{"id":46868,"date":"2026-05-21T19:16:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T18:16:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chopsybaby.com\/magazine\/?p=46868"},"modified":"2026-05-21T19:21:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T18:21:30","slug":"when-greed-takes-the-place-of-education-and-teaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chopsybaby.com\/magazine\/when-greed-takes-the-place-of-education-and-teaching\/","title":{"rendered":"When Greed Takes The Place Of Education And Teaching"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Millions in high needs funding goes to Melrose Education Limited, but is it actually going on staff and pupils?<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

GCSE season is a hugely stressful time for both the pupils taking the exams and the families supporting them. It should go as smoothly as possible, with plenty of time for revising subjects that have been taught at school over the last two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what happens when you find yourself teaching an entire GCSE curriculum the days before the exam because of educational failure? It’s quite horrendous. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How and why has this happened here? It’s where greed meets education. The place where business meets the high needs block. The investment cash cow at the expense of the education of a school’s pupils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have written about Belgrave School and Melrose before. Have things improved? No. GCSE season has been a disaster. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school has failed to have a consistent Geography teacher, particularly from the autumn of 2025 until GCSE exams this month. There have been around four, maybe five teachers in that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the start of the academic year, there was no Geography teacher. Then there was one for a while. Then that teacher left and again, there was no teacher. An LSM valiantly covered lessons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new Geography teacher that started recently immediately organised a Geography field trip for the 16 April 2026 – exactly four weeks before the first GCSE Geography paper. Things didn’t look good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After receiving a predicted Geography GCSE result at the end of March 2026 of just 2, I pulled my child out of the exam. It was an utter waste of revision time. They didn’t even know the vast majority of the curriculum. In fact, they dropped from a potential 3 just before Christmas to a 2 three months later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Predicted English Literature and English Language results were similarly dire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prediction was 3 for both of them. The academic year before this my child was doing really well under their former English teacher. They were a highly experienced and excellent teacher who motivated pupils and taught well. Again, another high quality member of staff gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Of all the years for a school to start flatlining for a pupil, GCSE year is the worst. It’s been an incredibly upsetting time seeing a child capable of the seven GCSE subjects they were supposed to be taking drop subject after subject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And how much did Bristol City Council pay Belgrave School in the academic year 2024\/25? \u00a31,082,898.88.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This money was under the former headteacher’s tenure, a member of the senior leadership who coincidentally arrived the same time as Melrose. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The results are not a reflection of their headship in any way. They have been very much missed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The results are the reflection of what happens when greed meets education. When high quality teachers are not offered a proper salary. When dishonest members of an education business<\/a> lie and cover up failings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I get the sense of a toxic atmosphere, not just for pupils but staff as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the winter, I asked local authorities bordering Bristol if they paid high needs funding to Belgrave School and if so, how much?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The way the different local authorities have logged the amount of money in calendar years vs academic years makes direct comparisons difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number of pupils on roll at Belgrave School in September 2025 was just 41.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They came from Bristol and the surrounding local authorities. It is likely that the vast majority of pupils will come from the Bristol area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If every single one of those pupils were funded by Bristol City Council, they would be getting over \u00a326,000 in funding each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the pupils at the school come from different local authorities, with the funding per individual pupil likely to be far higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I asked Bristol City Council, Bath and North East Somerset Council, North Somerset Council, South Gloucestershire Council and Wiltshire Council how much they were paying in Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (Send) high needs funding between the academic years 2020\/21 to 2024\/25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I did this as a comparison to see how much money was being paid by local authorities both before and after September 2023 when Melrose Education Limited bought the school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is clear is that in the years 2024 and 2025, Melrose Education Limited received a minimum of \u00a31.6m for around 41 children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This works out at over \u00a338,000 per pupil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this amount of money, you would think that the school would attract and retain high quality teaching staff? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact the vacant headteacher’s job had to be advertised twice from the summer of 2024 indicates that the school was paying nowhere near enough for high quality staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The suspiciously high number of staff members that have left and even walked out during the day indicates that things are not being handled well by Melrose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bristol City Council<\/strong> payments to Belgrave School from the academic years 2020\/21 – 2024\/25<\/p>\n\n\n\n

20-21: \u00a3396,821.62
21-22: \u00a3525,242.92
22-23: \u00a3652,472.91
23-24: \u00a3867,732.18
24-25: \u00a31,082,898.88<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The jump in funding from Bristol City Council is quite significant by the end of July 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n