The school business leadership community is feeling the strain. Excessive workload has long been a driver of attrition within workplaces, and research in our sector backs this up. The NAHT report of January 2022 on school business leadership cited ever growing workloads, balancing the books and keeping pace with constantly changing Government guidance as the main pressure points on SBL’s NAHT School Business Leadership in Crisis?
Worrying about shrinking budgets, alongside growing energy and supply costs, is giving many school leaders a headache. While core costs might just about be covered, the idea of ring-fencing funds for enrichment activities or infrastructure improvements is an increasing challenge. Moving forward, it’s more important than ever for schools to adopt a strategic approach to income generation: if you’re able to express the needs of your school coherently and mobilise the support of your communities then you’ll be in a much stronger position.
Increasingly, mainstream schools are accepting the need to take matters into their own hands when it comes to closing the gap between the funding they receive from the Government and the cost of delivering a high-quality educational experience for their children. The current administration is promising a significant uplift of the education budget but, as we’re all very much aware, we live in volatile times, uncertainty exists around Brexit and other world events.
It is suggested that primary school children probably spend up to a fifth of their time at school on the playground; socialising, having fun, interacting with one another and, of course, burning off a little excess energy. I read with interest the Charter for Play (1) , published by Play England in which they defined play as ‘what children and young people do when they follow their own ideas and interests, in their own way, and for their own reasons.’
With budgets stretched, schools are pursuing new funding streams to support the delivery of the curriculum and provide enrichment opportunities for pupils.
In this article, FundEd explain how accessing support from grant income is one way forward and how you can narrow down your search by using the UK’s leading school grant database: Funded.org.uk and outline how to prepare a successful bid.
Play is an essential element of education, yet many schools struggle to fund new resources. Here, school income generation expert Justin Smith shares his tips to get your campaign up and running.