A senior staff member at an independent school for children with special educational needs has been recorded by BBC Panorama saying how he wanted to drown a pupil in a bath “like a kitten”.

An undercover reporter spent almost seven weeks at Life Wirral in Wallasey and witnessed staff using offensive language to mock pupils for their neurodiversity or learning disabilities, as well as manhandling them into dangerous headlocks.

Last year, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council paid the school nearly £1m. Whistleblowers told Panorama abuse was still happening there 12 months after the council was warned of problems.

The school’s CEO, Alastair Saverimutto says he “does not condone the behaviour revealed by the programme and five members of staff have been suspended”.

Places at the school – for secondary school age children – cost between £50,000 and £150,000 a year per child, depending on the support they need.

Wirral council has paid out more than £2.2m in total since the school opened in 2021. Ofsted has rated the school “good”.

Warning: This report contains offensive language

During her time undercover, Panorama reporter Sasha Hinde did work experience with sports staff at the school.

She saw some staff trying to do their best for pupils, but for the most part witnessed children being treated cruelly by the adults charged with taking care of them.

In the recorded conversation with head of operations Paul Hamill, he laughs and tells her the child he had fantasised about killing had overheard his comments.

“Just the thought of squeezing him while he’s scratching me arms, trying to wriggle out,” he recalled saying.