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Dear Parents,
On Friday 23rd May at Oxford Crown Court, a former teacher at Grendon Underwood School, Mr Terrence Williams was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment having pleaded guilty to 9 charges of making or taking indecent photographs of children and 3 charges of downloading indecent images of children from the internet. The school has been cooperating with the police during the investigation, however we have been prevented from making any public statements both due to the risk of prejudicing the case and because we were unaware of the facts.
We were unable to inform you on the day of the conviction as we were still not made aware of the facts and, as it was the day before half-term and no one would be available in the school, we thought it would cause unnecessary speculation and concern.
We have only this week been made aware of the brief outline facts involved in the prosecution, which is why we are writing to you today.
Mr Williams was arrested in April 2006 and immediately suspended from his employment at the school pending the outcome of the police investigation. Mr Williams resigned from his position at the school in June 2006.
The school had made all the required checks and taken all the precautions available to ensure the safety of the pupils and we continue to take child protection very seriously. Unfortunately, there were no prior indications that could have identified Mr Williams before his arrest. It was a complete shock to all his colleagues.
There will now be a thorough investigation by the Governing Body. We are keen to see if there are any lessons that we as a school can learn from this incident.
Throughout this difficult time the school has been supported by the County Council’s Human Resources department and the Safeguarding Team and I am confident that based on their advice we have followed the correct procedures at all times. I am very grateful to them for all the help we have had.
If anyone would like to discuss the issues further, please contact the school on 01296 770388 or email
office@gucs.org.uk. If you would prefer not to talk to us you can use the Childline number: 0800 1111 or for an adult worried about a child, the child protection helpline: 0808 800 5000 both provided by the NSPCC.
May I ask that you exercise discretion when discussing this in front of the children who may become worried or scared through not properly understanding all the implications or words being used. However, you may still get asked some awkward questions if they hear other children talking about it. At school we will be honest and reassuring if we get asked any questions. Given that this has been dragging on for over two years we are anxious to put it behind us and move on, taking on board any lessons learnt through our inquiry.
Yours faithfully
Kate Dukes
CHAIR OF GOVERNORS
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