Expulsion row hits ex-Ofsted chief Sir Chris Woodhead's schools empire

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/oct/28/woodhead-private-school-expulsions

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The former head of Ofsted, Sir Chris Woodhead, is facing fresh questions over his private school empire after one of his headmasters improperly expelled a brother and sister after their parents criticised the parents' association's handling of finances.

A court heard that Milbourne Lodge, a popular feeder school to Eton formed 100 years ago but taken over by Cognita in 2007, removed the children, aged eight and six, without warning.

The £13,000-a-year school told Guildford county court that the headmaster, Stephen Illett, had acted because the pupils' parents were being divisive by publicly criticising the Friends of Milbourne Lodge over a lack of transparency in its fundraising and spending.

However, Judge Robert Reid QC said that the parents' association was "somewhat shadowy" and a "shambles". He added that the school in Esher, Surrey, had acted unfairly in removing the children of Devinder Buttar and Ajesh Dhawan, both 45, and ordered the school to pay their legal costs.

Woodhead told the <em>Observer</em> that his company had taken legal advice on the expulsions but now had to "put our hands up". He added: "We got it wrong."

The court case is just the latest embarrassment for Woodhead and will raise fresh concerns over the running of his private school empire.

Last year this newspaper revealed how another of Cognita's schools, Southbank International, had been criticised by parents for "milking profits" at the expense of children's education. They accused Cognita, the country's largest owner of independent schools with a turnover of £150m, of turning the London school into a "money-making machine".

The claims by the Southbank International parents have been denied by Cognita.

This summer it also emerged that Woodhead's firm was under investigation by the Department for Education over claims it had misused the state-run pension scheme for teachers.

The <em>Observer</em> revealed that officials had received allegations of impropriety from a former senior executive at Cognita, which manages more than 50 fee-paying schools across the country. The whistleblower, who had been dismissed by Cognita, had claimed that in order to lure high-achieving staff the company had filed paperwork to ensure that headteachers at schools not eligible to benefit from the Teachers Pensions Scheme (TPS) were registered as working in schools that are covered. An education department spokesman said that after working with the firm they were "now satisfied that the scheme rules are now being correctly applied".

Buttar and Dhawan declined to comment on their case but details emerged when they applied to Guildford county court for an injunction to force the school to reinstate their children when they were expelled in September.

The school said it felt forced to remove the children because the couple had risked splitting parents at the school by launching a campaign for greater transparency by the Friends of Milbourne Lodge, including filing a high court claim demanding the parents running the organisation turn it into a charity or open up its accounts.

However, the court heard that the headmaster had acted improperly in not giving a warning and the judge made scathing comments about the parents' association. Reid said: "It is extremely surprising not to have given some form of warning, given that everybody asserts that they are primarily concerned about the children." He added: "I am surprised that an apparently 100-year-old school has got such a shambles by way of a parents' association. I would have thought that everybody these days had at least a proper constitution of their parents' association."

The school readmitted the children following prompting by the judge. Reid told the court at a second hearing after the school's rethink: "It seems to me the school has now climbed down, and quite rightly climbed down. The headmaster acted improperly."

Janna Kremen, 45, who assisted the couple in their legal case as a McKenzie Friend advising on the litigation, said she was concerned by the school's decision to back the parents' association against the couple. She said: "I had my children at the school for 11 years and I have my concerns over the parents' association. I do not know why the headmaster would back this organisation against these parents. The spending by the Friends of Millbourne Lodge needs to be transparent. Lots of money has been raised, but the school still doesn't even have a library. I can't understand it."

Woodhead said the activities of the parents' association and its legal status were a matter for that body and not the school. He said the school had given the two parents the option of an appeal.