Partnerships


Always do business with


organisations whose values align with yours in order to avoid tensions and conflicts of interest. My Trust’s view is that we are creating income that will be invested in our students’ education and we want to support our wider community. So whether we are offering facilities that encourage young people to become more active or hosting the local Greek school as it prepares some of our own students for an extra GCSE in Greek, it’s a win/win. If you’re looking for funding


streams to help you develop facilities, then face-to-face contact is more important than ever, particularly for sports. Getting to know the funders and the individuals on their panels will enable you to understand their concepts and also demonstrate that you are working towards similar goals (such as combatting rising youth crime).


How to build relationships The most important thing is to listen so that you can tailor your pitch to meet the community need. LinkedIn is useful for developing connections. For instance, I linked up with our local creative people’s franchise for the performing arts, which then led me to linking in with another operatic society that needed space. We always bring potential hirers in to view the site. It’s difficult for


‘To be successful in income generation, you have to have support from the top. Our


school leaders constantly refer to what we do and why’


both sides to explore potential opportunities by simply looking at photos on a website. But if you’re in the space, then you end up talking through all kinds of ideas of how it could work. We offer classrooms with multi-purpose flooring which can be adjusted for different activities, as well as mobile ballet bars and other equipment. We also schedule a taster session so that people can bring in a new class and see if they like it. We like to be flexible so that


things can grow and develop organically. We have a dance teacher who started with two sessions a week and has grown her business with us to 16 hours a week. Now she runs large junior classes of 30 or so kids (many of whom are our students) in our hall and smaller classes in the dance studios. Once a month I greet every hirer to see how they’re settling in. We’ve also just launched a customer satisfaction survey to get regular feedback. To be successful in income


generation, you have to have support from the top. Our school leaders constantly refer to what we do and why, and our team attends morning briefings. We’ve built


relationships with teachers by demonstrating how they will benefit from the income ploughed back into the school. Teachers use the same booking system as hirers and they do have to make some compromises, such as putting equipment away at the end of the school day. However, they’ve been happy to gain more free periods for planning, and be supported by a strengthened SEN team. Plus, seeing the new build sixth form block get under way has really brought people on board. The lettings business now brings


in £500,000 a year, with 65% of the profit going to school (compared to around 50% with an external lettings company). I have two office staff – one of whom has children and prefers to work evenings, which benefits our many customers with day jobs. We’ve also trained a team of sixth formers to work as casuals. We pay them well and they do a responsible job, preparing rooms and equipment or locking up at the end of an evening session. We try to make ourselves part


of school life and don’t draw a distinction between the school and lettings. My staff came in on a Sunday to set up the vaccine centre for the school, and I mentor students and run after school swimming sessions. Kevin Yardley is director of income generation at The Generations Multi Academy Trust, Hertfordshire


FundEd SPRING 2022 35


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