Belgrave School Education Company Owners Doubles Take From The LA

• What’s happened
• How many millions is Melrose raking in from Bristol City Council

Bristol City Council has been working to bring children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (Send) back into Bristol from other local authorities, particularly those who attend independent settings.

Initially, it feels like a harsh cost cutting exercise targeting children who have already been through a difficult journey to get their placement.

But, there is a murky world of money grabbing from high needs budgets by businesses.

This piece is very much a personal one, written as a parent having the misfortune of seeing a mess in GCSE year.

Having been through an Educational Health Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA) in 2018 which led to an EHCP 50 weeks later, we ultimately managed to get a place in an independent specialist school for children with Dyslexia and associated conditions.

Belgrave School, which opened in the early 90s, was a very personal project for Pat Jones. Her son had struggled with dyslexia. Having supported him with methods she devised which saw him eventually move back into mainstream education, she took her knowledge and set up centres – eventually culminating in the school – to help other children and young people.

Places at the school were initially funded by families then local authorities with Send funding.

It operated a waiting list, but students were never taken by numbered order. They were given places based on the dynamics of each class.

We were unsuccessful on our first attempt at getting in but made it on our second. It was an approach that made complete sense to me. There was no point in sending a child to a placement which might not work out.

Belgrave School was a wonderful place. It was supportive. Like an extended family. I am hugely thankful to the first head of the school and the first teacher my child encountered for having such a huge and positive impact on our lives.

Unfortunately, this was to change. There was an initial wobble when the long-term head took retirement.

But things were to become even worse.

On 04 September 2023, families received the truly gutting news that founder and school owner Pat Jones was finally retiring. The school had been sold to Melrose Educational Group.

A new headteacher had been recruited before Pat Jones left and started at the same time as the take-over.

I won’t be mentioning any staff at all, other than to say that ‘new headteacher’ who is no longer at Belgrave School has been very, very much missed by us.

Things at Belgrave School have gone hideously downhill at a rapid rate. Three key members of staff left before the end of the summer term. After that, for us, it’s been a hot mess.

I’ve always been very light touch with the school because I was able to trust them to get on with what they did.

But Melrose took everything that was great about Belgrave School and trashed it.

An Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) visit culminated in a glowing review for the school this month. That was a mistake, because the unfeasibly perfect result would likely be unachievable for any school.

One of my biggest bones of contention – which grew into a full skeleton – was my child not accessing maths lessons. Many hours were being spent outside of the classroom completely unable to access maths. This is not accessing quality teaching or a qualified maths teacher.

In fact, my child stopped going into school. My child has a history of barriers to education causing attendance issues. I have in fact told previous SendCos that my child has Send that makes her vote with her feet. If she’s happy, she’s in school. If something’s wrong, she’s not. And right now, she is very much not in school.

At the end of the academic year 2024/25, I called an emergency Annual Review. I also reported safeguarding concerns I had to Bristol City Council. And I asked for the council’s team which specialises in bringing children from independent settings out of Bristol for advice. We were potentially looking for a new setting. Ironically back in mainstream.

A move was unfortunately complicated by the fact that this academic year is GCSE year. But there is an EHCP, one would continue to hope it was of use…

It is absolutely gutting that having had such as positive experience with the school that Pat Jones set up that in the final year, it’s all gone to hell.

One thing to say – and this is indeed a rare thing – is that Bristol City Council have been really quite helpful. The Send team who supported in the emergency Annual Review have been helpful. And I was incredibly surprised at how good the team bringing children back into Bristol settings was. I was worried there would be a pressure to move once they were engaged. This didn’t happen. They came up with a range of paths that my child could take from September 2025. I was very grateful for their advice.

As issues continued into the new academic year I had a meeting with the school. The very first item on the agenda for Melrose, because this is Melrose led not Belgrave School led, is that Tracey Storey does not like me talking about Tracey Storey or Melrose Education Limited. The strong preference is that the company continues to rake in millions of high need funding across the country with no scrutiny.

Big mistake trying that in Bristol.

So what of this Melrose?

Melrose Education Limited is a company which aims to provide ‘transformative opportunities’ for young people. It says it is committed to ‘supporting and funding’ its schools to make sure that its ‘learning environment is built on the values of mutual respect, positivity, and fairness.’

Tracey Storey is the Executive chair, CEO and Founder, with the Private Limited Company incorporated on 11 August 2021.

Melrose Education Limited went on a swift shopping spree. Belgrave School was acquired just two years after the company launched.

The home page can be seen continually searching for more property to acquire. Many local authorities are in a tight spot for Send places, so it’s a big cash cow in education.

Since the start, Melrose Education Limited has made no secret that money making is at the heart of its motivation.

The Melrose Education Limited Report and Unaudited Financial Statements For The Year Ended 31 August 2024 on Companies House, show a loss of £32,403 that year and £1,975,308 in 2003. The loss comes from ‘administration expenses and interest charges resulting from the company’s activities as an intermediate holding company within the Melrose Group.’ The directors are said to be ‘satisfied’ with the business progress throughout the year.

Under Principal Risks and Uncertainty, it says: ‘The group’s turnover is derived from publicly funded Local Authorities. Whilst the group expects continued reliance on the ability and willingness of these bodies to pay for the specialist education services to the children in school, there is a risk that with budget constraints or allocation of resources to alternate areas of public funding, could cause such bodies to allocate less money to the provision of these services.’

With Bristol City Council and indeed the Labour government looking to reduced Send spend by pushing inclusion in mainstream, the bubble will burst at some point.

I asked Bristol City Council how much it was paying Melrose Education Limited each year.

Bristol City Council said: ‘Melrose is a Trust comprising several schools. During the period specified, the only school within the Melrose Trust that received payments from Bristol City Council relating to funding was Belgrave School.

‘The table below summarises payments made for provision from September 2020 onwards. Please note that Belgrave School became part of the Melrose Trust in September 2023, which is highlighted in green in the original data.’

Whilst the cost of school budgets are under pressure, the sheer amount of money the company is getting from Bristol City Council has soared from £652,472.91 the year before Melrose acquired it to a staggering £1,082,898.88.

Unfortunately, as the amount of money has increased, the school experience has decreased.

The school has been without a head since the end of the summer term. Melrose were forced to advertised for a replacement more than once. It is currently being run by an interim head from another Melrose school.

Melrose are hoping to have someone in place in January 2026. As when all new heads starts at a school, there is always an element of change and upheaval. No matter as it seems unlikely the maths intervention will happen any time soon.

Beware if Melrose Education Ltd look to buy your school. They did this to our wonderful school in Bristol and they trashed it.

Home: https://backstagebristol.com/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/chopsybristol.bsky.social
TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@chopsybristoltt
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/backstagebristol
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/chopsybaby