Fettes staff sacked after 'sleepover'

Published on 12/03/2011 10:07

TWO members of staff at one of Edinburgh's most exclusive private schools have been sacked after a pair of teenage pupils had a sleepover at their home after meeting in a night club.

&#149 Fettes College charges 26,000 per year for boarders

The two S6 Fettes pupils, who were also expelled, spent the night at the home of a pair of gap students who were working at the prestigious college's junior school, the Evening News has learned.

The girls, who are believed to be 18, and are in their final year at Fettes College, met the staff members by chance after sneaking out of their boarding rooms and heading into the city centre.

The sacked staff members, one an Australian woman and the other a South African man, who are in their late teens, had been employed by the college to look after junior school pupils and were living on campus at the North Lodge building.

Fettes College, which counts former Prime Minister Tony Blair and CBI director Sir Richard Lambert among its alumni, has insisted that "no inappropriate behaviour" took place between the pupils and staff.

The college, which charges around 26,000 per year for boarding pupils, said the gap staff members agreed to allow the pupils stay on their floor rather than return to their dorms on Saturday, February 26. It is understood that the pupils had been drinking.

Two further members of staff at the club made their excuses and left once they realised that the girls were pupils. In a letter to parents, headmaster Michael Spens, said that "the girls broke a number of major school rules on Saturday night" for which they "have had to be excluded from the college".

He added: "This has been very difficult and upsetting for everyone involved but unfortunately the girls left us with no option whatsoever."

When contacted, Mr Spens told the Evening News that due to the number of rules that had been broken that night, both the pupils, and the two members of staff, had been excluded from the school.

He said: "Fettes College can confirm that two female boarding students in their final year at Fettes broke a number of school rules by going into town and then into a club without permission.

"Then, having met up with our gap staff, by coincidence, in that club, they walked back to Fettes together and made the decision to spend the night on the floor of the gap staff accommodation instead of returning to their boarding house."

He said that the staff members had failed in their responsibility to return the girls to their boarding rooms.

Mr Spens added: "Fettes College would like to stress that no inappropriate behaviour took place that night between the gap staff and the students.