Business Plan Primary School

Business Plan

Prepared By The Executive Committee April 7, 2001

St Martin s Capital Projects Fund

TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Executive Summary................................................................................. 3 A. Big On Results, Short Of Space......................................................................................... 3 B. Fundraising Strategy ........................................................................................................... 3

II. Introduction And Rationale ..................................................................... 4 III. Objectives............................................................................................. 5 A. Details Of Requirement...................................................................................................... 5

IV. Critical Success Factors......................................................................... 5 V. Governance ............................................................................................ 6 A. Charitable Status................................................................................................................. 6 B. School Governors ................................................................................................................. 6 C . Executive Committee........................................................................................................... 6 D. Special Project Teams.......................................................................................................... 6

VI. Fundraising Strategies .......................................................................... 7 A. The School Association........................................................................................................ 7 B. Sources Of Finance.............................................................................................................. 7 C . Weighting Of Sources Of Funds...................................................................................... 11 D. Consolidated Master Plan................................................................................................. 12 E.

Phasing Of Pledges............................................................................................................ 12

VII. Communication Strategy......................................................................13 A. Website................................................................................................................................ 13 B. Parents/Community........................................................................................................... 13 C . Donors.................................................................................................................................. 13

VIII. Contacting The Appeal ........................................................................14 Appendix I —Newbury Weekly News Editorial — January 11, 2001 ...................15 Appendix II — Excerpts From The St Martin s Minute Timelapse Video........16 Appendix IV — Biographies For Executive Committee Members .......................18


I.

Executive Summary A.

Big On Results, Short Of Space St Martin s, in East End north Hampshire, won a Government Achievement Award for its performance in the December 2000 Primary School league tables. The staff are committed to building further on these results and to the continued provision of a truly excellent education for their pupils. However, the School s infrastructure now needs to be improved in order to facilitate these goals. Currently the Upper Juniors classroom also serves as the School Hall and Sports Hall. Highlighted as an issue requiring correction as a matter of urgency in the 1998 OFSTED assessment of the school, it has now been confirmed that finance for a new classroom will have to be raised privately. The St Martin s School Classroom Appeal (part of the St Martin s Capital Projects Fund, a registered charity) was set up to raise that finance. The goal is to raise £130,000 by January 31, 2003 and to have the new classroom operational by September 2003.

B.

Fundraising Strategy Pledges in the order of £25,000 have already been obtained. The balance of the finance will be raised from a number of sources, through a battery of clearly targeted projects. Securing a Flagship Sponsor, various levels of Corporate Sponsorship and Grants from appropriate Trusts figure significantly in the early phase in order to build momentum. Other projects, such as an Art Exhibition, a Spring Ball and Auction Of Promises, through to the launch of a Former Pupils Association and several waves of appeals to the local community will provide a steady stream of income from Quarter 2, 2001 onwards. Major local events, such as the Newbury Show and Newbury Races will be used as vehicles for auctions of promises and an internet auction will be also be conducted. A carefully constructed communication strategy will ensure that that the goals and activities of the St Martin s School Classroom Appeal are clearly understood by the key audiences of parents, donors, potential donors and Corporate Sponsors.


