Every year the Aske’s governors and senior managers hold a meeting with parents to answer questions and here any concerns that parents want to raise. As you might expect it’s the chair of governors who fronts for the rest of us, but I went along to yesterday’s meeting at Hatcham College to hear what was said.
I’m afraid that I arrived a little late and so missed the speeches. I did, however, catch the presentation on the school’s finances.
This year the school’s income was a bit over £10.5 million, the bulk of which (£8 m) went on staff salaries. I’m not sure how it works with other accademies, but at Askes most of the income (£9.7 m) comes from the DCSF, which uses the same formula as is used with the maintained sector. The school gets an additional £200 k from the Habberdashers and makes the remaining £500 k from the hiring of facilities and consultancy.
In terms of spending, one of the things that struck me was that the school now has a budget of nearly a quarter of a million for ICT, more than the catering costs.
Parents’ questions followed and they included: when diplomas would be introduced (like the rest of Lewisham schools Hatcham will be waiting a couple of years before introducing level 3 diplomas); Ofsted’s judgment about behaviour on the Jerningham Road site; recent changes to the geography department; Key Stage 3 STAT results; and the impact of Temple Grove (Monson) on the school’s admission policies.
On the last point the reply was that yes it does change things. Hatcham is now a local school, largely taking children from a radius of under 2 miles.
And with that we closed.
£8m sounds about right – most schools will spend around 80% of their budget on salary costs.
Yes, that’s what I understand.