Epping House Special School

In 2011 I took on a biography writing project. It was a new avenue for me.

The result was 'Susan's Brother', a true story about a small boy from a dysfunctional single-parent family. The boy had Asperger's Disease and his sister dominated his early life whilst his mother just 'didn't want him'.

He was placed in a special school - 'Epping House Special School' and at ten years of age he tried to commit suicide and was sectioned into an adult mental hospital.

Epping House Special School

Here's an extract from the biography:

It was a residential school near Ware, about 28 miles from the family home in Berkhamsted. Epping House was not a boys’ special needs school typical of this period – it was radical and experimental under a recently appointed headmaster who was shaking it up when Susan’s brother was sent there early in the summer of 1957.

The main block was an old building on three floors, dating back to the 17th or 18th Century. It was extended in the 1820s by Sir William Horne, who was Solicitor General for a time whilst he owned it. It is, today, a Grade II listed building, with twelve pane sash bay windows on the first floor, and six pane sash windows on the second.

The school’s regime (in the broadest sense) was being shaped by the headmaster, Howard Case. His ideas were revolutionary. This school had a serious impact on (or, depending on one’s view, failed) Susan’s brother. To quote from The Student Voice Handbook:

“In many ways his approach is best understood through the pivotal practice of the Daily Meeting attended by all staff and young people…

…it was here that all significant decisions about how students and staff lived, worked and learned together were taken on a daily basis. The Meeting was chaired by one of the children and normally lasted about an hour…

…The constraining items, such as the Stop or Veto list in which children whose activities were restrained in some way by the will of the Community as expressed in the Meeting, were dealt with first. This was followed by the negotiation of activities that the staff was able to offer in the afternoon and evening, after the 11:00 am-12:30 pm class groups, which the school expected the children to attend. Children were free to choose which activities they wanted to take part in or to offer activities of their own or do nothing at all…

…Then came the allocation of communal work such as sweeping and cleaning and looking after the dogs and cats that had an important role to play in the emotional reparation and development of many of the children in the school. ”

Of course, from a child’s perspective, it was rather different.

Whether Howard Case’s approach to education was influenced by the American Homer Lane’s views on the education of children with special needs is not clear. There are obvious similarities between Epping House and the policies and running of Homer Lane’s ‘Little Commonwealth’ at Evershot in Dorset in the years 1913-1918.

The ‘Little Commonwealth’ took in children with criminal records and up to the age of 19 years. Borstals had been established in 1902 – these were more akin to prisons and took in the most serious youth offenders; Approved Schools were established in 1933. These were modelled on the English boarding school, and boarders were drawn from the courts system, offences and other factors deeming this form of open education institution more appropriate than the strict, prison-like regime of Borstals.

Epping House, however, held no such formally convicted young criminals – they were boys who had patent emotional and family problems without a criminal aspect. One or two had had minor skirmishes with the law – usually for stealing food, and such ‘crimes’ were usually dealt with compassionately.

[end of extract]

The children were allowed to run around naked (the headmaster and his wife were practising nudists).

It later became mixed-gender school.

The website

As part of the project I set up a website and I've been surprised by the reaction.

The website been very illuminating. Ex-pupils of Epping House school are still discovering the site and linking up through the many comments.

Those comments paint a mixed picture of success, failure, hatred of the regime and also of enjoyment, happy memories and life-transforming education. It seems strange that one school should produce such mixed results.

Some comments

These are a sample of the comments. The headmaster - and regime - changed after Chris's time at the school.

I remember getting sex education there which, looking back, must have been quite radical at the time. The headmaster and his wife were practicing nudists I believe, but I don’t recall ever seeing them naked – I took great delight in it; can’t believe we used to run around naked even in the snow!

*

Whilst I was grateful for the respite that Epping House(EH) provided my stay at the school, some 3 or 4 years as I left in 1966, left me with little or no education.

*

Howard and Mary were great, as were all the staff. Mel’s bedtime stories about a city in the sky were a big hit with everyone.

Weekends were great, either going to Hertford to spend your pocket money, or getting a packed lunch and walking through the woods all day. Having a dog of your own, building ‘forts’ from wood and tin, camping out all summer if you wanted to, climbing trees and great friends. What more could a boy want?

I for one never saw any abuse of any kind from the staff. All we got was love and encouragement to do better. Although the food could have been better!

*

I am sat in my office reading through the comments on this site and tears are welling, I went to EH in the mid to late 80’s when Alan Hood was Head and although I have aged and have a family, the scars and pain remain, reading how others just like me endured the beatings, bulling and abuse remind me of a time in my life that I would not repeat. I am now 47 and when I reflect on my time at EH it is clear how much of an impact that place has had on my adult life, I ask,

How could they have been put in charge of looking after children? Vulnerable young children!

The echoes of HAY BOY! As you are marched down the corridor by your neck or hair still ring, I do not remember coming away from EH having learnt anything either, EH was nothing but a prison for me with no good memories.

*

Attempted suicide

In Chris's case (he was Susan's brother), the school was where he made the attempt on his own life in 1957. After being sectioned to an adult mental hospital, small kindnesses from strangers eventually helped to turn his life around.

Like many other people with Asperger's, Chris is highly intelligent and eventually became a successful electronics engineer.

The biography writing experience was harrowing - and educational - for me and, I believe, cathartic for Chris, Susan's brother. There were times when we both had tears in our eyes.

Epping House Special School closed in 1997 after several scandals about the abuse of pupils.

“Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children.”

– Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux Chief, Sitting Bull.