Many schools are currently facing budgetary pressures brought on by a range of factors including Covid-19, rising costs, and falling pupil numbers. As a result, schools across the country are having to cut costs whether by increasing class sizes, slashing classroom resources, or reducing the number of teachers them employ, to name just a few methods. These measures can not only impact students’ learning experience, they also put extra pressure on teachers and staff. Some of the challenges facing schools right now require an increase in funding to tackle them, as well, like the mental health crisis among students.
Lowering costs isn’t the only solution to this conundrum; raising funds for your school can provide you with the income your school needs. If you are fortunate enough to have the facilities to generate additional income, it is worth considering some of our suggestions below.
1. Maximise your school funding
Before you look into increasing funding for your school, you should try to maximise how much you receive.
First, make sure you have a strong marketing campaign in place to attract as many students as possible. You should also encourage all eligible pupils to apply for free school meals, too, to increase your pupil premium funding.
2. Rent your parking spaces outside of term time
If your school is situated in an area with heavy traffic and limited parking, such as in a town or city, you should consider offering your parking spaces to local businesses so their employees can use them during the holidays for a fee. All you have to do is advertise the spaces on your local council website.
This is an especially good idea if your school is based near a venue which hosts lots of events and you have a large car park on-site.
3. Rent rooms and spaces for events
School facilities can prove very useful for clubs, classes, and events. Some classrooms, for example, may come with an interactive whiteboard and projector, as well as plenty of seating, making them perfect for small gatherings, while larger spaces like halls can comfortably hold bigger events. If your school has a theatre – even a small one – consider renting it out for small productions.
It’s easy to advertise the availability of your facilities, too, thanks to online venue search websites. You can also directly contact local businesses to see if they’d like to hire them.
4. Rent out your sporting facilities
If you have sports facilities on your site like courts and pitches, you should look into renting them out to other schools or to the public in the evening, on the weekends, and during the school holidays.
Large outdoor spaces can also be rented out for fundraisers and car boot sales. These kind of events can help build rapport with the local community, too.
5. Set up a second-hand uniform shop
Selling second-hand uniforms doesn’t just generating additional income: the discounted price can help parents and guardians that struggle to afford a new uniform.
Make sure merchandise like school photos, personalised jumpers and tea towels, and branded stationary are advertised to parents and guardians, too.
How Integrated Finance is saving schools money
Our all-in-one, cloud-based school finance system enables schools to assess where their budget is spent, control their financials, and forecast for the future from one system. It’s fully integrated with our MIS, too, so it allows schools to get rid of their costly third-party systems and save money.
Thanks to its comprehensive functionality, it’s also helping finance teams considerably boost their efficiency, for example, it can automatically process and allocate purchases made on the parent portal, and it makes reporting and analysis quick and simple. Since its cloud-based, you don’t need to waste money or time on printing out documents, either.
“Ultimately, the savings are huge for schools. I did a little cost exercise and Bromcom could potentially save us £25,000 a school. For me, that’s two TAs or nearly a teacher’s salary.” – Karen Done, Business Manager, Nyewood CofE Infant School
You can learn more about Integrated Finance and how it can benefit your school here. You can find out how our fully featured MIS is saving schools around the UK significant amounts of money here.
