A new leadership team at a Catford school which sparked protests over "enforced" academisation this years have found an overspend of £900,000 in the accounts.
Sedgehill School made headlines recently after Lewisham Council forced through a new interim executive board to replace the old leadership team, claiming it was not improving quickly enough.
Pupils, staff and parents protested at the move, claiming it was paving the way for Sedgehill to be made an academy.
Last week, the chair of the new board Irene Cleaver, wrote in a letter to parents: ""We have investigated how this was allowed to happen and we will be implementing proper budget management procedures to make sure that it does not happen again. But what is now urgent is that we agree and start to implement a recovery plan that will put the school back on a firm footing and minimises the impact on students.
"Subject to the agreement of the Council we will bring the budget back into balance over the next five years.
"Our focus is on making students’ learning as effective as we can and improving outcomes and nothing that we do to reduce spending will detract from this."
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here