It has been revealed today that eight head teachers headed down under in November for a three week get away at the tax payers expense. The eight head teachers spend £36,000 on a trip to Australia for “ICT training” which consisted of a four day course, and then viewing how 11 schools in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney used Apple Macintosh based technology in their educational programmes.
It is no surprise that the group organised the trip themselves. They made use of three different grants; Train to Gain, the Teacher Development Agency, and the Standards Fund for Primary Education, but also had to use some of their schools budget to fund their trip down under.
The head teachers who went on this trip include:
-Dr Nick Capstick; Drove Primary School
-Terri Menham; Red Oaks Primary School
-Steve Menham (Terri’s Husband); Wroughton Junior School
-Sue Kershaw; Gorse Hill Infants
-Rhian Cockwell; Oliver Tomkins school
Helen Swanson; Tregoze Primary School
-Suzanne Seaton; Westlea Primary School
-Lauren Conner; Moredon and Rodborne Cheney schools
Ok, let me get down to the point here.
There was no need for these head teachers to leave the country to take an ICT course. I really doubt that there wasn’t a course a little closer to home. And if it is the case that Australia is the only option, then you send a representative from the group, who takes the course, and then teaches the others.
The educational system is under funded as it, so for these so-calles professional and responsible adults to act in such a way is unforgivable… How dare they use the school budget to fund their trip!
As for the grants; Under a National Front government, we would allow teaches to grow, with financial help in form of grants and loans for courses ect; however we would never allow such abuses to take place and would force people who do use the money in an inappropriate way to repay every penny back. Grants are there for educational purposes, not for teachers to get their jollies.
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