Troubled school's positive future

Mr Ratherham said the school was a place pupils could be proud of

The head teacher of an East Yorkshire school blighted by sex scandals says he is determined to overcome the past and create a better place for students.

Five teachers at Headlands School in Bridlington have been charged with sex offences in the past four years.

An Ofsted report raised serious failings last April but the school has now been taken out of special measures.

Acting head Scott Ratherham said Headlands was now a place which staff and pupils could be proud of.

Teachers Ian Blott and Steven Edwards were jailed after Blott seduced a 15-year-old girl and Edwards had affairs with three others.

From talking to students, they want to see Headlands connected to positive things and this is the direction the school is heading in Acting head Scott Ratherham

Fellow teacher Terry Mann, 45, had charges dropped over allegations involving a pupil at the school but was later given a 12-month suspended sentence for having sex with an underage girl at another school.

A female teaching assistant was given a conditional discharge for having an "inappropriate relationship" with a teenage boy at Headlands.

And Christopher Reen, 31, a class room supervisor, has been charged with six counts of sexual activity with a girl under 16.

The latest report from Ofsted states that good improvements have been made and that "senior staff and teachers have been successful in improving the overall quality of teaching".

Mr Ratherham said: "From talking to students, they want to see Headlands connected to positive things and this is the direction the school is heading in."

Parent Anita Hunt, whose two children attend the school, said their education had not suffered.

"They've had a positive input throughout their time at Headlands School and if I had my time again I still would send them to Headlands."