II. Introduction And Rationale St Martin s is a thriving Church of England Aided Primary School set in the village of East End in North Hampshire. The school serves a large rural area and thus enjoys the benefit of a pupil population drawn from a broad mix of backgrounds. The school predominantly feeds the excellent secondary schools of The Clere, (Burghclere, Hampshire) together with Park House and St Bartholomew s (Newbury, Berkshire). OFSTED assessed the school in 1998 and found that it was a prominent feature of village life, enjoying a high level of commitment from parents and the surrounding community. OFSTED also observed that the school was well managed with properly structured teaching by a very hardworking and conscientious team of teaching and support staff. Recent performance has been of such a high level that the school recently received a Government Achievement Award for the year 2000. All the pupils assessed achieved Level 4 or above in the National Curriculum tests with more than half reaching Level 5 (see Appendix I for copy of editorial from the Newbury Weekly News). In summary then, St Martin s is a school that is delivering excellent results for it s pupils and for the community — however, behind this achievement is a deficiencyin infrastructure that needs to be overcome if the staff are to be able to build further on their recent successes. The 1998 OFSTED report highlighted, as a key issue for resolution, the multiple demands currently made on the Upper Junior s Classroom. Currently this space is not available for the exclusive use of the Upper Juniors but is also in daily use as the dining hall and as a sports hall. In addition, it is used during wet playtime. Appendix II shows excerpts from a time lapse film of a St Martin s Minute that demonstrate the multiple uses of the classroom in a single day. The Inspectors concerns about this multiple use centred around impact on Educational continuity, the scope of available Physical Education activities and the loss of time associated with the repeated movement of heavy items of furniture. The Inspectors used terms such as unacceptable and noted that correction of the problem needed to be dealt with as a matter of urgency. On the basis of these findings, plans for a new classroom were drawn up and planning consent obtained. However, the Government is under no obligation to finance correction of OFSTED findings and we are not eligible for Lottery funding. In addition, the school s Church Of England Aided status does not grant access to the level of finance that will be required to build the new classroom. Thus the task of financing the project falls to the parents of current and future pupils and the St Martin s School Classroom Appeal is the vehicle that will be used to achieve this goal.


III. Objectives The objective of the St Martin s School Classroom Appeal (the Appeal ) is to raise the finance required to build a new Upper Junior s Classroom and an associated extension to the School library. Detailed QS assessment of the drawings show that the build costs for the classroom and library will be approximately £120,000 at today s values. Thus, allowing for some inflation and for equipping the new classroom, the financial goal for the Appeal is to raise £130,000. The timeline for achievement of this goal is January 31, 2003. This will allow the classroom to be completed prior to the beginning of the new school year in September 2003. A.

Details Of Requirement

The new Upper Juniors classroom, and the associated library extension, will be a 100 square metre, single story building of conventional brick construction. The new building will be attached to the existing School buildings and will be an integral part of those structures. The building line at the front of the School will be moved forward in order to accommodate the joining of the new and old structures and the space so liberated will be used to extend the School library. Outline drawings of the new classroom and library extension can be found at Appendix III. The new building will provide dedicated classroom facilities for the Upper Juniors, extended library facilities for the whole School and additional storage space which will, in turn, allow the removal of temporary buildings from elsewhere on the School grounds.

IV. Critical Success Factors Research on similar initiatives shows that the following factors are critical to success: • • • • • •

Vision Management Focus - on relatively few, high value, strategies Resource utilisation Communication Patronage

The structure and strategy that have been built for the Appeal addresses each of these factors.


V. Governance There are four levels to the system of Governance under which the Appeal will be managed and administered: A.

Charitable Status The Appeal will be managed under the Charities Act 1993 and will comply with all applicable regulations. The St Martin s Capital Projects Fund, under which the Appeal will be managed is a registered charity (registration number 1086831) and has a properly founded Constitution. Thus the interests of donors and beneficiaries are properly protected.

B.

School Governors This project was initiated by the School Governors and has their full backing. The Governors have delegated day to day management of the Appeal to an Executive Committee and retain one ex-officio seat on that Committee.

C.

Executive Committee The Executive Committee is an elected body composed of five members with an additional ex-officio seat for a member of the School Governors. All of the members of the Executive Committee have close ties to the school. The role of the Executive Committee is to provide strategic oversight to the fundraising effort and to be the overall project management forum for all individual fundraising initiatives. Each member of the Committee will assume responsibility for overall management of groups of specific fundraising initiatives. The members of the Executive Committee all bring specific skills to the Appeal and brief biographies of the members are attached at Appendix IV.

D.

Special Project Teams Each major fundraising project will be managed by an appointed project team composed of a member of the Executive Committee together with other resources pulled from the parent population or community. These teams will be set up for the duration of each initiative and then dissolved in order to best utilise the human resources available to the Appeal.


