Coventry's Stoke Park School has 112 CCTV cameras...

Pupils at Coventry's Stoke Park School are being watched by an astonishing 112 CCTV cameras, the Telegraph can reveal.



Stoke Park School & Community Technology College, in Dane Road, has 79 security cameras inside its buildings and 33 outside. The startling statistic has led to accusations of “over the top snooping”.

It is easily the most-watched school in the city – with more than three times the number of cameras of the next highest.

The school says the cameras are needed to keep pupils safe.

But a teachers’ union and a national campaign group have criticised the figures.

None of the other secondary schools which responded to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Telegraph had anything like that number – with Whitley Abbey Community School and Woodlands School & Sports College the closest with just 34 cameras.

There are 1,090 pupils at Stoke Park – roughly one camera for every 10 pupils.

Daniel Hamilton, from Big Brother Watch, said: “Any right-thinking person would conclude that Stoke Park’s snooping is completely over the top.

“Wouldn’t the school be better off spending the money on educating their pupils, rather than spying on them?”

“CCTV should be used sparingly to help solve serious crimes, not to watch school children going about their day.”

The Telegraph asked all 19 secondary schools in Coventry how many cameras they operated on site and nine responded.

The first to install CCTV was Blue Coat Church of England School and Music College, on Terry Road.

They have the fewest number of cameras – just 11 – 10 of which are placed outside.

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