By Gavin Mackintosh-
Durand Academy has written off £1.6 million from a failed boarding school project.
The Durand Academy Trust was forced to write off assets worth more than £1.6 million from its failed boarding free school project.
The revelation comes as the 2017-18 academic year show the trust wrote off some leasehold improvements and fixtures and fittings” at its satellite boarding school in Sussex, with a net value of £1,656,323.The parliamentary public accounts committee heard in November that most of the profits made by leisure facilities on the site is still being paid to former head, Sir Greg Martin. Although Martin quit in 2015, he remains entitled to an £850,000 “special payment” under an agreement with the Charity Commission.
Accounts show Durand paid out £92,117 in redundancy payments in 2017-18, after the school dropped the number of teachers from 56 to 36. The trust had paid out £215,483 in the previous year of 2016-17
AD: Capeesh Restaurant
The trust had its funding withdrawn by the government last year, following a long-running dispute over its finances, and allegations of conflicts of interest over the running of commercial leisure facilities. Durand Academy in Lambeth, pictured, the trust’s only school, was re-brokered to a new sponsor in the summer.
Durand’s bosses today blamed the Department for Education for failing to deliver on a £17 million in promise of funding to help support its boarding school project. The Academy repeatedly failed to secure planning permission to develop a site on Durand Lambeth’s platform, leading to the Department of Education withdrawing its funding offer. The boarding school closed in September 2017. Durand’s accounts also show that the trust were forced to pay legal costs of £209,153 to Ofsted after the inspectorate won an appeal against a decision by the High Court to quash a report which had found the Durand Academy to be ‘inadequate’.
The trust also paid out £331,482 in legal and professional fees last year. Ofsted’s report was finally published on December 21- over two years after inspectors visited. The report revealed that provisions for the protection of pupils at the boarding school, their experiences and progress and the impact and effectiveness of leaders and managers at the institution were found to be ‘inadequate’.
AD: Oysterian Sea Food Restaurant And Bar
Durand Academy reopened as Van Gogh Primary School in September, under the stewardship of the Dunraven Educational Trust. However, there is still uncertainty over the future of parts of the school’s site, which, like the boarding school, are still owned by Durand Education Trust, a separate company set up by the school’s former leaders.
AD: Heritage And Restaurant Lounge Bar