Academy chain has to pay back money for unfilled pupil places
ABIRMINGHAM chain of schools collapsed owing the government almost £500,000 which it was repaying for unfilled pupil places.
Department for Education figures revealed that three schools in the Perry Beeches academy owed £480,000 to the Education and Skills Funding Agency.
The Times Educational Supplement (TES), which revealed the debt, said the schools had over-estimated how many pupils they would be able to attract.
Perry Beeches II, based in the Jewellery Quarter, owed almost £100,000, Perry Beeches III, in Lee Bank, owed £245,000 and Perry Beeches V, in Small Heath, a sum of £130,000.
The TES said the three schools were among 14 across the UK in 2016/17 involved in recovery plans to pay back the money.
The Perry Beeches Trust, which ran five secondary schools, collapsed in 2016, when it was revealed it paid its chief executive Liam Nolan a second salary of £160,000 on top of his £120,000 headteacher’s salary.
The chain had previously been hailed by the then government as a flagship for its academy and free school programme and was visited by Prime Minister David Cameron when he was in office.
All five schools have now been taken on by other trusts.
Mr Nolan was last summer appointed as consultant to the Gorse Academy chain in Leeds but has since left. No comment was available from the DfE.
Last week, the Perry Beeches Academy Trust announced all five schools would be taken on by two new sponsors, Core and Ark, from March 1.
Perry Beeches The Academy, Perry Beeches I, Perry Beeches II, Perry Beeches III and Perry Beeches IV will join Core Education Trust, with Perry Beeches V joining Ark.
The transitions March 1 this year.
The four schools joining Core have already been renamed and are now called Arena Academy, City Academy, City Academy Birmingham and Jewellery Quarter Academy.
Perry Beeches V Victoria Academy. will take place on the will be renamed Ark