Budgeting the curriculum
conduct have been applied to all spending decisions? n Resolve – has the school managed its resources efficiently and achieved value for money? Having the right tools to do the
job is very important. Good budget planning and monitoring software supports effective resource management in all types and size of school. Across an academy trust, using the same tools in each school enables consistency and streamlines the planning, monitoring and reporting process. This may require substantial
investment so be sure to follow good practice and consider several suppliers. Don’t think just about cost but also about how well the product meets your needs, both now and in the future, and find out what schools already using a product say about it. But be mindful about investing in an all-singing, all-dancing product that includes functionality that you will never use or need! The key drivers for managing
financial resources are those factors that will influence the affordability of the curriculum: n The amount of revenue income that you receive per pupil n The average cost of employing a teacher at your school n How much you can afford to spend on teachers n The amount of time your teachers spend teaching.
Building financial resilience Curriculum-led planning is an approach to strategic financial planning that builds on the key drivers for effective resource management. You may have heard this referred to as integrated curriculum financial planning (ICFP). ICFP brings together curriculum and budget planning as a closely linked process and uses a common language to develop understanding across the leadership team and the trust board or governing body. This is certainly not a new idea. ASCL and others have been advocating the value of strengthening the link between curriculum and financial planning for many years!
20 AUTUMN 2018 FundEd
Practically speaking, ICFP is based
on the relationship between a group of key metrics. These might include the cost of employing a teacher, the amount of time teachers spend teaching, how much of the budget is available to spend on teachers, the average size of a teaching group and the pupil-teacher ratio. Consideration of the interaction
between these metrics and exploring where there might be flexibility will directly inform the number of teachers the school can afford to employ and therefore the number of teaching sessions the school has
available to deliver the curriculum. All of the questions, metrics and
considerations already mentioned are relevant to all phases of education. The relationship between the metrics and the range of values that a school or trust might choose to work within will be different in a primary and secondary setting; they will also be different in schools with high and low levels of deprivation. Done well, ICFP should deliver
a curriculum that meets the needs of all groups of pupils, takes account of local context, and provides a sustainable foundation for growth.
Julia Harnden (@julia_harnden) is ASCL’s Funding Specialist and works with schools, supporting them in developing sustainable strategic financial plans and building financial resilience. She represents ASCL in the campaign for sufficient, sustainable and equitable funding for education and belongs to a number of DfE strategy groups. Julia worked for HSBC’s corporate banking division before moving to the education sector.
Suzanne O’Farrell (@ OfarrellSuzanne) is ASCL’s Curriculum, Assessment and Qualifications Specialist. She leads for the organisation on all aspects of curriculum and assessment in the secondary phase and supports school leaders in curriculum and assessment planning. Before joining ASCL, Suzanne spent 27 years in secondary education and was Headteacher of a large secondary school in Staffordshire.
IMAGES: STUDIOBARCELONA; VECTORHOT/
ISTOCKPHOTO.COM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