VI. Fundraising Strategies A.

The School Association St Martin s benefits from the activities of a very successful School Association which raises in the order of £7,000 each year to finance ongoing activities through vehicles such as school fairs in the Spring and Michelmas terms and an annual Art Exhibition. However, the order of magnitude of finance required by the Appeal will not be met by School Association activities. Furthermore, the activities supported by monies raised by the School Association will continue throughout the life of the Appeal and so clear delineation between fundraising strategies will be required in order to prevent cannibalisation of existing sources of finance. To ensure this delineation, the Appeal will focus on incremental sources of finance to those traditionally pursued by the School Association.

B.

Sources Of Finance The Appeal will target a limited list of key sources of finance: • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Flagship Sponsorship Corporate Sponsorship School Governors Grants from relevant Trusts and other Grant making bodies A Spring Ball with Auction Donations from the private and business community around the school An Art Exhibition at Donnington Priory, Newbury Musical evenings using well known local performers Major social events Christmas Compact Disc recordings and Christmas Cards made by the pupils of St Martin s School Auctions of promises using the internet as a vehicle Donations from Former Pupils Raffles of high value prizes

These key sources of finance will be augmented by numerous smaller initiatives. Each of the key sources is described in more detail below. Flagship Sponsorship Potential Corporate Sponsors and Grant-Making Trusts, will be offered the opportunity to become the flagship Sponsor for the Appeal.


In order to qualify to have the classroom named after their organisation, the Flagship Sponsor will have to make a donation of in excess of £30,000. Only one such Sponsor will be sought. Corporate Sponsorship Approaches will be made to major local companies in order to secure their support as Corporate Sponsors. Such Sponsorship may take the form of services rendered to the Appeal, in order to further it s efforts, or financial assistance in the form of major donations. Each potential financial Sponsor will be approached with a specific sponsorship package, tailored to that Sponsor, and will be offered the opportunity to benefit from making a significant donation. One example of such benefit might be the branding of the classroom with that Sponsor s name. To qualify as a Corporate Sponsor on financial grounds (as opposed to being simply a donor), donations will have to exceed £5,000. A system of Sponsor Tiers will be put in place with qualification for each tier being determined by the size of donation: • • • •

Bronze; Silver; Gold; Platinum;

Donations of £5,000 - £6,750 Donations of £6,751 - £8,500 Donations of £8501 - £10,000 Donations of >£10,000

Governors The Governors have committed to pledge substantially all of their capital projects funding from the Diocese for years 2001-2003 to the Appeal. These monies may represent as much as 20% of the total target. Grants Grants will be sought from Grant Making Trusts. Approaches will be made to known local trusts and to national grant making bodies using directories to identify relevant trusts in order to provide suitable targeting data. Spring Ball and Auction There are a great many wonderful manor houses in the area surrounding the School, all with wonderful history and grounds. The owners of several of these houses have offered the Appeal the use of the grounds for events and the Spring Ball in early 2002 will be the first event to capitalise upon this opportunity.


The Ball will target high profile residents of the area with each of twenty such people being asked to raise a table of ten people. The catering and music provided at the Ball will be of excellent quality. However the funds raised by the event will come primarily from an Auction of goods and promises to be held after dinner. There have been several very successful events in this format in recent years and many of the people involved in organising those events will be involved in managing the Appeal Ball. The project team will be led by a group of parents of children at the School - one is a professional Auctioneer and another was previously responsible for organising major Corporate Entertainment events. Donations From The Community Throughout the life of the Appeal, a total of four waves of appeal letters will be sent to different target audiences. These target audiences will be: •

• • •

Wave 1 - a small number of private benefactors from the locality of the school who will be invited to join a scheme of fixed annual donations throughout the life of the Appeal Wave 2- known commercial and private donors in the local area Wave 3 - repeat of all possible commercial donors with a sub-mailing to previous donors Wave 4 - newly identified private donors in the local area

