Private School Plymouth College furloughs over 100 staff during summer holidays .Is this ethical ?
Plymouth College furloughs over 100 staff during summer holidays .Is this ethical ?
Parents at prestigious private school Plymouth College have questioned why Chairman David Woodgate - whose full time job is Chief Executive of the the Independent Schools Bursar Association - is using the government furlough scheme to furlough large numbers of staff during the schools summer holidays . It certainly raises questions about ethical use of the scheme .
The use of the furlough started during lockdown to the detriment of education whilst requesting the staff to accept a pay reduction of 20% .Over 100 staff have been furloughed
It potentially throws light on the wider advice the Independent Bursars Association are advising fee paying schools and its moral standpoint.
This coupled with high staff turnover , Plymouth College is now on its fifth head and fifth bursar in 5 years have caused parents to question the leadership of Mr Woodgate .
The problems at the college must be a distraction for Mr Woodgate from leading the prestigious Independent Schools Bursar Association https://www.theisba.org.uk/
Governors of Plymouth College has taken the highly unusual step of calling an emergency parents meeting in the summer Holidays -in an attempt to pacify a large scale parents revolt in excess of 100 parents raising over 50 very serious questions.
Directly questioning Mr Woodgates’s leadership and a call for a new set of governors .
In 2019 Mr Woodgate Chair of Governors, oversaw a serious compliance safeguarding failure at the school which threatened its existence. He threatened to resign then; now some parents are calling for him to do the same now.
Letter to Parents from Plymouth College
A number of parents have been in touch with us over the summer with a variety of questions and concerns. These have been quite wide-ranging, but since some clear themes have emerged the Board of Governors has decided to organise a virtual meeting in order to address as many of them as possible in a ‘live’ discussion environment. This will take place on August 11 at 7pm.
Some FAQs covering the main areas of concern will be sent to you early next week. We understand you may have further questions, and are therefore inviting you to send these to us in advance to ensure they will be addressed in the meeting. There will, of course, be a further opportunity to ask questions during the session.
We will do our best to provide you with the information and reassurance you need. There are one or two areas where we must meet our obligations to confidentiality and general duties of care, and that may limit what we can say in some instances. Nevertheless, I must stress it is always our aim to be as open and transparent as we can, and we hope you will find the meeting useful.
We will be in touch nearer the date with details of how to register for the meeting and how to submit your questions.
If you have any concerns in the meantime, please contact Sharon Lambie on slambie@plymouthcollege.com
We look forward to seeing you, albeit it virtually, on August 11.