We urge all parents at St Vincent’s to read this:

The letter below was sent to those listed by members of the community of St Vincent’s in Acton, after every other avenue had been tried and exhausted.

The letter was sent, together with an appendix cataloguing a series of events that have occurred since Mrs Cleugh arrived at our school. A second appendix catalogued a similar story at St Mary's in Hillingdon

It is incredible that we have had to go to such lengths in order to have our voice heard to stop the disastrous chronicle of events that have affected so many of us.

The St Vincent's appendix will be posted on the blog this weekend.

Please come back to the site over the next few days, several other things are happening that may be of interest








Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor
Bishop Stack, Chair of the Diocesan Education Committee
Paul Barber, Director of Education, Diocesan Schools Commissioner
Ann Blyth, Chair of Governors, St Vincent’s Acton
Governing Body of St Vincent’s Acton

cc Rachel Black, Director of Education, Ealing LEA
cc Andrew Slaughter, MP for Ealing, Acton and Shepherd’s Bush
cc John Randall, MP for Uxbridge

Monday 25th June 2007



Your Eminence, Your Grace, Sirs and Ladies,

This letter is sent to you all, more in sorrow than in anger.

We are members of the Community of St Vincent’s School in Acton, which comprises current parents, former parents, former governors, former teachers and administrative staff, parishioners of Our Lady of Lourdes and Holy Family. In addition we are in contact with members of the Communities of St Mary’s in Hillingdon and of St Joseph’s Upton in the Wirral.

This letter concerns Mrs Christina Cleugh, currently Head Teacher of St Vincent’s Primary School, Acton, and formerly of St Mary’s and of St Joseph’s Schools.

You all, each of you in your various capacities and responsibilities for the schools, have been informed of a catalogue of complaints made by parents and staff about Mrs Cleugh over the years. Her serious, seemingly compulsive, bullying behaviour, has caused grave concern in all three of the schools where she has been Head. Your expressions of concern though, have never been followed up by any significant action. We are saddened that you have ignored letter upon letter, you have ignored meetings with parents and even Members of Parliament, all of which sought to draw your attention to the behaviour of Mrs. Cleugh. We feel betrayed not only as parents of our children, but also as members of the Catholic Community. We have nowhere else to turn.

You probably have little idea just how widespread the concern about Mrs. Cleugh is, within all three school communities. This is because, in each case, resigning teachers dared not speak out for fear of ruining their prospects of further employment, parents were unwilling to identify themselves for fear of reprisals on their children, and others are naively trusting that those of you in positions of authority would "do something". The complaints and concerns that you have received are only the tip of the iceberg.

We have decided with much regret that the only option we have left is to make our case public.


It is in the urgent case of St Vincent’s that we insist on immediate action. By July 2007, 18 months into the leadership of Mrs Cleugh, around 30 members of paid staff will have left the school (July 2006, December 2006 and July 2007).

We insist on the immediate suspension of Mrs Cleugh, based on the catalogue of complaints.

Because of the appointment of Acting Head Mrs Gill Bosschaert in the Autumn term, to cover for Mrs Cleugh’s recuperation period, the school will have senior leadership in place.

We also ask that that the Governors of St Vincent’s seriously consider their position, given their collective failure to address this issue.

Finally we request that all applicants to positions of Headship and Deputy Headship within the Diocese of Westminster undertake standard psychometric assessments and a more rigorous reference checking system is put in place, to ensure such bullying behaviour as that of Mrs Christina Cleugh is never inflicted on a Catholic school community again.

Please reply by Friday 13th July to PO Box ----------------

We are sending this letter to all Governors directly, as there is a history of letters addressed to the Chair of Governors not being fully circulated, thus leaving them in a state of ignorance.

The Appendix contains the main catalogue of complaints made against Mrs Cleugh, most of which you should be familiar with. It makes stunning reading.

Yours in Christian Fellowship,





Very concerned members of the Community of St Vincent’s School.