At the beginning of May, the education secretary, Damian Hinds announced that the government will be attempting to give parents a wider choice in finding the right school for their children by delegating funds to expanding grammar and faith schools.
With this, the Selective School Expansion Fund (SSEF) has been created, to allow existing selective schools to apply on the grounds that they prioritise admission to pupil premium children and create an outreach programme with local primary schools.
The pressure is rising for school business managers. With school budgets getting constantly tighter, the last thing you need is long, outdated processes and complex software slowing you down. At SAAF Education, our main aim is to make your school finances simple and efficient, so we try to help out where ever possible.
If you're a school or academy that uses Capita SIMS FMS, then we have put together four of our top tips in a helpful infographic for you; feel free to save or download for future reference.
With the deadline to implement the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming closer, it is important that you put strict procedures in place to ensure all your data is protected. This is important for the both the data your share with your suppliers and the data you process in the office.
To help you do this, we have put together a list of things to check with your suppliers and the school office.
By now, you should have heard about the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and hopefully you’ve already begun the journey to ensure your school, academy or MAT is compliant. However, we know the GDPR is a complicated subject to get to grips with, so we’re going to break down the rules and steps you need to take to prepare for the regulation.
Benchmarking can be a valuable process as it enables comparisons of income and expenditure with other schools. With this comparison you will then be able to consider how your resources can be used more efficiently and identify areas of improvement that may be required.
Get to grips with all the issues facing the education sector at The Academies Show 2017
SAAF have supported lots of maintained schools with the complex project of converting to academy status. There are lots of steps to take during this process and we have found that School Leadership Teams can underestimate just how much will change. Even though the curriculum and general running of the school usually stay the same, your finances and accounting will take on a large transformation, causing countless issues if you are unprepared.
To avoid these issues, we have put together 5 top tips that we believe will support in making the process seamless.
Eating breakfast boosts school pupils’ reaction times, memory, concentration levels, general behaviour and performance in GCSEs, according to research from Katie Adolphus’ study on “the free breakfast club”.
However, free breakfast schemes do not extend to every area of the country. So, what can schools do if they are not located in a “disadvantaged area”?
Some schools and academies may not be using their funds in the most efficient way. This can create significant deficits, meaning a drastic reduction in the quality of experience and outcomes for their pupils.
In order to resolve this, schools and academies must learn how to use their funding efficiently, evaluating every area of their school to see exactly what is a necessity, and what isn’t, to maximise their spending for the full benefit of their pupils.
A financial health check can help headteachers and the governing body evaluate their expenditure and allow them to produce a plan of action for the future.
Two key changes to school funding were announced by Justine Greening, Secretary of State for Education, on 17 July 2017. They were:
Is this good news for schools and academies? Where has the funding come from? And what does the announcement mean in real terms for your school, academy, or multi-academy trust?
As ever, we’re here to help throw light on the latest funding updates affecting your school or academy.
