Fresh allegations over mistreatment of pupils at Sutherland primary school
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Highland Council missed multiple chances over 17 years to deal with a teacher who is alleged to have been abusive to nursery and primary pupils as young as three at one Sutherland school, it has been claimed.
Rosena Wilkie was a teacher of P1 to P4 pupils at Gledfield Primary near Ardgay where it is claimed children faced daily bullying to the point that when they left class they looked “downtrodden”.
Mrs Wilkie has been contacted to comment on the story but did not respond.
The Northern Times can exclusively reveal that dozens of reports, meetings and concerns were not fully acted on by council education bosses leading at least one family to withdraw their child from the school.
The claims first emerged when Stacie Brix described how her daughter started to suffer abuse in November 2017, but fresh claims allege that mistreatment of pupils goes back to 2006.
Now a second mother, who wishes to remain anonymous to protect her children, has come forward and testified to numerous examples of mistreatment her children were allegedly subjected to by Mrs Wilkie.
The mother said: “My eldest was told to repeatedly re-write the number five so that it was done right, so she had been doing that all week and I went in on the Thursday to school to ask about it – so that was four days of writing one number.”
Having trouble believing that this was the case, she contacted Mrs Wilkie only for her to confirm that this is what happened because “she hadn't written the number properly”.
The harassment continued, including saying the child had no imagination when asked to write a story and that continued “all throughout their four years” in Mrs Wilkie’s class.
She raised the issue verbally with the the head teacher, saying: “You think it can be resolved. But nothing changed, I don’t think anyone did anything.”
The effects of Mrs Wilkie’s class still linger: “My eldest cannot and will not do joined up writing, they said to me once, ‘Mam, I think she [Mrs Wilkie] is the reason I can’t do joined up writing’.
“I always put it down to her time in that class because they were always told they were wrong in that class, they were always put down in that class, they were simply bullied and for four years in those primary infant years.”
Even today, the now-adult former pupil needs reassurance leading the mother to say: “That is just four years of Mrs Wilkie,” and when they went into Primary 5 the mother says it was like “night and day”.
But then her youngest entered Primary 1 in 2011 and it all started again and ultimately ended with them being removed from the school when education bosses failed to take action once again.
They were criticised and punished for “speaking too quietly,” losing golden time – a period on a Friday when pupils get to choose what they do as reward for good behaviour in class – every single week.
One incident stands out – “He would have been about six-and-a-half, they were doing this thing about long boats and we took him to a museum where he got his photo taken with the boat, and he was so excited about getting the photo taken to show to Mrs Wilkie."
But when was asked about it, the child told his parents: “He got into trouble for butting in and she doesn’t want to see my photo.”
The mother added: "I can remember seeing her effect by looking at the demeanour of the poor primary one to primary four kids when they came out of class and they were just dragging their feet, in a downtrodden way, every day.
“I said that to the headteacher – watch those kids coming out because then you might actually realise what she is doing to them.”
Nursery teacher Nicole Beesley said exactly the same thing, adding that it “broke her heart” to see kids leave to go to the primary because she knew exactly how they would be treated.
It did not take long to recognise something was wrong. She started at Gledfield in August 2012 and by November already expressed her concerns after practising an event for Christmas.
“She [Wilkie] was face to face with these little three-year-olds – her face stuck in theirs saying you've got to sing in tune, raising her voice. How can I put it? In an unfriendly tone – it's not a tone that you would use with preschoolers."
Having expressed her concerns straight away to the headteacher Ms Beesley resolved: "I would not be taking the nursery children back into that environment. I just point blank refused to take them back.
Asked how she felt about all this, she said: “It broke my heart and I cried. Honestly, my husband used to put me back together again during the summer holidays and then it would start again when we went back – it just broke my heart.
“They had two years in a nurturing environment where they were praised for what they achieved, not put down for what they didn't achieve, and it was always positive reinforcement to go into that environment where I knew the children who left the nursery shoulders high and and walking tall and after the first week in her class, they were bowed. They didn't make eye contact any more.”
A Highland Council spokeswoman said: “We do not comment on personnel matters. The council has strict child protection and safeguarding policies in place and any complaint received is treated seriously and thoroughly investigated in line with policy.”
Mrs Wilkie is now awaiting a GTCS (General Teaching Council for Scotland) panel hearing.
