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Avanti Gardens School Upsets Parents Skipping School Equipment

April 22, 2022 Chopsy Baby

‘Hundreds of pounds’ worth of equipment being dumped by a Fishponds school has upset parents and carers in Bristol this week.

Avanti Gardens School, which took over the former Steiner academy, has dumped tables, desks, chairs and books in a large skip.

A post on a Bristol Facebook community site sparked the row on social media after a post by a resident urged people to collect any items they might like by the end of Friday

The post said: ‘Avanti Gardens School (former steiner academy in Fishponds) are throwing all this furniture in the skip unless it gets collected by the end of the today).

‘It’s hundreds of pounds worth of good quality school furniture. If you know of anyone who might be interested please pass the message on. It would break my heart to see all this going to waste. Please contact Avanti School directly for details.’

The upset, which has spilled onto Twitter, has seen posters uploading photographs of skips being loaded with the furniture as well as books.

The situation was not helped by Avanti Schools Trust posting to Facebook with a celebration of Earth Day on social media, the same time photos of staff dumping hundreds of books into the skip were taken.

Avanti Gardens School skips furniture and books on Earth Day – all photos from Facebook

Twitter user Lindsay Berr, called the Trust out, Tweeting: ‘Apparently one way to celebrate Earth Day is to thrown hundreds of wooden desks and unused books straight into the skip, while ignoring parents’ desperate pleas to save and distribute them.’

An email that has been sent out today to families from school principal Ashley Milum – that we have seen – says the school is correcting ‘misinformation’ being circulated concerning the renovation of unused classroom space.

Milum says: ‘This Easter marks one year since the school first opened the building for parents to purchase our surplus furniture. We have in the past 4-5 months included in our bulletin that we are giving away the furniture for free to anyone that would be able to collect before the Easter break.

‘The few broken/rejected desks (between 10-20) have gone in the skip today as won’t be safely usable.

‘More than 100 have been re-homed just this weeks thanks to the PTA and other supportive families spreading the word (during the school holiday due to staff volunteering their time.’

Milum continues, saying: ”The school would much appreciate the full support of the parent body to ensure everyone is fully aware of the facts and efforts that have gone into recycling more than 200 pieces of furniture to families, other schools and charities.’

But parents who have contacted us directly dispute this is the case, with some saying they were not aware that the school was ‘dumping’ so much furniture as well as countless books.

Parents who have collected items since the initial Facebook post yesterday have said that there was nothing wrong with the furniture they have taken which was due to be skipped today.