Vision Evening

On the evening of Thursday 8th September I would like to invite children, parents, staff, governors and any other interested parties to a vision evening. This is an opportunity for anyone who has an interest in the school to come together and begin to set the core vision for the school into the foreseeable future.

This will first involve setting what we collectively believe our most important core values should be and what we feel the main aims of the school should be. This will then be taken forward by a small working party who will shape our collective thoughts into a Mission Statement (Vision), Aims and Values. This group will then come back to us all once they have finished and present these to us later in the year.

This is hugely important as it defines what the school is striving to become and the ethos that it is trying to develop. This is an extremely powerful tool in helping all parties remain focussed on where we want the school to be in five years time and what it will look like when we achieve it.

It is crucial that as many people as possible who have an interest in the school have an input at the start of the process. I would encourage you all to attend where possible, but if this is really not possible then please send your thoughts and ideas to me and I will pass these on.

Regards,

Matt Attree
Acting Headteacher
Culham Parochial CE Primary School

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WE STILL NEED YOUR SUPPORT!

Well, we have won the battle to save the school and now we have to secure hearts and minds at OCC by coming good on our promise to raise the £50,000 needed to cover the deficit – please see below a clarification of precisely what the position is:

CULHAM PAROCHIAL CE SCHOOL FUNDRAISING – WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

Schools which are run by the local authority are given an amount of money to spend every financial year (the year from 1 April to 31 March). With this schools have to employ staff, buy books, heat, clean and maintain the school, in fact, pay all the bills that the school would expect to face. The amount of money the school is given is driven by the number of pupils in the school, based on a national count which usually takes place in the third week of January. Therefore, the money which the school has been given to run from 1 April 2011 to 31 March 12 is based on the 27 pupils who were in the school in January 2011.

This means that there is not enough money allocated to pay the school bills, certainly in the year up to 31 March 2012 and also, because of changes to funding, in the year after (when we hope to have 39 children). When the closure consultation was first announced in November 2010, modelling showed that the school would not be viable with the falling number of children. However, we have also been able to show that, once the number of children in the school reaches 45 or so, the school can be viable year on year, but the question of how to plug the financial hole that will arise in 2011/12 and 2012/13 remains. This is a one-off amount of £50,000.

In December 2010 the Save Culham School Group (SCS) committed to raise £50,000 to fund this deficit. This commitment has been built into the school's budgets for the years up to 31 March 2014 and these show that the school will have balanced its budget by that date, if £50,000 of external fundraising can be found.

A number of people have committed to giving £1,000 each over the period to 31 March 2014 and this commitment was one of the things which persuaded the County Council that the school should remain open.

In June 2011, OCC accepted the school's budget which shows the fundraising of £50,000 and a balanced budget at 31 March 2014. OCC have put some conditions on this, notably that there will be no extension of the time in which the budget needs to be balanced and that there will be regular (monthly) monitoring of the situation to ensure that the school is keeping within the budget it has set.

The governing body is working closely with staff to ensure that these conditions are met and, in the longer term, that we have a model for the school which is financially viable with 45 children.

There has been some uncertainty about the figure if £50,000. This is a one-off amount which needs to be raised by 31 March 2014. This is not a recurring amount. Once the number of pupils is stable at around 45 (or more) the budget should balance from one year to the next. Of course there will be the occasional variation and whilst a number of pledges have been received, additional fundraising will continue.

In addition to this, the school's Parents and Friends Association (PFA) will continue to raise funds to support curriculum activities in the school, as it has always done.

So therefore the job is only half done at best, we still need to raise the £50,000 though we are some way towards it - we need to continue with all the hard work and effort of fundraising and those of us who have agreed to pledge money over time need to ensure that we have your bank details and mandate.

Let's Keep on Winning!