Fir Ends Primary School

Financial Transparency

As a Foundation School, Fir Ends has a slightly greater degree of control over income and expenditure than other maintained schools. Naturally, this comes with more accountability too, and the School Leadership and Governors are expected to maintain effective control of the school budget in line with a three-year plan, adjusting as appropriate to improve income to cover costs or to make reductions in spending to accommodate anticipated shortfalls.

Our school income is composed of:

• Delegated funding, distributed by the Local Authority in line with a local delegation scheme and based largely on pupil numbers - this funding must directly cover the payment of staff, provision of resources and the running of the premises as well as any interventions required for pupils who are making less than expected progress or have 'low level' special educational needs;
• Additional SEN funding, allocated on the basis of individual children's Educational Healthcare Plans;
• Pupil Premium Funding - intended to support disadvantaged pupils and allocated on the basis of pupils whose parents are in receipt of certain benefits, are or have previously been subject to social care or are in the armed forces.
• Nursery funding, allocated on the basis of average hours of attendance;
• Universal Infant Free School Meals funding, to cover the costs of providing school meals for children in Reception and Years 1&2;
• Capital funding of around £5k annually, intended to support development and repair of the building and ICT provision; 
• Various grants intended to support specific goals (e.g PE & Sports Premium Funding) or to overcome unanticipated expenses, such as Teacher's Pension Grant;
• self-generated income from charges for provision such as nursery hours outside FEF, KS2 school meals, wraparound care, music lessons & trip contributions.

 Where we charge for services this is on the basis of covering the costs of the service, rather than to make a profit. Costs are reviewed at least annually, and increases considered where we cannot make savings to maintain current charges to parents.

The only way our school can significantly increase its funding is through individual grant applications for specific projects or through fundraising and donations; much of the latter is arranged through our Parent & Teacher group, which is an independent charitable organisation. 

Policies and documents linked to the school's financial operations are linked below. 

Earnings Above £100,000

Schools must publish on their website individuals earning more than £100k in bandings of £10k

The number of individuals whose earnings (excluding employer pension costs) exceeded £100,000
in 2021-22 was:

• Range Number
  In the band £100,000 - £110,000: None
  In the band £110,001 - £120,000: None
  In the band £120,001 or above: None