One of the benefits of being a multi-academy trust – or ‘family of schools’ as we prefer to call it – is that we can benefit from pooling our knowledge and expertise across all our schools, as well as sharing our resources.
There are strict rules about how we manage our finances, and we are not allowed to make a profit, but we have to make sure we have enough money set aside as a ‘reserve’ to pay for essential maintenance and any unforeseen expenses.
This year, we had a healthy enough reserve for our trustees to agree we could provide extra funding to all our schools to help in the current cost of living crisis. The idea was that we would allocate £10 per pupil (that’s over £35,000 in total) for headteachers to support enrichment activities.
We asked the schools to make their own decisions about how best to spend that money to encourage full participation in developmental trips and activities.
Headteachers are now putting the money to good use. One of the schools has been able to offer trips to its nursery children for the first time, as well as reducing the cost of residential trips for Y4 and Y6 and having a storyteller visit the school. Another school is reducing the cost of planned curriculum enrichment such as a boat trip, while another is using the money to be able to offer trips outside Plymouth without costing parents any more money.
We’re delighted to see the range of activities that our teachers and support staff are organising for children over the summer term. We’re grateful to our trustees for their commitment to making sure that children in all our schools can still benefit from exciting new experiences outside of usual classroom activities, in spite of the current squeeze on household budgets.