Questionable value of school executive roles | Letters

Readers raise concerns that multi-academy trusts in England are diverting funds from classrooms to corporate managers

I couldn’t agree more with the City of York councillor Jonny Crawshaw (Letters, 16 April). The explosion of corporate-style executive roles in schools is an outrage and a tragic betrayal of the students and teachers at those institutions.

While I was headteacher of a local authority secondary school, at least two heads of neighbouring schools acquired single-academy trust status for their schools, persuaded their governors to promote them to the new position of “executive head” on an increased salary, appointed a “head of school” on a lower salary to run the school, and effectively sat back. Suddenly, and for no discernible benefit to students, the cost of headship had doubled.