This head claimed austerity forced her to clean toilets. Now she’s got a £10k pay rise – to £125k!
SHE claimed her school was so hard up because of cash cuts that she had to clean the toilets herself.
But now it has emerged that head teacher Siobhan Lowe pocketed a £10,000 pay rise amid what she said was a financial crisis caused by Tory ‘austerity’.
Mrs Lowe, 57, claimed this month that a shortage of Government funds left her doing menial tasks at Tolworth Girls’ School in southwest London as she cannot afford to pay cleaners.
But analysis of the school’s accounts revealed that she got a pay hike of at least £10,000 this year, with her salary now between £125,000 and £130,000.
It also emerged that her cleaning budget nearly doubled from £30,000 to £57,000 in the year 2017-18.
She had told BBC Radio 4 her school was facing ‘ a phenomenal amount of cuts’, insisting: ‘I’ve personally cleaned the school, washed the toilets, as a headteacher.
‘My girls look at me and feel so sorry for me they actually pick up the Hoover and do it with me.
‘I’ve cleaned doors, I’ve served in the school canteen.’
The interview was used by Laboursupporting activists to accuse the Government of a ‘funding crisis’.
However, critics accused the BBC of spreading ‘Cobynista’ propaganda by airing her claims.
Tory MP Nigel Evans said: ‘It does seem as if the BBC are being spoonfed selective information and not presenting the full truth.
‘It is damaging the reputation and influence of the BBC when they become a propaganda tool of any particular stance. They really need now to have an investigation into how this happened.’
Mrs Lowe is among a number of headteachers who appear to have exaggerated the extent of their financial woes. Stuart Pywell, head of St Stephen’s Junior School in Canterbury, Kent, also got a pay rise this year despite claiming the school was struggling for money.
Annual accounts show his pay jumped by at least £5,000, from the band of £ 105,000-£ 110,000 to £115,000-£120,000. In addition, the number of staff rose from 96 to 99 – including one extra management position. The accounts also show £2,400 was paid to Mr Pywell’s wife Sally for ‘HR consultancy’ – up from £1,200 the previous year.
Earlier this month, Mr Pywell wrote to parents on the school website claiming it was facing ‘cuts’ and the most disadvantaged pupils would ‘bear the brunt’.
He urged mothers and fathers to lobby their local MP on the issue, as ‘the current levels of funding are inadequate’. He also appeared on BBC Radio Kent to repeat his claims. The row came amid a national campaign by a group of 7,000 heads calling themselves WorthLess? who claim the Government is starving schools of cash. They claim to be non-political, but were accused of trying to influence voters by sending letters to parents in the run-up to the last 2017 election.
Some commentators even credited them with contributing to Theresa May losing her Commons majority. Mrs Lowe and Mr Pywell did not respond to Daily Mail requests for comment.
However, Mrs Lowe told The Sun the increased cash for cleaning and her salary were linked to an increase in the size of the school.
She said: ‘The pupil population of the school has increased significantly and the school estate has increased significantly since 2017.’
A BBC spokesman said: ‘In the interview Siobhan asserted she had cleaned the school toilets herself. She was questioned on this a number of times and pressed on whether there really is a cash shortage, which she strongly argued there is. We are confident this interview complies with our editorial guidelines.’
‘Exaggerate financial woes’