A FORMER boarding school in Dumbarton is to be included as part of a wide-ranging inquiry into child abuse.

Keil School is one of six boarding schools that will be put under the microscope during a four-year inquiry into possible historical child abuse.

The other boarding schools include Fettes College, Gordonstoun, Loretto School, Merchiston Castle School and Morrison’s Academy (when it was a boarding school).

Local authority establishments set to be investigated include: Clerwood Children’s Home, Edinburgh, Colonsay House, Perth, Nimmo Place Children’s Homes, Perth, St Margaret’s Children’s Home, Fife, Linwood Hall Children’s Home, Fife, Kerelaw Secure Unit, Glasgow, St Katherine’s Secure Unit, Edinburgh, Larchgrove Remand Home, Glasgow.

The inquiry will also look at institutions run by religious orders, including Benedictines, Sisters of Nazareth, Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, Christian Brothers, Sisters of our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, De la Salle Brothers, Marist Brothers and Church of Scotland (Crossreach).

The inquiry will be chaired by Rt Hon Lady Smith, who provided an update on the work of the independent Inquiry – and the progress it has made – at a preliminary hearing in Edinburgh.

Since last spring, the inquiry team has been taking witness statements from people who have been in touch to tell them about abuse – focusing on the elderly and infirm.

External expert research has also been commissioned to inform the Inquiry’s work.

The chairman revealed details of the investigations currently underway, confirming that over 60 residential care establishments for children are being investigated by Inquiry staff ahead of future public hearings.

These are among more than 100 locations that have been identified where abuse of children has been said to have taken place.

The public hearings will proceed in phases, with the first commencing on May 31.

And Lady Smith concluded the preliminary hearing by appealing to anyone who has relevant information, whether they have been abused themselves or know others who have, to contact the Inquiry via these methods:

l by post to: PO BOX 24085, Edinburgh, EH7 9EA

l by email to: talktous@childabuseinquiry.scot

l by telephone at Freephone 0800 0929 300.

After opening as a technical college in 1915 Keil School later became an independent school for boys, then became co-educational before closing in 2000.

In its heyday Keil School was an independent secondary school with boarding and day classes for around 200 pupils.

It was an all-boys school up until 1978, when it became co-educational.

In January last year The Reporter told how a housing developer planned to create 51 new homes at the historic site. Avant Homes, the new name for Bett Homes, lodged an application to convert the run down Helenslee House – the former school – into more than a dozen new flats.