For private donors, guidance on Gift Aid will be provided by the Appeal. Art Exhibition The School Association has run a highly successful Art Exhibition early each year for some time and the Appeal will benefit from the experience gained by the Association with that event. However, the scale of the Appeal event will be larger with Donnington Priory in Newbury, the Auction venue for Dreweatt Neate, being the venue. The Exhibition has been timed to coincide with a viewing for a Dreweatt Neate auction in order to maximise the opportunities to acquire passing trade in addition to that attracted by a publicity campaign. Artists from the wider area of Hampshire, Berkshire and Wiltshire will be invited to exhibit. Major Social Events The number of major social events will be limited to two in order to focus efforts and prevent dilution of available donations.


One event has already identified — a Barn Dance/Hog Roast. The School Association has successfully run a Barn Dance in the past. The scale of that event will be extended to provide a suitable return for the Appeal. A second event will be planned for later in the life of the Appeal with the nature of the event being determined by the status of fundraising at that time. Musical Evenings Music is acknowledged as a speciality of St Martin s School —indeed the quality of music teaching was highlighted in the 1998 OFSTED report. Furthermore, our parent Church, St Martin s in East Woodhay, is a recognised recording venue and can seat up to 300 people. In addition Peter Crawford, the Executive Committee Chairman, has contacts with musical celebrities. The Appeal will exploit these opportunities by organising two musical events, one in 2001 and one in 2002. These events will be publicised widely to attract an audience beyond the parent population and the immediate community Christmas Compact Discs As noted above, music is a speciality of the School. Thus it is entirely appropriate that the musical talent in the school is leveraged as a fundraising platform. Compact Discs of Christmas music will be recorded prior to Christmas 2002 and will be sold through local music retailers and through the Appeals website (see Section VII). In addition, the children have produced festive drawings and other artwork that will form the basis of specially printed Christmas Cards which will, once again, be sold through local retailers and on the Appeals website in addition to being sold to parents. These cards will be sold for both Christmas 2001 and Christmas 2002. Auctions Of Promises The strategy for Auctions Of Promises had originally targeted major local events that were to have brought a spending public into the local area and two such auctions had been planned —one at the Newbury Show and the second at a race meeting at Newbury Racecourse. However uncertainties caused by the Foot and Mouth epidemic required these plans to be cancelled. However, a third planned auction, to be held on the internet, will go ahead using promises/goods of wider appeal. A third party auction site will be used to host the auction. Former Pupils Association


A Former Pupils Association will be set up and will be operational by the middle of Quarter 3, 2001. Potential members will be sought through escalation of the message via recent School leavers , through campaigns in the local secondary schools fed by St Martin s and by advertisements in local media. It is intended that the management of the Former Pupils Association be passed to the School Association after completion of the construction of the new Upper Juniors classroom. Raffles The conduct of raffles can provide useful levels of income but can also consume a disproportionate volume of resource in administration unless the prizes are of high value and the tickets priced accordingly. Thus the Appeal will use raffles as part of a contingency plan for 2002 with the precise tactics used being determined by the progress towards goal achieved at that time. In the meantime, a nominal value has been placed against raffles for planning purposes. C.

Weighting Of Sources Of Funds Table 1 below details the relative weighting of finance raised from each of the identified sources. The data are shown gross of costs, which are estimated to be approximately 5% of the total funds raised. Table 1: Relative Weightings Of Finance By Source Total

% Of

(£)

Target

Corporate Sponsorship

14,000

11%

Flagship Sponsor

30,000

23%

Governors

23,500

18%

Trust Grants

25,000

19%

Spring Ball & Auction

10,000

8%

General Donations

17,000

13%

Art Exhibition

5,000

4%

Social Events

4,000

3%

Musical Evenings

3,000

2%

Christmas Cards/ CD’s

2,500

2%

Auction - Internet

1,000

1%

Former Pupils Association

1,050

1%

Raffles Total Cash/Pledges(£)

450

0.3%

136,500

105%


D.

