How Do We Raise Money?

Anyone who is part of the school community can submit a proposal for funding.  We welcome any ideas that you believe will have a positive impact, no matter how big or small you perceive them to be. 

There is no exact formula for funding decisions, however, there are a number of things we take into consideration when making a funding decision.

1. Benefit to the school community: 

Essentially,  as long as the school and PTA see benefits which are in line with the costs i.e. they see an appropriate return on investment from the idea, then it will be considered.  Return on investment in this sense does not mean a direct monetary return but the value from the inestment for the school community.

2. Benefit reach:

Ideally funded initiatives will have as wide reach as possible i.e. it benefits the whole school community or a substantial pecentage of it.  Of course, not all initiatives will have a school wide benefit so we look to balance out our investments, as much as possible.  For example, if one investment largely benefits the Pre Prep over Prep or vice versa, we would look to balance this out with a future investment decision, where possible.

3. Type of benefit: 

Alongside the above we look at both long and short term returns and larger and smaller investments, to ensure, as best we can a flow of quicker and smaller investments (quick wins) vs. larger invetsments, when these arise.  

4. Availability of funds:

In making our decisions we have to balance all the above against available funds, ensuring we continually invest whilst retaining some money for potentially larger items and keeping enough of a 'float' to run events and maintain the shop etc.

5. Prority:

On the basis we need to balance all of the above, we often have to make priority calls on valid and worthy funding requests.  If an idea is not initially prioritised, it does not necessarily mean it will never be considered but it may not be something that can be invested in at the current time.

As a Teacher:

Please feed your idea through to the Senior Managment Team for discussion at an SMT meeting.  They will then bring any appropriate ideas to the PTA via the PTA and school meeting.   The full PTA committee will provide final approval.

As a Parent or Pupil:

If you have an idea that you think may merit the use of PTA funds, please complete our online form with your propoal.  We welcome all ideas.

We will then review this as a PTA and if approved from a PTA perspective the trustees will share these with the school via our regular PTA trustee and school meetings. 

Alternatively, as a pupil, you can feed your idea through to a teacher for them to share with us via the Senior Management Team, as above.

When submitting an idea for funding, ideally you should have a good idea about the costs, timescales and benefits of your proposal as this can significantly speed up the review and approval process.

We understand the ideas can come through at different stages however, and you may just be looking to share a conceptual idea initially, and this is of course ok and still welcomed.

If we need further information about your idea, you may be asked to come along to one of our meetings to share more.  Equally you are more than welcome to make a request to do this.

Process:

Funding ideas will generally go through 3 approvals.

• The PTA Committee
• The PTA & School Meeting
• The School Senior Management Team (SMT)

Depending on where the idea is initiated (be that via the PTA Committe or via the Senior Management Team ) will depend on the order it goes through these approvals, albeit the PTA and School Meeting will always be at the mid-point of the process. 

If it is a substantial request, it may also be presented to the governers, although this would be rare for PTA funding requests and would most likely be led by the school and thus would happen before it was presented to the PTA.

Timescales:

It is difficult to provide timescales as ideas can vary significantly.  Some may be approved relatively quickly (e.g. within a month) and others may take longer to go through the process and or may require further information before a decision can be made.

If an idea has been submitted via the website, i.e. straight to the PTA, this will be discussed at the next available Committee Meeting.  The Committe meets monthly (see the Calendar for our Meeting Schedule) and you will be kept up to date regarding the progress of your idea.