A secondary school in Kent was facing a staggering annual heating and lighting bill of more than £1m before the government stepped in with its power price cap.

Oasis Academy Isle of Sheppey, which has room for 2,000 pupils and is spread over two sites in Sheerness and Minster, paid £217,000 for gas and electricity in the year 2021-22.

But as prices began to rise following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, managers re-budgeted to pay £641,000 this financial year. When costs continued to sky-rocket, the school predicted it would end up spending £1.04m.

Steve Chalke, founder of Oasis Community Learning which runs the school along with 51 others across the UK, said: "Following government interventions, we now face a reduced bill on Sheppey of £713,000. But that is still half a million pounds more than last year."

But he vowed: "Although other schools have been considering all sorts of means to balance their books by dropping temperatures, switching to a four-day week, shortening the school day by sending pupils home early or cutting jobs, we are not imposing any sanctions on Sheppey.

"That school is in one of the most deprived areas of Britain. The Island has suffered enough."

The academy, the only secondary school on Sheppey, was rated 'inadequate' by Ofsted following a surprise visit in June which discovered half the pupils were playing truant, bullying was rife and most of the classes were run by supply teachers.

Mr Chalke said Oasis was spending more than £1m revamping classrooms and had trawled "most of western Europe" in search of full-time teachers. He has invested a further £300,000 on employing six new youth and family support workers to encourage pupils back to school.

He said: "Ironically, those pupils who come to school every day actually perform at or above national education standards."

Oasis also runs Skinner Street Primary School in Gillingham which is rated 'good'. Last year, that school spent £22,000 on gas and electricity. Managers budgeted to spend £73,000 this year but then predicted the cost would hit £124,000.

Mr Chalke said the government's price cap meant the school was now facing a bill of £81,000. But he warned: "That is still four times what it was. And the price cap is only for six months."

He also hit out at government funding.

He said: "The government says it put an extra £7billion into eduction because of inflation. We got £5million of that across our 52 schools but then the government put in place a salary increase for teachers, which soaked up the entire amount of money."