A TAXPAYERS’ group has criticised schools in the region for spending almost £18,000 over two days on a headteachers’ conference.

Despite the growing pressure on school budgets, schools in Redcar and Cleveland spent the money on a single, annual two-day headteachers’ conference in October last year.

The heads were treated to an overnight stay at four-star Redworth Hall Hotel in County Durham – just an hour’s drive from Redcar.

Redworth is a Jacobean manor house set in 150 acres of woodland, near Redworth village, Newton Aycliffe. It has a swimming pool, sauna, gym and tennis courts.

A total of 53 headteachers attended the conference at a cost of £17,755, or £335 per delegate – money paid from the schools’ own budgets.

Primary school headteachers from Stockton also treated themselves to a four-star getaway when their annual conference was held in September at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Durham, which came in at a cost to the schools of over £10,000 for 37 headteachers to attend.

Robert Oxley, campaign manager of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “It’s appalling that local authorities continue to splash out on fancy hotels for this conference.

“With budgets tight, education bosses cannot afford to spend so much on this little get-together. Given that the bill for these conferences comes from schools’ own budgets, many parents may think it better spent on pupils.”

A Stockton Council spokeswoman said: “It is a decision for the schools themselves to make whether to hold these events which support their professional development and strategic planning.”

She said the conferences were funded from headteachers’ training and education budgets direct from the Government and that secondary heads in Stockton had not held such a conference in four years.

Redcar and Cleveland Labour councillor Joan Guy, cabinet member for children’s services and education, said: “The local authority facilitated a request from all schools in the borough to organise a high quality conference dealing with specific issues and attracting national speakers.

“Headteachers benefited from input from Charlie Taylor (chief executive of the Teaching Agency), Steven Kethero (DfE lead on the national reducing exclusions pilot), Peter Nash (CEO at Plymouth association of primary heads co-operative community interest company) and Matthew Syed (author of “Bounce”, the science of success) together with local contributors and the opportunity to collaborate and network with headteachers from other local authorities.”

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