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Durand Academy School Paid PR Firm PLMR £152,000 Last Year For Mention In Parliament

The Huffington Post UK  |  By Posted: 20/04/2012 10:15 Updated: 20/04/2012 11:26

Durandschool
The school paid PLMR to secure mentions in parliament and visits from Gove.

A primary school paid a political media company more than £351,000 over three years to manage its public relations and ensure it was mentioned in parliament debates.

Durand Academy in Stockwell, South London drafted in Political Lobbying and Media Relations (PLMR) in 2009, and the PR firm's managing director, Kevin Craig, has been a governor of the school since November 2010.

The trust owed another £12,455 to the company at the time the accounts were published, which are for the academic year ending 31 August 2011, according to The Guardian.

The paper reported the school paid PLMR, whose clients include the Ministry of Sound, T-Mobile and British Horseracing Authority, £152,000 last year for its services.

From April 2009 to March 2010, the school paid a teaching supply service £123,345 to "provide professional supply teachers to ensure highest standards are maintained at all times". For the same period PLMR was paid £107,333.

In June 2011, the state-funded primary came under fire for spending nearly £200,000 on employing the services of PLMR and Carter Ruck lawyers, better known for representing celebrities, to sue its local council Lambeth for libel.

At the time, Emma Boon of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "Schools should be focused on educating the next generation, not on reputation management."

But PLMR has made efforts to separate business and pleasure. On acceptance of the governor position, Craig wrote a public letter to the Durand Academy Trust, which read:

"My happiness and willingness to serve as a governor are totally unrelated to the fact that the company that I work for has since 2009 worked for Durand on fundraising, public relations and coalition building support in support of your plans for the school. Were PLMR's work to end tomorrow I would remain as enthusiastic and as passionate about the honour of being a governor as I am today."

Michael Gove visited Durand in September 2011, his second visit to the school in less than a year, saying it was a "huge pleasure" to visit the site one year after it converted its status from a foundation school to an academy.

He touted the institution as a role model for other academies: "The ingredients which make Durand a success have been applied elsewhere across South London.

"What has been achieved here is inspiring – and underlines how, thanks to great teaching, our young people can achieve anything."

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The school, which Ofsted deemed "outstanding", has gained support not only from Gove but also the Rt Hon David Laws MP, the education spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, as well as Vernon Coaker MP, a former school's minister.

Sources in the profession say it is unusual for schools to employ the services of a political lobby company, if not unheard of.

On its website, PLMR say its employees "worked closely" with the school to ensure its profile was raised politically, including developing a political relations campaign.

"Politicians from every political party visited the school from local ward councillors, to shadow ministers, the secretary of state for education and the deputy prime minister."

In April 2011, possibly as a result of the campaign, the coalition agreed to co-fund the boarding school project - a secondary school providing accommodation for Durand's junior school pupils when they reach 13-years-old.

The school recently secured £17.34m to fund the new building but questions have been raised over the figures, with claims the Durand Education Trust has incurred debts of £1.9m through purchasing the boarding school site.

PLMR, who won an advertising award for its work with Durand, said public funds had not been used to pay for the school's political lobbying.

"We can be comfortable that public funds are not being used to pay for services, such as lobbying, that would be unusual or in any way controversial," a spokesperson said.

The school's executive head Greg Martin told The Huffington Post UK the boarding project would not have been delivered without PLMR's support.

"Their team are working flat out to help us drive the project forward and broaden the educational horizons for inner city children.

"When we achieve that and show that the association between income and attainment does not have to persist, it will have been worth it. When we see a Durand student, who grew up on a tough estate, going to Oxbridge, it will have been worth it.

"And when that child graduates and passes their high aspirations and sense of pride to the next generation and the one after that, it will have been more than worth it."



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A primary school paid a political media company more than £351,000 over three years to manage its public relations and ensure it was mentioned in parliament debates. Durand Academy in Stockwell, S...
A primary school paid a political media company more than £351,000 over three years to manage its public relations and ensure it was mentioned in parliament debates. Durand Academy in Stockwell, S...
 
