Exclusive:Horror and healing: Inside the 200-year-old Scottish private school rocked by abuse revelations

The echoes of past anguish and suffering are not immediately apparent when entering the gates of the prestigious Edinburgh Academy, but they are there and they are being heard.

They are not only evident for the survivors of historic child abuse, some of whom now regularly pay emotional visits to the independent school on Henderson Row.

But they are also clear for those who came after them, including the current generation of students, however oblivious they first appear as they play football and cricket in the senior school’s playground during their lunch break on a warm September day.

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These youngsters could hardly have failed to notice that their school has rarely been out of the headlines of late.

Intense scrutiny has fallen on Edinburgh Academy in the wake of allegations made by BBC broadcaster Nicky Campbell relating to his time at the school in the 1970s, as well as a subsequent Panorama episode, and harrowing evidence at the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry of physical, sexual and psychological attacks by former staff.

However, today’s pupils have also been playing an important contribution to the journey of healing.

“To be honest their initial reaction, which at first we were worrying about, was just sheer shock, horror that this could happen in their school,” said Edinburgh Academy’s chief operating officer, Samantha Byers, in an exclusive interview with The Scotsman.

"Because the current school is just lightyears on from what it was then. It is an anathema to them.”

After the initial “disbelief”, the involvement of today’s cohorts in the recovery process entered a new phase recently after the writer Philip Dundas, a former pupil and abuse survivor, approached the school with a concept called “Breaking the Silence”.

It involved a two-day workshop where the pupils created film, music, media, and writing as part of a creative response to the revelations, with transcripts taken from survivors, and presentations made at a special assembly.

“I think everyone was in tears, it was just the most incredible experience,” said Ms Byers.

Edinburgh Academy faced criticism earlier this year after posting photographs of some of these pupils carrying wooden “clacken” bats just a day after a former teacher was found in court to have abused students with the same bats.

"To be completely honest, some former pupils, survivors, have asked that we ban the clacken, which we understand, and we have thought about it,” said Ms Byres.

"But the school is very much about educate on it, rather than archive it, so again the rector (Barry Welsh) has spoken to all the pupils and said what this was used for in this period and how wrong that was.”

The clacken are used for the game of Hailes, which has long been associated with the school and involves its prefects dressing up in fancy dress and hitting a ball around the main yard.

"The survivors came from the 'Breaking the Silence' assembly and they stood and watched the game with us,” said Ms Byers.

“I remember one saying ‘this is not the school I knew, it's a completely different school’.

"It was an incredibly emotional day and I was really humbled to be part of it. It will stay with me forever.”

Ms Byers admitted that some former pupils and abuse survivors have no interest in engaging with the school, while others are regularly in touch and have formed a close bond, with one group recently raising £48,106 for the NSPCC by trekking to Mount Everest.

The former St Andrews University official spoke to The Scotsman ahead of the school’s 200th anniversary on Tuesday, which will be marked with a series of “nice, calm, respectful” events.

Ms Byers would not be drawn on whether the school, which has apologised to survivors and taken out a £4million loan to cover compensation claims, believed its safeguarding failures had been worse than other institutions that have come under the spotlight during the abuse inquiry.

“Any harm being done to any child is wrong. I wouldn’t want to compare what happened,” she said.

The chief operating officer is, however, adamant that the school is doing everything it can to ensure the horrors of the past are never repeated.

“Certainly when we were speaking to some of the survivors, they didn’t have anyone to talk to, there was nobody to connect with,” she said.

“Whereas now, pupils they know who they can talk to, but if there is something they want to raise confidentially, they can raise that as well in a confidential manner.

“Strict protocols, procedures, sign-in, sign-out. We’re in a completely different world.”

A former pupil of the school is known as an “Accie”, and the school uses these letters to spell out its values - ambition, collaboration, compassion, integrity, and engagement.

Ms Byers suggested these values were helping shape Edinburgh Academy’s response.

One example followed talks with survivors, when it became clear that the library area of the school had been a place where they had sought “comfort and solace” from torment.

Now, following the recent completion of a new auditorium and STEM classroom block, a memorial garden area has been created behind the nearby library.

Plaque in memorial garden for former Edinburgh Academy pupils who suffered abuse | John Devlin

A slate plaque was installed last week. Its inscription honours the “bravery and strength” of survivors who “finally had their voices heard”.

It adds: “No longer ashamed, no longer afraid. You were not to blame.”

The views of survivors about the school and its response to the abuse revelations may vary, including on the continued use of the clacken.

However, some have praised the current staff, who were also not to blame, for showing that they are listening, and are not hiding from those echoes from the past.

“The dark times that we’ve had, they are never leaving us,” said Ms Byers.

“They are with us. They are part of our history. They are part of our present. They are part of our future.“