Head of exclusive Edinburgh school admits 'dark times' experienced by BBC presenter Nicky Campbell and other former pupils who were abused are 'never leaving' the institution

A boss at an exclusive Edinburgh school says 'dark times' experienced by BBC presenter Nicky Campbell and other former pupils who were abused there are 'never leaving' the institution.

Samantha Byers, chief operating officer at Edinburgh Academy, said the school was 'light years' from what it was then and was 'very much about educate on it, rather than archive it' as it strives to ensure past horrors are never repeated.

The reaction of its current pupils to the historic abuse uncovered at the prestigious school, she added, was one of 'sheer shock' and 'horror'.

Her comments come weeks after it was revealed retired maths teacher Iain Wares, 85, was facing more than 100 allegations of abuse towards young boys at the school – as well as at Fettes College, where he taught in the 1960s and 1970s.

Mr Campbell, a pupil between 1966 and 1978 who suffered abuse from another teacher, compared Wares to Jimmy Savile at the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry.

Ahead of the school's 200th anniversary today, Ms Byers told The Scotsman newspaper that it was now 'light years on from what it was then'. But she stressed: 'The dark times that we've had, they are never leaving us.

'They are with us. They are part of our history. They are part of our present. They are part of our future.'

The school recently held a workshop after writer Philip Dundas, an abuse survivor, came up with a concept called Breaking the Silence.

Pupils created film, music, media, and writing as part of a creative response to the revelations, with transcripts taken from survivors.

A memorial garden area includes a plaque with an inscription that honours the survivors.

It reads: 'No longer ashamed, no longer afraid. You were not to blame.'

Ms Byers said: 'When we were speaking to some of the survivors, they didn't have anyone to talk to. We're in a completely different world.'

The school faced criticism earlier this year after posting photographs of pupils carrying wooden 'clacken' bats just a day after a former teacher was found to have abused students with them.

But Ms Byers said: 'The school is very much about educate on it, rather than archive it, so the rector has spoken to all the pupils and said what this was used for in this period and how wrong that was.'

The clacken are used for the game of Hailes, which has long been associated with the school.

Ms Byers said: 'The survivors came from the Breaking the Silence assembly and watched the game with us.

'I remember one saying 'this is not the school I knew, it's a completely different school'.

'It was an incredibly emotional day and I was really humbled to be part of it.'