pupils from the small brood kept by the school, before telling a group of children to ‘play bat and ball’ with the carcass of a young cockeral, again with Mr Webb, now 44, ‘cheering’ them on.
Egg fights regularly broke out at the school after being initiated by the teachers, who also threw stones at pupils on multiple occasions.
On the last day of term in December 2020, pupils were taken to some woods for a BBQ because the hot water at the school had stopped working.
Ms Simmons, now 56, who was the safeguarding officer for the school, brought along 40 eggs for the express purpose of throwing them at pupils.
Ms Simmons was not involved in many of the incidents reviewed during the other three tribunals, but she was found to have lied about what she saw – and failed in her role as the school’s safeguarding lead.
Around Christmas, a dumper truck and a cherry picker were on the school site.
Mr Webb, Mr Oyitch and Mr Hayward allowed pupils to get into the cherry picker without any safety equipment, then raised it as high as they could and encouraged the children to climb onto a roof.
Once the pupils were on top of the building, the trio then pelted them with ‘stones, eggs and tomatoes’.
Another occasion in November saw Mr Webb, Mr Oyitch and Mr Hayward throw stones and eggs at pupils, while calling them ‘window lickers’, ‘spastics’ and ‘soft c***s’.
Mr Hayward was found to have repeatedly breached the professional standards in his treatment of the children
Mr Oyitch refered to a pupil as ‘fat t**s’, among other derogatory names
The site in question is in a rural setting, with the school run from a cluster of outbuildings that have been sold to a storage facility provider
Witnesses said that bonfires were lit daily on the school site, either at the back of the grounds or between the office and first building, to keep them warm during winter.
Mr Hayward would throw aerosol cans into the flames to hear them explode, and got pupils to do the same.
On one occasion, with Mr Webb, Mr Oyitch and Mr Hayward present, a long tube was inserted into the fire and aerosol cans were posted down it, so that they ‘shot out’ when they exploded and sent ‘everyone running away’.
Mr Webb was reported to have sent staff to buy aerosols on multiple occasions, so they could be thrown into fires.
Another time, Mr Webb said to Mr Hayward: ‘Let the boys have a fight,’ while around the fire.
Mr Hayward drew a ring in the gravel around six feet away from the flames, where pupils fought against each other until they were bleeding and hurt.
While the children were grappling, Mr Hayward put stones down another pupil’s trousers, it was found.
Once, Mr Hayward was seen ‘lying on a student, moving his body up and down, simulating having sex’, while Mr Oyitch and Mr Webb watched on, laughing.
The whistleblower also reported Mr Hayward pulling the ears and standing on the toes of the same pupil, while his colleagues watched.
Mr Hayward admitted he had been involved in ‘pile-ons’ that involved both staff and pupils.
The teachers at Build a Future also deployed an extraordinary array of offensive language against the pupils – which included bullying, racism, fat shaming and disability shaming.
Mr Oyitch was found to have called one pupil ‘fat t**s’.
On multiple occasions, Mr Webb and Mr Hayward refused food to certain pupils, calling them ‘fat c***s’ and ‘fat f*****’.
Pupils with extra needs at the school were usually put into Husky House, which Mr Hayward often called ‘the spastic house’ in front of pupils.
Mr Oyitch and Mr Webb called vulnerable children ‘mong’ or ‘mong face’ on more than one occasion, while Mr Webb and Mr Hayward routinely referred to a particular student as ‘horse f***er’ and ‘donkey f***er’.
The panel was shown WhatsApp messages, from a witness to a friend, detailing that Mr Hayward said he was going to ‘get the other kids to bully the new kid in line cos the new kid is being too cockey’ in January 2021.
A consultancy firm, Collinson Grant LLP, was ordered to conduct an internal investigation in Mr Hayward and the other teacher, and the matter was referred to the government’s Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) in November 2022.
A month after the arrests, an Ofsted inspection found BAF did not meet the independent school standards.
A spokesperson for Lincolnshire Police said: ‘A thorough investigation was conducted in respect of allegations of child cruelty at Build-a-future independent school in West Ashby, Horncastle in 2021.
‘A number of people were arrested on suspicion of child cruelty / neglect. At the end of January 2022, the decision was made, following consultation with CPS, no further action would be taken.’
