School spent thousands on New York trip and alcohol

A school in Nottingham breached numerous rules when it spent more than £36,000 on a trip to New York and used more than £1,200 on alcohol for an event, an investigation has found.

Stone Soup Academy - a single academy trust for pupils not in mainstream education - was investigated by the Department for Education (DfE) after concerns were raised about its finances.

The investigation, which began in 2025, also found a head teacher was given a 13.7% pay rise without proper scrutiny or rationale.

Chris Manze, who founded the school and has returned as principal, said internal controls had been "strengthened" and added the trust was working closely with the DfE to ensure compliance.

Manze founded the Stone Soup Project social enterprise in 2007.

It then became one of the first free schools in England, opening officially as Stone Soup Academy, for which Manze and other founders became members.

Those members raised concerns about spending decisions.

In the 2022-2023 academic year, the school paid for a visit involving six pupils to New York, "for what appears to have been an enrichment and reward activity", Manze said.

An investigation report found an initial budget of £10,000 was revised to £16,000, but the final cost of the trip was £36,156.

"No clear audit trail or explanation was provided, and the trust could not evidence compliance with policy, value for money, procurement, or approval requirements," the report stated.

Manze said: "The trust could not evidence the necessary procurement, value-for-money or approval processes, and we accept this was unacceptable."

The first issue which alerted members to concerns about financial and governance compliance was the school's 10-year anniversary event, which cost £8,500.

Of that, £1,200 was spent on alcohol, which Manze said was a "prohibited use of trust funds".

In its outcome, the DfE said it was considering the findings of the investigation report and would "determine the appropriate response to address the issues identified".

In a statement to the BBC, Manze said: "We accept the DfE's findings and recommendations in full and apologise that historic decisions did not meet the standards expected for the stewardship of public funds.

"The trust's members actually raised the concerns with the DfE rather than this coming from outside the trust, and we worked for over 18 months to ensure they were addressed.

"The founding principal has returned as accounting officer and is supporting the head teacher to provide stability to the organisation and ensure probity in the use of school funds. We believe this shows the strength of the academy model in addressing governance issues.

"The accounting officer and trustees responsible for these historic decisions are no longer with the organisation and the current trustees took over at the end of March 2026 once the investigation was concluded.

"We were naturally devastated that the reputation of our outstanding school was tarnished in this way and undertook to see the transformation through which we have been working on over the past few months in conjunction with the DfE."

Manze added: "We have strengthened internal controls and finance systems so expenditure cannot be approved without the correct authorisation, we commissioned an external NGA [National Governance Association] governance review, appointed a new chief financial officer from a local multi-academy trust, with DfE approval; and are working closely with the DfE to ensure compliance."

Stone Soup Academy has retained an "outstanding" Ofsted rating since 2014.

The board said it was also seeking additional trustees and welcoming applications from anyone interested.

Listen to BBC Radio Nottingham on Sounds and follow BBC Nottingham on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2210.