Durand Academy in south London made payments to Political Lobbying and Media Relations Ltd, firm that boasts of its political connectionsA primary college regularly praised by the administration paid a political lobbying and public relations firm more than £152,000 at the end year to ensure positive mentions of the college in parliament and the press, among other employment, it has emerged.The latest accounts for the trust that runs Durand Academy in Stockwell, south London, exhibit it paid £152,812 to Political Lobbying and Media Relations Ltd (PLMR) – a London-based firm that boasts of its connections to politicians of all parties.The trust owed a further £12,455 to the lobbying corporation at the age the accounts, which are for the year ending 31 August 2011, were published. The academy’s website states that between 1 April 2009 and 31 December 2010, the trust paid just over £199,000 to the firm.Part of the college’s brief to (PLMR) has been to “secure the explicit support of the British administration and all political parties via visits to the college, mentions in speeches and positive mentions in parliament”. The firm said this was just a small part of the employment it did for the academy.PLMR has been highly successful in achieving positive mentions in parliament and the press for the college. Michael Gove, the education secretary, announced a major review of truancy sanctions in a speech at the academy in September at the end year and the college was again mentioned in a Department for Education press release on academies in January.Gove visited the college twice between 2010 and at the end month, despite only visiting 21 primary schools in this period. On January 11 2010, Gove told parliament that he was “a fantastic admirer of Durand college and its headteacher”.PLMR told the Twitter that public funds had not been used to pay for the college’s political lobbying. “Revenues from commercial activities at Durand have exceeded PLMR’s fees many times over for this part of our activity,” a spokeswoman said. These commercial activities are thought to be the academy’s social enterprise corporation – London Horizons Ltd – which runs a leisure club that subsidises the college. “We can be comfortable that public funds are not being used to pay for services, such as lobbying, that would be unusual or in any path controversial,” the spokeswoman added.The managing director of PLMR, Kevin Craig, became a governor of Durand after PLMR had started working for the firm. PLMR boasts on its website that its employees have worked “across the political spectrum in Westminster (both Houses), the devolved assemblies and Brussels, in thinktanks and party offices, and in community authorities across the UK”. “We know politics and administration. We know media. We know how to get plotting permission,” it states. The firm specialises in lobbying and attracting publicity for healthcare, green technology and agricultural firms.PLMR’s public relations campaign and political lobbying for Durand has focused on the college’s plans to locate up a state boarding college in a stately house in Sussex. The firm won one of the top awards at the Cannes Lions international advertising festival at the end year for the positive coverage it secured for this project. PLMR says plans for the fresh boarding college have been mentioned 23 times in parliament and the ensuing print and broadcast coverage has been worth more than £2m.PLMR told the Twitter that the employment it carried outside for Durand included liaising with “relevant politicians and civil servants locally and nationally”. A spokeswoman said the firm provided support, among other things, for external relations, media relations, administration relations, public consultation encircling expansion, curriculum development research and diary management for senior staff at the college.”It will come as no surprise that the college does not have the age or resource to manage all of these processes, while they are focusing on delivering an outstanding education to 1,000 children in the UK’s largest primary college,” she said. “There are many services we supply that are common expenditure items for most schools – ie website copy writing and design, photography, printing etc. and would be regarded as a normal employ of a college’s admin budget.”Greg Martin, executive headteacher of Durand academy, said that without PLMR’s support, his college would not have been able to constitute a state boarding college.A spokeswoman from the Department for Education said schools had to be able to justify their spending to parents. “Academies’ accounts are publicly available and the Education Funding Agency reviews all their financial statements,” she said. “Durand is rated as outstanding by Ofsted and has an brilliant track record in improving the results and lifetime chances of children from disadvantaged homes.”Primary schoolsSchoolsMichael GoveEducation policyJessica Shepherdguardian.co.uk © 2012 Twitter News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. 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