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The founding principal of a prestigious London school’s Singapore offshoot is to step down, a move that comes after an FT investigation detailed allegations of bullying by some of its senior leaders, safeguarding lapses and health and safety breaches.
The announcement of the departure of Paul Friend, who helped set up the Singapore arm of North London Collegiate School in 2020, follows the exit in December of the chief executive of NLCS International, which manages the parent school’s overseas operations.
Friend would adopt a “transition role” from next week to support an “orderly and professional handover”, the school said in a memo to parents on Tuesday.
“We are grateful to Paul, for his very significant contribution to the establishment and development of the School, a school of which he is rightly very proud,” the memo said.
The FT investigation, published in December, detailed allegations of a toxic working culture at the school, including claims of bullying and misogyny by some senior leaders and alleged lapses in safeguarding and health and safety that staff said put them and students at risk.
NLCS International has said it does not recognise the characterisation of the school in the December article and that the allegations presented “a false, misleading, inaccurate and distorted picture”.
The LinkedIn profile of Ian Callender shows his tenure as chief executive of NLCS International ended in December. Callender resigned as a director of several NLCS entities in the same month.
Gwen Byrom, head of educational strategy at NLCS International, who oversaw the inspections of schools in its overseas network, announced on her LinkedIn profile this month that she was “moving on to pastures new” at the end of the academic year.
Five former staff told the FT as part of its December investigation that they had flagged concerns about practices at the school directly to Byrom, but that little was done in response. The school said it always examined formally reported concerns seriously.
Friend said in a letter sent separately to parents that he would move to a “broader advisory capacity within the group” from August, and that the school was “ready for its next chapter under its established leadership”. The principal also praised the “exceptional professionalism, dedication, and moral seriousness of our teachers and support staff”.
One parent of a student at the school said he was not reassured by the leadership overhaul. “This announcement is too little, too late and provides no genuine comfort,” the parent said.
The memo to parents said the Singapore school — which last month ditched plans to expand within the city-state — would now be run by the two principals of its senior and junior schools.
“There will be no change to the School’s academic direction, standards or ethos, and our focus remains, as ever, on the education and wellbeing of our students,” the memo said.
Callender, Byrom and Friend did not respond to a request for comment. NLCS (Singapore) declined to comment.
Meraki, a Dubai-based property company with an education arm that co-invested in the Singapore school, did not respond to a request for comment.
NLCS International said: “As planned, Paul Friend is moving from the day-to-day leadership of the school into a broader advisory role with Meraki Education.”
Callender and Byrom had announced their moves internally last year before the FT investigation, it said.
