OVER £1MILLION SPENT TO CHANGE STATUS OF ASHBURTON TO AN ACADEMY

04.08.09

Press Release immediate:

OVER £1MILLION SPENT TO CHANGE STATUS OF ASHBURTON TO AN ACADEMY.

Croydon Save Our Schools have obtained under the Freedom of Information Act the interim costs of changing the Ashburton schools into an academy. (1). These include the feasibility of the proposal, legal and consultative related tasks plus project management fees. The bill presently stands at £1,058,899.

This follows the earlier revelation that the bill for changing Haling Manor’s status to Academy is presently running at £981,666. The true cost may well exceed this figure.

Commenting on this latest disclosure, Shasha Khan (2) said:

“Tax payers need to be aware that over £2million of DCSF (3) money has already been spent on changing the status of these schools and we’re still waiting for Croydon Council’s own expenditure. There has always been a feeling that the driver behind the Academies programme is the privatisation of community schools at whatever cost.

“It’s awful to think that this money could have been spent on classroom support assistants, extra learning mentors, Saturday homework clubs and the like. The councils’ mantra was that that these schools were failing but little consideration was given to the pupils that went to these schools with special education needs. £1 million would have gone a long way in giving the necessary support.”


Ends

1) A copy of the disclosure letter is available on request.
2) Shasha Khan is a co founder of Croydon Save Our Schools and Green Party Parliamentary candidate for Croydon North
3) Department of Children, Schools and Families. This money doesn’t even consider DSCF staff costs.


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Tags croydon, greenparty