A school has defended its actions after parents accused it of wastefully throwing away dozens of usable furniture items. Avanti Gardens School in Fishponds has been accused of throwing away a large number of desks and textbooks which people were willing to take.
The school says that it only threw away "broken/rejected" desks and has tried to rehome its furniture since last Easter. Avanti Gardens got rid of its old furniture after replacing it with new items last year, and the headteacher says "misinformation" has circulated about their disposal.
The old furniture went into storage at the time, and the school says it offered parents the chance to buy this surplus furniture a year ago, and began offering it out for free around five months ago. It says it has recycled more than 200 pieces of furniture to families, other schools and charities.
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But Lindsay Berresford, whose children used to go to the school before she withdrew them, claims multiple parents tried to get furniture from the school but were unable to. The 37-year-old from Easton says that although the school did offer some time slots for parents to collect furniture at the end of week, on the last collection day on April 21, staff were seen preparing to throw away any uncollected desks.
Lindsay says that the school then agreed to set up another collection the following day after uproar from parents, but that after the time was up staff refused to allow parents to take any more desks and locked the gates. Although the school says it has re-homed 200 desks and only threw away between 10 and 20, Lindsay claims many more were thrown into the skip, which left many upset at the waste. She told Bristol Live: "Everybody who was there was actually feeling really emotional about it, because it's the waste.
"And also, given the state that our planet is in, I think the thing that we all found particularly shocking is there's people who are willing to make use of these resources or distribute them, literally outside of the fence, begging the headteacher to pass things over the fence to them so that they could use them. And he's just saying no and continuing to chuck them in the tip, so it just seemed very odd, very upsetting."
Lindsay managed to take 11 desks, five chairs and a blackboard, but she is upset that more could not be salvaged. "It could have gone to a school, could have gone to the home educating community.
"There's so many people that would have happily taken them. And I think everybody was just so perplexed to, A) see these incredibly valuable resources when schools are so under-resourced just going in the bin, and B) so confused about why they apparently seemed to be so flush that they could have spent thousands and thousands of pounds on all of these things, and then just chucked them out."
Lindsay has also highlighted that the school allegedly threw the furniture away on World Earth Day, an annual event when people are supposed to consider their impact on the environment. However, in a letter written to parents which has been posted on the school's website, the principal Ashley Milum aimed to correct 'misinformation' regarding the furniture.
School's response
The school directed Bristol Live to the letter when contacted for a response. In it, Mr Milum wrote: "I am writing to correct some misinformation that is currently being circulated about the school regarding our recent renovation of unused classroom spaces. This Easter marks one year since the school first opened the building for parents to purchase our surplus furniture.
"We have in the past 4-5 months included in our bulletin that we are giving away the furniture for free to anyone that would be able to collect before the Easter break. The few broken/rejected desks (between 10-20) have gone in the skip today as won’t be safely useable.
"More than 100 have been re-homed just this week thanks to the PTA and other supportive families spreading the word (during the school holiday due to staff volunteering their time). We are clearing the rooms to improve the learning environment for our pupils to have an inspiring and purposeful learning environment.
"The school would much appreciate the full support of the parent body to ensure everyone is fully aware of the facts and the efforts that have gone into recycling more than 200 pieces of furniture to families, other schools and charities."
