the Governors had heard of the complaints. The program reported that there had been complaints about punishment regimes in 1983 and that meetings had been held with parents which Boddy himself attended. The report also stated that "there has been a real change in the ethos and conduct of the schools is established by the evidence of those witnesses, not naturally well disposed towards the SES, who speak of them as happy places where there appears to be a relaxed atmosphere between pupils and teachers" In December 2020 a BBC News report stated that "nearly £1m in compensation had been paid to dozens of former students at St James and St Vedast schools following historical allegations of abuse". Following the legal action, which was launched against the school in 2016, the BBC reported "45 former students who attended the schools between 1975 and 1992 had so far received payments of up to £30,000 each. All of the cases were settled without an admission of liability and did not come before court". Legal claims were led by specialist abuse compensation solicitor Malcolm Johnson, of Hudgell Solicitors, in a scheme set to close on 31 January 2021. One of the recipients of the compensation stated: "I still have not had an apology and I do not believe there is any real remorse on their part, but I don’t believe that we ever would have got this far without Malcolm’s involvement. They’ve not admitted being liable for what happened, despite paying damages to so many, so I feel it has still been done with contempt after all this time." The Plato School The Plato children’s school in Amsterdam was founded by the Dutch branch of SES, with close links to the UK St James Schools. It was subject to Dutch Police investigations in 1996 and 2000 into incidents of illegal physical punishments and mistreatment of children. The headteacher of the school was prosecuted and found guilty of assault. The school closed in 2002 after the second police investigation and around the time of a permanent split within the SES in the Netherlands. Interviews with former pupils Actress Emily Watson attended St. James, where in a 2020 Times interview she says she witnessed "incidents of extreme cruelty that I know have been very scarring for people going forward in their lives”. In 2009 actress and former St James pupil Clara Salaman published Shame On