Consolidated Master Plan Each of the steps required to implement the Appeal, and to manage each element of the fundraising strategy, is underpinned by a fully detailed Project Plan. These individual plans are then pulled together into the Consolidated Master Plan, the overall schedule which is driven by two key factors — recognitionof the limited resources available to manage and execute fundraising activities and sensitivity to the seasonal nature of many of the events. A third factor that influences the schedule is the possible availability of Seed Challenge finance from Government sources. Seed Challenge funds are made available by the Government early in each calendar year —the concept is that the Government matches finance already raised by a charity if that matching will enable the total goal to be reached immediately. Thus the Appeal intends to have raised the requisite level of finance to qualify for Seed Challenge funds by January 2002. While application for Seed Challenge funding is an integral part of the Executive Committee s plans, the current Master Plan assumes that ALL finance will have to be raised organically by the Appeal. A contingency plan will be invoked if an application for Seed Challenge funds is successful.

E.

Phasing Of Pledges Based upon the scheduling of the Consolidated Master Plan, the build of pledges over the two years of fundraising activity is as shown in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1: Accumulation Of Funds By Quarter 160,000 140,000 120,000

£

100,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 20,000 0 Q1, 2001 Q2, 2001

Q3, 2001 Q4, 2001 Q1, 2002

Q2, 2002

Q3, 2002 Q4, 2002 Q1, 2003


Figure 2 below shows the contribution of funds from each key source over the life of the fundraising effort. Figure 2: Source Of Funds By Quarter

60,000 40,000 £ 20,000 Q1, 2001

Corporate Sponsorship General Donations Art Exhibition Auction - Internet Flagship Sponsor

Q2, 2001

Q3, 2001

Q4, 2001

Q1, 2002

Q2, 2002

Governors Former Pupils Association Spring Ball & Auction Social Events

Q3, 2002

Q4, Q1, 2002 2003

Christmas Cards/ CD’s Trust Grants Raffles Musical Evenings

VII. Communication Strategy A.

Website The core of the Appeal s wide area communication strategy will be an internet website. In addition to an overview of the Appeal s vision and objectives, the site will provide details of forthcoming events, donation methods and progress against goal. The website will also provide an email link to the Executive Committee to facilitate easy communication for potential donors from outside the immediate community of the school. The website address is www.stmartinsschoolclassroomappeal.org.uk.

B.

Parents/Community Newsletters will be published regularly by the Executive Committee for distribution to parents and the local community. These Newsletters will provide information on the progress towards the ultimate goal, details of forthcoming events and appeals for resources to join the various special project teams

C.

Donors Newsletters will also be sent to all existing donors on a quarterly cycle


VIII.

Contacting The Appeal If you would like to become a Corporate Sponsor then please contact Peter Crawford on 01635 33186 or John Easton on 07803 127397. Alternatively, you can email us at [email protected] To be included in future mailings regarding the Appeal please contact us at: ¥ Email - [email protected] ¥ Telephone - 01635 253489

For general information on the activities of the Appeal: ¥ Email - [email protected] ¥ Telephone - 01635 253489 ¥ Post St Martin s School East End Newbury RG20 0AF


Appendix I —Newbury Weekly News Editorial — January 11, 2001


Appendix II — Excerpts From The St Martin s Minute Timelapse Video 09:07 — Upper Junior Class

12:09 - Lunch

14:13 - PE

14:51 - Assembly

15:17 — Upper Juniors Class


Appendix III — Revised School Floorplan Proposed Classroom

Library

Lobby

Admin

Head

Staff Room

Hall / Upper Juniors

Servery

Lower Juniors

Key Stage 1

Boiler


Appendix IV — Biographies For Executive Committee Members Peter Crawford (Chairman): • Has a son joining the School in September 2001 • Employed as the Land Director for Thames Vale Homes • Has thorough knowledge of; • Sales & Marketing • Also has numerous contacts with local businesses such as Solicitors and Estate Agents James Holdcroft (Treasurer): •

