3 days ago
How PTAs became big business: £1 million auctions and playground punch-ups
A t a fundraising auction at a London secondary school, bidders are in a frenzy about the latest lot. It's not a Qing porcelain vase or 18th-century oil painting under the hammer, but a month-long course of GCSE maths tuition for one lucky teenager.
'I've got £50, £60, £70, £80, £90, £100,' shouts Adrian Biddell. Realising his bidders (namely parents) are on the hook, he switches to £20 increments. '£120, £140, £160 £200 — and why not? Maths is important!' Other lots include a week of work experience at a radio station and a pizza-making birthday party.
Biddell is a former Sotherby's auctioneer with 35 years' experience. Now, alongside his work at a Kensington auction house, he's often booked out by parent teacher associations such as this one at Sacred Heart High School, a Catholic secondary in Hammersmith, London.
