Pupils at a special school were being left sat in their own urine and were hit and kicked by members of staff.
A whistle-blower who worked at Whitefield School, Walthamstow described what they saw as "torture."
In 2021, a sealed box containing 44 memory sticks of CCTV footage from inside three so-called 'calming rooms' was discovered by new leadership at the school.
An investigation by the BBC found that children were locked alone in these calming rooms, which were bare and without natural light. One of which was a former stationary cupboard.
An investigation by the BBC found that children were locked alone in these calming rooms at the North London school (File Pic)
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The child who featured the most in the clips is 22-year-old Ashley. His family says his time in the calming rooms led to him being sectioned in 2020, with his escalating behaviour including him recently jumping out of a moving car.
In the leaked documents, Ashley, who was 12 at the time, was pinned up against the wall by a member of staff who then hit him with such force his body is recorded as "jolting" before he then becomes unsteady on his feet.
When investigating the external consultant found that the teacher who carried out this abuse seemed to "have no remorse."
The teacher was not referred to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), which verifies people are safe to work with children, among other functions. They continue to teach at the school, which is 'unfathomable', according to education consultant Elizabeth Swan.
The trust said what happened at the school was "wrong and wholly inappropriate"
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Another one of those put in the rooms was David Gloria, now 20, who has diagnoses of autism, ADHD and OCD. Despite there being school records of his placement, he does not feature in any of the 500 hours of footage handed to the police, highlighting the scale of seclusion at the school.
His father Ricardo said the room was worse than a prison cell. After the police officer spotted a CCTV camera inside and demanded staff show him one of the videos featuring his son.
He says it begins with staff putting a knee on David's back and pushing him inside the room, force which is not recorded in the written observation.
He said: "My son was in a panicked state and crying and self harming, begging them for water and food and they just ignored him - it's torture."
A spokesperson for Flourish Learning Trust ,which runs the school, told GB News: “What occurred between 2014 and 2017 in Whitefield School was wrong and wholly inappropriate. Those in charge are no longer involved in the Trust or our schools.
"These issues were only brought to light by the actions of the Trust’s current Senior Executive Leaders who uncovered them soon after taking office and demanded that they were fully investigated.
“Across our Trust, we take our responsibility for promoting and protecting the health, safety and wellbeing of our children and young people incredibly seriously. Welfare is of paramount importance and is central to the way we run our schools.
"This is a historic matter which pre-dates the current leadership of both the school and the Trust.
"Even before this matter was discovered, leaders had introduced significant changes to the Trust’s safeguarding policies and practice and, in recent inspections, Ofsted has found safeguarding at the Trust’s schools to be ‘effective’ and that pupils are ‘kept safe’.
The school was previously rated as 'Good'
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"We can, however, never be complacent about welfare and we are continually updating and improving our policies and practice.
"Throughout this investigation, we have acted on the advice and guidance of the police, the local authority and the Department for Education.
"Our disciplinary panels, which were led by an independent investigator, received ongoing advice from HR and legal professionals. The LADO was kept informed at all times and was content with the handling of the process and the outcomes.
"In exposing what had occurred in the years up to 2017, we accepted that there would be reputational damage but this was far outweighed by the need to expose what had happened and ensure these practices could not be allowed in the future in any school across the sector."