Has three daughters, one in Year 3, one in Year 1 and one who will be coming up to school in a few years, and a son in Year R • Works as a freelance Computer Programmer • Manages the finances of his own business himself • Can offer the Committee technical software knowledge and a working knowledge of accounts John Easton (Secretary): • Has two daughters, one in year 2 and one joining the School in September 2001 • Employed as the General Manager of a Global Business Unit, for an American Pharmaceutical Consulting Company • Has previously run his own company • Can offer the Committee Project Management and Sales & Marketing skills

Sue Gorman: • • • •

Has a son in Year 5 and a daughter in Year 2 Is a practicing Veterinary Surgeon Serves on the Editorial Board of UK Veterinary Publications Served for three years on the School Association therefore brings knowledge of how the support structure for School finance operates and a working knowledge of accounts


Peter Ridler: • Has two daughters, one in Year 2 and one in Year R • Has a background in Agriculture • Used to run his own agricultural business but recently sold it and is still employed by the company • Has sales skills and has also served on several Committees previously (but not school related)

Roland Bullivant (Ex-Officio, Member): • • • •

Has a son in Year 5 and a daughter in Year 3 Employed as Sales & Marketing Director for a technology company >20 years experience in Sales & Marketing Currently serves the School as; • Vice Chair of the Governors • Chair of the Finance Committee

Simon Carter (Ex-Officio Member): • • • •

Has a son in Year 6 and a daughter in Year 4 Self-employed computer software consultant Governor of the School Chair of the School Premises Committee

Julia Easton (Ex-Officio Member): • • •

Has a daughter in Year 3, a son in Year 2 and a daughter in Year R Employed as a Mechanical Engineer at the Rutherford Laboratory Chair of Governors of the School


St Martin's Primary School Classroom Appeal

Big on results short on space Use of existing Hall/Classroom

Appeal Total £20000 out of £130000

Background

News

Video Clips Objectives

£19,000 already pledged

Fundraising Activities

Up coming Events

Corporate Sponsors

09:07 Upper Junior Class

Musical Evening August

Making a Donation Join the Former Pupils Association Contact us

12:09 Lunchtime

14:13 Physical Education

http://www.stmartinsschoolclassroomappeal.org.uk/video.php (1 of 2) [8/7/2001 9:31:40 pm]

Barn Dance July 21

Art Exhibition Donnington Priory October 13


14:51 Assembly

15:17 Upper Junior Class

Click here to see the whole movie

http://www.stmartinsschoolclassroomappeal.org.uk/video.php (2 of 2) [8/7/2001 9:31:40 pm]


Big on results short on space

Appeal Total £20000 out of

Registered Charity Number 1086831

Background Video Clips Objectives Fundraising Activities Corporate Sponsors Making a Donation Join the Former Pupils Association Contact us

St Martin's, in East End, north Hampshire, was rated as one of the country's top 100 Primary Schools in the December 2000 league tables. The staff are committed to building further on these results and to the continued provision of a truly excellent education for their pupils. However, the School's infrastructure now needs to be improved in order to facilitate these goals. Currently the Upper Juniors classroom also serves as the School Hall and Sports Hall. Highlighted as an issue requiring correction 'as a matter of urgency' in the 1998 OFSTED assessment of the school, it has now been confirmed that finance for a new classroom will have to be raised privately. The St Martin's Classroom Appeal (part of the St Martin's Capital Projects Fund, a registered charity) was set up to raise that finance and to manage construction. The goal is to raise £100,000 by January 31, 2003 and to have the new classroom operational by September 2003.

http://www.stmartinsschoolclassroomappeal.org.uk/ [8/7/2001 9:36:07 pm]

£130000

News £19,000 already pledged Up coming Events Barn Dance July 21 Musical Evening August Art Exhibition Donnington Priory October 13

Business Plan Primary School

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