SCHOOLS in Oxfordshire have defended themselves after it was revealed they had hoarded almost £6m, which the Government said should have been spent on children’s education.

Figures show 105 primary and secondary schools in the county — more than a third of the total — failed to spend £5.9m last year, on top of what they were permitted to stockpile under official guidance.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families allows secondary schools to save five per cent of their annual cash handout from their local education authority and primary schools up to eight per cent.

However, the “excessive” surpluses revealed by the publication of school revenue balances for 2007-08, are over and above these limits.

The DCSF insisted the money should have been spent on teachers, books and other equipment for pupils.

But many of the schools said the money was being set aside for use on projects like new buildings.

In Oxford, Cherwell School kept £1,208,044 — or 15.1 per cent of its revenue — but headteacher Jill Judson said this was not excess money but the result of “careful management of funds” in order to build a new sixth-form centre.

She said: “We’re a bit annoyed that this has been questioned.

“We get given very little money and knew we would have to raise the funds for the new centre ourselves.”

Dunmore Primary School, in Abingdon, had an excess of £160,000 — about 35 per cent of its annual revenue — but headteacher Bob Pattenden said the school, which was created by the merger of the former Dunmore Junior and Infant schools, opened just three months before the end of the financial year and the money was part of extra cash given to new schools.

He said it was an exceptional circumstance and no such underspend would occur next year.

The Hendreds Primary School, in East Hendred, near Wantage, had 32.6 per cent of its revenue – £127,748 – left at the end of the year.

It said this was specific fundraising towards a new £1m building project, for which the school had to raise 10 per cent of the costs.

Michael Waine, Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet member for schools, said: “We monitor all schools’ budgets very closely.

“In the cases of schools with excessive balances, or deficits, we work closely with them, both challenging and supporting, to help bring their budgets back into line.

“In relation to schools with large balances, this has been an area of particular activity in recent months.

“In my view, this money is for today’s children and needs to be spent on today’s children to ensure rising achievement and attainment across the county.”

The Government’s Schools Minister Jim Knight said: “While it’s clearly sound financial management for schools to retain a small surplus from year to year, we expect revenue funding to be used for the salaries of staff at the school and on learning resources to support the education of pupils in school now, working towards raising attainment and narrowing the gaps in attainment between disadvantaged children and the rest.”

Chris Keates, the general secretary of the teachers union NASUWT, said: “The point, which is missed consistently by those who seek to defend the stockpiling of public money, is these funds are allocated each year to be spent on the pupils, not on either saving for a rainy day or to fund some state-of-the-art building project.”

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