Yes it is pretty nauseous! Ch come with money allocated per head, some often in the most deprived areas come with lots of money! (Pupil premium)...Yes there is an illusion of transparency-excel spreadsheets briefly put under the noses of staff in meetings (when you don't actually see totals of budgets/expenditure anyway and quite frankly we're not accountants!) But there is no doubt children are being used by greedy, megalomaniacs to make money. Further, they get away with it as they distract attention to 'failing teachers' (expensive & experienced) who apparently need constant monitoring and then are more or less kicked out...Meanwhile stressed desperate and naive NQT question nothing and just want to keep their hands down.
They say 'interventions' have been put in place for certain children for progress to be made ('this is where we spend pupil premium money') but this is done by already employed staff just made to work more or after school with no extra pay themselves. But how does anyone actually measure this impact compared to say the same children not receiving it. Truth is you can't, one child has one chance so only one opportunity to 'progress' or not...
This is a racket and the people running it are pretty untouchable... or not? I for one will be first in the queue when questions are raised. But of course until then there's money to be made. Enquiries, as we know from other systematic abuses, can wait!