Open meeting to probe sudden departure of £270k head from school in Rugby

Janet Downs's picture
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An open meeting will be held on 20 June in Rugby, Warwickshire, to probe the sudden departure of Lois Reed, head of Ashlawn School, a bilateral secondary school in the town, after her £270k salary became national news.

The meeting has been arranged by the National Education Union (NUT section) to discuss ‘current uncertainties at Ashlawn…against a background of questions about school funding in general and education as a whole.’

Kiri Tunks, Vice President of NUT, will contribute to the meeting.  The Regional Schools Commissioner Christine Quinn, Rugby’s MP Mark Pawsey and representatives of the Transforming Lives Educational Trust (TLET) have been invited but are yet to respond.

As well as being Ashlawn’s head, Mrs Reed was accounting officer for TLET.  The Trust runs two schools: Ashlawn and Henry Hinde infant school.  According to TLET accounts for year ending 31 August 2018, TLET was ‘continuing to work closely with the DfE to identify and secure a site’ for Ashlawn Free School, a secondary free school currently in the pipeline.

A union spokesperson told the Rugby Advertiser that Mrs Reed’s sudden departure: ‘apparently without any prior warning, sent shock waves through the Warwickshire school community and beyond as the school becomes just one more troubled trust statistic of confusion in the national academy landscape.’

News of the meeting comes a week after Warwickshire County Council’s Regulatory Committee put off making a decision to allow construction to begin on a new special education needs free school and permanent buildings for Rugby Free Secondary School.    There had been considerable opposition to ‘key details in the plans’ by Rugby Borough Council’s environmental health officers, the local authority’s highways team, a campaign group and more than 50 locals.  This is not new - the plan had been described as ‘utter madness’ over two years ago.  

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