Finance

Jesus said, ‘I am the Good Shepherd… I know my sheep and my sheep know me.’ John 10.14

Financial information

There are legal obligations for maintained schools to publish financial information, but our own vision and values lead us to want to be even more transparent than the law requires. The Governing Body and its Resources Committee review, monitor, and evaluate the allocation and management of the school’s resources in accordance with agreed policies, procedures, and protocols, in order to secure the best possible outcome for all pupils and the most effective use of public funds. We have nothing to hide, so if you would like an answer to a question and cannot find it on this site, please get in touch!

Page contents

Salary disclosure

All maintained schools are required to publish how many school employees (if any) have a gross annual salary of £100,000 or more. Bayford does not have any employees with a salary of £100,000 or more and, as a small primary school, even the salary band for our Headteacher is far below this level.

Hertfordshire Scheme for Financing Schools

Almost all the money to run our school is public money allocated to the school through the local authority, Hertfordshire County Council. Local authorities are required to publish schemes for financing schools, setting out the financial relationship between them and the schools they maintain. You can find out more about the local scheme under which we operate from Hertfordshire County Council. We have formally adopted the scheme and the county’s financial regulations.

In broad terms maintained schools are funded chiefly on the basis of pupil numbers, so the larger the school, the more money will be available to the school. The way in which the school chooses to spend the money is, however, largely a local matter for the school’s senior leadership team and governing body to determine. Quite properly schools are held to account for the decisions taken, both by school inspections and by the county’s internal audit procedures.

Download a copy of the Hertfordshire Scheme here

Our financial policy

Working within the Hertfordshire scheme and having adopted the county’s Financial Regulations, we manage our financial affairs in accordance with our own Financial Policy and Schedule of Delegation. This policy is reviewed every two years, or whenever required by changes to regulations at national or county level. We are not required to publish this policy, but we are making it available in the interests of full transparency and in accordance with our school vision and values. Each year we also complete a Schools Financial Value Standard (SFVS) return, a nationally required process which helps us evaluate the adequacy and effectiveness of our financial management.

Our financial policy document consolidates the six previously distinct financial policy documents set out below:

  • Private Fund Account Policy
  • Charging and Remissions Policy
  • Lettings Policy
  • Control of Assets Policy
  • Debt Recovery Policy
  • Payment of Governor’s Allowances Policy

We find that keeping these together in a single document, with the Schedule of Delegation appended, helps us to ensure that we are working consistently and effectively to deliver the best value for money. You can download our latest policy document using the button below.

Download our financial policy 2022-2024

Our latest accounts

Schools have to work on a financial year which is out of step with the academic year. Our accounting period runs from April to March even though we usually plan school development on a year running from September to August. Our accounts are usually finalised and published in summary form here in the summer term each year. The complete and detailed accounts are published in full on the central government systems (see Compare us with other schools, below), but generally not until the autumn term. You can download our latest summary accounts using the button below.

Download our 2021-22 financial summary

Income and expenditure

Most of our income comes from central government through Hertfordshire County Council. The rest comes from  range of sources, including supply teacher insurance payments, grants from charitable bodies to which the school has applied, donations and voluntary contributions, income from facilities (lettings), catering income (school meals), and contributions to school visits. In expenditure our largest cost is always staffing, with premises and occupation costs generally around 10% and supplies and services between 10 and 15%.

Compare us with other schools

All maintained schools are also required to provide a link to the webpage which is dedicated to each school on the schools financial benchmarking service. This is a very useful government site which gives details of income and expenditure for each maintained school going back several years and allows users to compare similar schools.

Benchmarking for best value

At Bayford we use this site ourselves each year to help test whether we are achieving the best value for money in our management of the school.

Bayford’s benchmarking page

Pupil Premium funding

Additional funding is given to schools on the basis of how many pupils in the school either have been adopted from care or left care, or are eligible for free school meals or have been, in the past 6 years. This funding is known as the Pupil Premium. You can find out more about Pupil Premium funding from the Department for Education.

For primary age children we currently receive £1345 each year for each pupil eligible for free school meals (£2345 for those adopted from care).

Although the amount the school receives is based on the number of pupils in the two categories, the school is not expected to use the funding only for those pupils. The number of eligible pupils is simply a marker or proxy for the level of disadvantage experienced by the school community as a whole.

The funding is to be used to improve educational outcomes for all disadvantaged pupils (through support to raise the quality of teaching, like staff training; through targeted support for specific pupils; for measures to improve attendance, or for behavioural support etc.).

Publishing our Pupil Premium statement

Each year, usually in the autumn term, we will publish on this page a statement outlining how we use the additional funding we currently receive, why we have chosen to use it in this way, and what evidence we have to support the decisions we have taken. You can download the current statement by using the button below.

Our pupil premium statement 2022-23

Catch-up Premium

In June 2020 the government announced £1 billion of funding to support children and young people to catch up on missed learning caused by coronavirus (COVID19). This is especially important for the most vulnerable pupils and pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds who we know have been most affected.You can find out more about Catch-up Premium funding from the Department for Education.

For Reception to Y6 children we received £80 for each pupil, based on the number on roll in October 2020. Schools received the funding in three tranches, in autumn 2020, spring 2021, and summer 2021. The funding is for specific activities which will help pupils catch up on missed learning. Schools should particularly focus on disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils as we know they have been most affected.

Publishing our Catch-up Premium statement

Schools are required to publish:

  • how the grant has been or will be spent
  • how the effect of this expenditure on the educational attainment of pupils at the school will be assessed

You can download our statement using the button below.

Our catch-up premium statement 2021

PE & Sport Premium funding

Physical activity has numerous benefits for children and young people’s physical health, as well as their mental wellbeing (increasing self-esteem and emotional wellbeing and lowering anxiety and depression), and children who are physically active are happier, more resilient and more trusting of their peers. Ensuring that pupils have access to sufficient daily activity can also have wider benefits for pupils and schools, improving behaviour as well as enhancing academic achievement.

The government is committed to ensuring that children and young people have access to at least 60 minutes of sport and physical activity per day. It recommends 30 minutes of this is delivered during the school day and to help primary schools to achieve this commitment provides additional funding. The funding is allocated directly to schools, so we have the flexibility to use it in the way that works best for our pupils.

Schools receive PE and sport premium funding based on the number of pupils in years 1 to 6. Schools with 17 or more eligible pupils receive £16,000 and an additional payment of £10 per pupil.

You can access the published allocations for 2021 to 2022 and read the conditions of grant for 2021 to 2022.

The breakdown of funding for the academic year 2020 to 2021 is also available.

We must use the PE and sport premium to:

  • develop or add to the PE, physical activity and sport that our school provides
  • build capacity and capability within the school
  • to ensure that improvements made now are sustainable and will benefit pupils joining the school in future years

Publishing our Sport Premium Statement

Each year, usually in the summer term, we are required to publish details of how we spend our PE and sport premium funding and show:

  • the amount of PE and sport premium received
  • a full breakdown of how it has been spent
  • the impact the school has seen on pupils’ PE, physical activity, and sport participation and attainment
  • how the improvements will be sustainable in the future

We are also required to publish the percentage of pupils within our year 6 cohort who met the national curriculum requirements for swimming. You can download the current statement by using the button below.

Our Sport Premium statement 2022 
This page was last updated on 9th December 2022