 
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youlyers
0 Fans
02:16 AM on 04/22/2013
Well we've heard the green belt is being cemented over to provide homes for the huge influx of immigrants expected the beginning of next year and now it appears our national parks are built upon to satisfy politically correct requirements for boarding schools - did anyone bother to organise a genine consensus of the area losing this facility what they felt about it: naturally there is only one answer to that in this sham pc riddled democracy absolutely nix.
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M CHDY
0 Fans
06:39 PM on 06/27/2012
I would like to mention, in the hope that people may consider, the fact, that, this "investment" has resulted in the funding of a £17,000,000.00 Boarding Academy in Sussex, which will take on many of their school leavers.

This is something that Many Inner London School Children Can Only Dream About! Every Child and Every Family that Have a Child, attend this School will have their Entire Lives Changed! - For The Better.

Perhaps, we should rather think about why it is necessary for a school to have HAD TO pay this type of money to have "Politicians" take an interest in the school. I think this is an ingenious piece of "Out of The Box Thinking" which has resulted in an achievement for its Pupils That Many Can Only, and Do, Dream About.

I Commend The Management for Their Achievement. Well Done!!!
I think other School Administrators could learn something from this.

Note: I am a former pupil of this school and therefore have a deep connection with this place and know some of its staff (former or present).

God Bless.
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gogsrule
57 Fans
11:37 AM on 04/24/2012
This is an atrocious mus-use of taxpayers money. All thisre-branding and academy nonsense is a sham. It is a fact that if we build and maintain our school buildings to a high standard, and employ competent and effective staff at proper salary levels, we will get good results.
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mmartini54
Roll on 2015!
322 Fans
11:36 PM on 04/21/2012
Expect more of this nonsense over the next few years.
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mmartini54
Roll on 2015!
322 Fans
11:09 PM on 04/20/2012
LOL, welcome to the Gove revolution. What a cheapening of true education.
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scouse55
129 Fans
04:58 PM on 04/20/2012
So, can we write off the education of how many kids due to this profligacy?

At say 10k per annum, that's about 350 kids without education.
Charming!
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eric14
1215 Fans
 
04:15 PM on 04/20/2012
the PR firm's managing director, Kevin Craig, has been a governor of the school since November 2010.
-------------------------
The above defines relations of systemic collusion and connivance which justify charges of conspiracy to defraud. These people are criminals.
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purchaseorder
35 Fans
04:58 PM on 04/20/2012
Including Gove who paid two visits to the school in a year ? It should be the subject of an independant investigation or was it all coincidence, I think not.
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eric14
1215 Fans
 
05:14 PM on 04/20/2012
Give is up to his neck in dirt. He spreads American right-wing Republicanism like a disease.
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Mickey Mouse 1
There are no lies or deceit on a chess board.
180 Fans
03:58 PM on 04/20/2012
"A primary school paid a political media company more than £351,000 over three years to manage its public relations and ensure it was mentioned in parliament debates."

How can a state-funded primary school pay out £351,000 in taxpayer's money to manage it's "public relations"?
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henvectra
25 Fans
03:26 PM on 04/20/2012
The gravy train is at Durand station, all aboard! Take as much as you can!
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casual agent
Advocate for social justice
668 Fans
02:33 AM on 04/21/2012
Absolutely nothing is sacred'...The Tories put a price tag on everything..
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PeteJC
8 Fans
03:03 PM on 04/20/2012
The board of govenors as a whole should be sacked for such a waste of the schools resources.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Norman Mitchison
92 Fans
 
02:51 PM on 04/20/2012
A second class stamp and a letter to the local MP would have been cheaper and possibly more effective.
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tickeli
29 Fans
02:38 PM on 04/20/2012
"When we see a Durand student, who grew up on a tough estate, going to Oxbridge, it will have been worth it".

When! Dream on.
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GearoidOD
66 Fans
12:01 PM on 04/20/2012
Isnt this a kind of prostitution ?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
meddleman
57 Fans
10:46 AM on 04/20/2012
Surely, it would have been better to spend £250000 on one of Cameron's 'dinners'. I am sure that he would have then been happy to mention the school every week and visit it any number of times. Did the Ofsted team all retire after the inspection of this school?
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