school financing | Schools Week

Burgers and weddings: how schools are making money in tight times

Some schools are generating tens of thousands of pounds a year by renting out wedding spaces, hiring out food vans and opening shops. In an effort to make up funding shortfalls, ventures such as revamping a van to sell burgers and gaining a licence to host weddings have raked in up to £40,000 extra a […]

How did schools come to talk like business?

Headteachers and leaders of academy trusts should be paid well, says Anita Kerwin-Nye. Just don’t justify their high salaries with the language of the corporate boardroom I have written before for Schools Week about the importance of language influencing practice, particularly in inclusion. Perhaps it is now time to consider how easily we have adopted […]

Schools cannot make any more cuts

Reduced budgets have already had devastating consequences in East Sussex, says Liam Collins. “If there are more things that we can do to save, then it is the equivalent of deckchair moving on the Titanic,” he says The government’s decision to protect school funding only in flat cash terms per pupil leaves schools facing a […]

Wealthy academy sponsors safeguard school trips amid funding squeeze

Donations from wealthy sponsors are helping academy trusts to safeguard school trips, breakfast clubs and sports competitions as other schools are forced to axe provision as the funding squeeze bites. Ark Schools tops the table with its hedge fund sponsors handing over £6.2 million last year, an average of more than £150,000 for each of […]

Two for-profit sponsors back out of academy market

Two academy trusts set up by for-profit providers that have made millions running schools across the globe have ended their sponsorship of English academies. The Erudition Schools Trust is in liquidation after its three schools in the Midlands were rebrokered to new trusts last year. Erudition was sponsored by K12, a firm founded by a […]

Booming academy transfer market pushes costs to potential £30m

More than 100 schools are now rebrokered every year as the booming academy transfer market pushes costs to a potential £30 million. Figures obtained by Schools Week have revealed 235 academies were handed to new trusts in the past two calendar years, up from just 26 in 2014. Rebrokering costs are not routinely published, but […]

Top DfE civil servant blames poor communication for an accounting blunder

The Department for Education’s top civil servant has admitted that better communication could have solved an administrative error that led to it being the only department hauled in front of MPs over poor accounting. Jonathan Slater (pictured), the DfE’s permanent secretary, told the House of Commons public accounts committee on Wednesday that the need for […]

School tells staff to switch off ‘non-essential’ lights to save money

A school has told staff to “switch off non-essential” lights – even when pupils are in school – to save money. A primary school in the north of England wants the lights in corridors and halls to stay off during the school day, according to a member of staff who wished to remain anonymous. They […]

Auditors flag increase in financially ‘unviable’ academy trusts

Auditors are increasingly raising the alarm about academy trusts at risk of running out of money, with chains raiding reserves and eyeing expansion to pay off deficits. A Schools Week analysis of annual accounts has revealed a prevailing picture of “unviable trusts”. The Rodillian Trust, which sponsors three schools in West Yorkshire, used more than […]