Langley Hall Primary Academy (Slough) - what's going on?

[OfstedAintEverything]

Notice to improve - but on financial concerns

Anyone know what is happening with Langley Hall Primary? this has appeared in the local paper but what does it actually mean for the running of the school and the parents/children who go there? Will the school be taken over by a Multi Academy Trust if it's in deficit?

(for those who don't know it this is a large two part state Free school with separate upper and lower school sites, it's been going about 15 years and is sort-of linked to both a private nursery and a new private secondary school. from the article it looks like the actual financial links between these are unclear).

Sally Eaton is Exec Head of the free school, and Chris Eaton, who I am guessing is a relation, is head of commercial strategy and adviser to the governors there. That's a potential conflict already, but he is also proprietor and chair of governors at Langley Hall Arts Academy which is where the related party transactions come in. Massive conflict of interest there if the secondary is the tenant of some of the primary's property - clearly the government is concerned this hasn't been properly handled. I have no idea if that's the case FAOD!

So is a “related party transaction” when someone running an Academy gives a job or financial contract to a relative?
or is the issue more that the privately owned school is financially related/entwined to the state one? thanks for explaining, I don’t know much about how school finances work.

The warning notice is here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68822b3a6a7ea0e1ce1d3621/Notice_to_improve_Langley_Hall_Primary_Academy_Trust.pdf. It lists the conditions on the trustees until the Notice is lifted but doesn't specify what the contractual consequences would be if not (it refers in passing to them!). The tone is that the Trustees need to get a plan and turn things round.

It sets out the financial position of the Trust, that the Trustees have not had proper oversight, and have six weeks to come up with a plan.

Related parties are people with significant control or influence over the Trust and transactions with them would have to be disclosed (can't see this in the accounts when I looked but I may have missed it), transparent, conflicts of interest dealt with properly and crucially, need to be in the best interests of the academy. I don't know what went on here at all but for example, you would expect the minutes to show that Trustees with a conflict of interest wouldn't vote. That may well have happened.

I don't know the details as I say, but it struck me as perhaps not coincidental that the Warning Notice follows the condition that all related party transactions be pre-approved by the Department for Education (which will want to see transparency and that it is in the best interests of the academy etc before agreeing) with another one that the academy must pursue all debtors eg on leases, that it needs to take reasonable steps to ensure rent paid regularly, and that it needs to review rent levels every two years.

The private school's accounts are here https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10917406. It's a small company, with poor finances. If - and it's a big if - it was not paying its rent and this wasn't being pursued, and/or that rent was being kept deliberately low and not market rate, you could see how the state funded academy would be losing out at a time when its own finances are in crisis. But why would the academy agree to this, if that were correct?🤔

Ah, thanks for explaining what related means, that makes sense. Maybe the private arm is having trouble due to the cost of living/VAT changes.
Well, hopefully whatever’s going on won’t disrupt the primary school community and it’s just a question of tidying up their accounting and making it clear the two schools are running on seperate finances.

I think the issue is that it shouldn't be a "private arm" at all, and that's exactly how it's been run. State funding has been propping up a private business which doesn't have the money to pay it back, not being spent on the children.

Hi, I’m bumping this as the children shouldn’t be suffering as a result of the lack of due diligence from the SLT and governors to manage the finances. Does anyone know when the date they need to get all finances cleared out by? Parents are being charged for trips and other services and unless there is assurance it’s going towards the child, it doesn’t make sense to pay anything to the school until the financial assurance is confirmed. What do others think?

Can the academy end up closing down off the back of these finances not getting resolved? Should parents look to apply to other schools?

Concerned parent here! 😥

Well there’s not anything more in the local paper, has the school itself said anything to parents? I would have thought as it’s pretty large that either it will sort out the books irself,or if not it may amalgamate under a Multi Acdemy Trust (eg with Langley Academy Trust or Willow and Marish schools)