Questions · Winchester
What did Winchester’s historical safeguarding review find?
The findings, the institution’s response and later review activity are distinct parts of the record. This account concerns historical abuse and institutional accountability.
Covers: A brief account of the Winchester review published on 18 January 2022, its separately dated assessment of arrangements in 2021, and subsequent Church of England publications through June 2026. Sources checked on 21 September 2026. Linked reviews contain accounts of child abuse.
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The answer
The independent review published by Winchester in January 2022 found failures in the protection of pupils from John Smyth and in the school’s response to disclosure in 1982. The College apologised. Those documented findings belong in institutional history; academic results cannot answer the questions they raise.
What the Winchester review found
Jan Pickles and Genevieve Woods reviewed the abuse of pupils and former pupils by John Smyth. Their January 2022 report describes failures to control his access, share and record concerns, and respond to disclosures. Its conclusions state that staff who knew of the abuse did not report it to the police and that victims were not adequately informed or supported at the time.
The report’s remit concerned Winchester College. Its findings should be read with that scope and with the underlying testimony, documents and stated gaps in the surviving record. It is an independent review’s account, not a comparison of safeguarding outcomes across schools.
The response and the inspection have their own dates
In its statement of 18 January 2022, Winchester’s Warden and Fellows apologised unreservedly for the College’s part in the victims’ experiences and published the review. The statement and the independent report are separate sources: the former records the institution’s response; the latter sets out the reviewers’ findings.
The report also describes a remote assessment of the school’s arrangements in February 2021. The reviewers found substantial changes and urged continuing scrutiny. That assessment concerns the arrangements examined then. It cannot serve as a present-day guarantee, and it does not undo or diminish the historical findings.
Winchester Warden and Fellows: publication statement and apology, 18 January 2022
Later publications extend a different part of the record
On 7 November 2024, the Church of England published the Makin Review into its handling of allegations concerning Smyth. Its institutional remit extends beyond the Winchester review. The two publications should retain their own authorship, scope and dates.
The Church’s update of 23 June 2026 describes its response to the Makin recommendations. It reports progress and also identifies recommendations still being implemented. This is an institutional implementation account, not evidence that every recommended action is complete, and it should not be presented as a new inspection of Winchester.
Church of England: publication of the Makin Review, 7 November 2024
Church of England: report on the response to Makin recommendations, 23 June 2026
What to investigate next
Historical accountability asks what happened, what was known and how an institution responded. A present-day enquiry asks what arrangements operate now, how concerns are heard and escalated, and what independent scrutiny has examined their operation. Keep those questions connected while preserving the dates and limits of each answer.
Winchester’s current safeguarding page provides its published policies and reporting contacts. Read that alongside relevant independent inspection material and dated responses to recommendations. Academic success, a school’s reputation, the existence of a policy, and the absence of a record on this site don’t show that a pupil is safe.
The original review provides the context for its findings. The College’s review-publication statement also links to organisations supporting people affected by abuse.
Winchester: current safeguarding policies and reporting information
Winchester Warden and Fellows: publication statement and apology, 18 January 2022
Where these figures come from
Original publications consulted
- Pickles and Woods: Review into the abuse by John Smyth of pupils and former pupils of Winchester College, January 2022 — opening letter and conclusions (PDF) · consulted 2026-09-21
- Winchester Warden and Fellows: publication statement and apology, 18 January 2022 · consulted 2026-09-21
- Church of England: publication of the Makin Review, 7 November 2024 · consulted 2026-09-21
- Church of England: report on the response to Makin recommendations, 23 June 2026 · consulted 2026-09-21
- Winchester: current safeguarding policies and reporting information · consulted 2026-09-21
- This is a scoped institutional-history account, not a complete chronology of the case or an investigation into current allegations.
- The 2021 assessment, 2022 Winchester response, 2024 Church review and 2026 Church update concern different dates and institutional responsibilities.
- No current safety rating, cross-school comparison or conclusion about academic performance is derived from these sources.
About this answer
Editorial interpretation by The Schools Record. The research material below informed the questions; source passages consulted for this explanation are identified above.
- Journalistic accounts of John Smyth and Winchester’s response, in the supplied research collection · pages 1–11 and 45–49 prompted the question; this account is supported by the original publications above
Reviewed for this edition on . This is an interpretation of the cited evidence, not a new check of every original historical publication.
Read corrections and unresolved publication differencesWhere next
What would you like to understand next?
Read the original Winchester review (PDF)
Read Winchester’s current safeguarding information
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