private schools shouldn't be asking people for financial donations

[mrbensbaker]

I've had an email from a state school sponsored by the GDST who own 24 private schools asking for a donation of £10 or more to purchase books from their wish list for a reading programme for their pupils.

Looking online, the GDST last published income (2019) was £272 million against an expenditure of £257 million. They had an investment gain of £3.3 million.

It's not a school that I have ever had a connection with and it's not a local school.

I think it's wrong for them to be asking for financial donations for a project when they are extremely well off financially, the GDST as sponsors should step up to the plate and cover this cost.

It’s not clear whether this is a private school or a state school that is sponsored by a private body.

In any case, my brother teachers in a private school that’s short of books. So donate if you want, delete otherwise.

With the fees they charge a private school shouldn't be short of books. I'd be really questioning any private school that I was paying fees for if they were short of books.

It’s not clear whether this is a private school or a state school that is sponsored by a private body.

It's a state school (though this isn't clear in the email) which is sponsored by the GDST who run 24 private schools up and down the country. They should be meeting their responsibility for the school they sponsor and providing books rather than the school having to ask completely unrelated people for donations.

They say that they don't work with any commercial fundraisers so I'd love to know where they got my email address from.

Oh how funny, I've just been reading the same email

From my understanding of the email, it's asking for donations to the private schools

Eh?

The parents who are paying the fees at private schools are paying for books / teachers / resources for their own kids at their own school.

Not everyone else's kids at the local state school too. Sponsored by could mean any number of things from sharing expertise on how to teach a specific subject, to allowing the state school use of the swimming pool, to sharing staff, or any other number of arrangements. It clearly doesn't mean that the private school(s) are paying the bills of the state schools.

A lot has to come out of the fees and I know from someone who works in banking that many private schools have extremely precarious finances.

So the GDST presumably provides all the necessary books for its private schools, but is asking for donations to help out those state schools they claim to sponsor, despite having made £millions last year.

They should be on the CF thread.

From what I've read online, the school used to be a fee paying GDST school but then converted to a state academy and retained GDST sponsorship and stopped charging fees.

It does it's own admissions and isn't part of the local authority admissions scheme.

That’s Birkenhead high school.

It’s a state school, in an area of high deprivation.

The GDST’s role as sponsor does not include covering all costs of the school. It never did.

Just like every other state school, Birkenhead high school seeks financial support from individuals /the community because they are not adequately funded by the government.

The parents who are paying fees at the private GDST schools certainly never signed up to fund a state school as well.

The parents don't need to fund it, the GDST had £3 million income from investments according to the charities commission website so from that I am sure they can afford £10 per child at a school that they sponsor.

To be asking the public to donate money for books to the school at a time when many people are furloughed or have lost jobs is a total failure to read the room. The school presumably has a significant involvement with the GDST given that it's a former GDST owned school and still retains the GDST in their logo.

How bizarre - I got that email too & I have no idea why. I just deleted it 🤷‍♀️

I don't really understand the email and it sounds bizarre that it's been randomly sent to all sorts of people who have no connection to the school. Are you sure it's not spam?

That said, private organisations do ask for donations for all sorts of things. I went to private school and they have an annual fundraiser every year (as I imagine most do?). It's to raise money for all the things that school fees don't cover, like student bursaries, a new building, etc. Just because they charge a lot, that doesn't mean the books always balance, but just like every other school, it's still hard to make the money stretch to cover everything. This is the case in most private organisations frankly.

But in the case of books, just because someone can afford to go to private school, it doesn't always mean they have the resources they need. Students on a bursary might not have parents who can afford to purchase books for them, just like they wouldn't in state school either. Some children have rich parents who don't really give a crap about meeting their basic needs. They can ship them off to school, but not give them the really affordable things they need. Now yes, maybe the school should just give them books, but that money still needs to come from somewhere.

But it's really random to ask strangers for money in an unsolicited way and I'd be wondering if it was genuine.

It is odd to ask unconnected people for donations, but it’s not odd at all for schools to ask for sponsorship to top up government funding.

The income and assets that GDST have are for the use of the schools that they fully run and fund. Birkenhead high school is a state school.

I'm intrigued by this state school which appears to actually be a non-fee paying private school.

The address for the company running the school is the same as the GDST address so it seems to me that this is more than just a sponsorship arrangement.

It’s not a private school. It was a private school. It’s been a state funded Academy school since 2010.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birkenhead_High_School_Academy

This explains what an Academy school is

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_(English_school)

@Squarepigeon

It’s not a private school. It was a private school. It’s been a state funded Academy school since 2010.

A state funded academy owned by the GDST.

Most girls' schools in the private sector have hardly any money. It is the boys' boarding schools which sometimes have a lot. Secondly about 80% of fees goes on teachers' wages and pensions, most make no profits and any spare over that goes on heating, the buildings etc.

@Xenia

Most girls' schools in the private sector have hardly any money. It is the boys' boarding schools which sometimes have a lot. Secondly about 80% of fees goes on teachers' wages and pensions, most make no profits and any spare over that goes on heating, the buildings etc.

Absolutely. Also, private schools normally make some money by hiring out their facilities for summer schools, weekend activities etc. Most have lost that income during the past year. The idea they have pots of cash sitting around in untrue for most.

That's not the case with the GDST though who got £3 million from investments alone in 2019.

There does seem to be a misconception that private schools are rolling in ready cash. Those investment profits are essential to have a cushion when money is tight and apart from the big, very old institutions like Eton or Rugby etc, many independent schools are not that well-off, and most of their wealth is tied to essential assets. 3 million is barely anything when you consider the significant costs of sustaining 24 schools, their estates etc - fees simply cannot cover everything as well as provide financial security for lean times without being increased significantly (and therefore becoming inaccessible to many existing parents), and certainly don't stretch to lots of extras. There's an expectation of independent schools to have the latest technology, impressive facilities etc as well as outstanding teaching. The money left over from fees should go into supporting bursaries and scholarships to support their charitable status. Also the GDST academies are, I believe, separate financial concerns to their fee-paying schools, and there are rules around how academies and independent schools are funded, you can't just say they should stick money here and there, it's a bit more complicated than that! And aside from that, regardless of feelings about independent schools, a serious financial downturn is heading this way, and if independent schools want to survive they can't be splurging (a frankly relatively speaking tiny) fund of £3m on non-essential extras but they CAN ask for people to fundraise separately for them. Annual funds and such like for these extras have been common place for years in both universities and private schools. You can just delete and not donate, and leave that to those who wish to do so.

‘A state funded academy owned by the GDST.’

Which is a charity.

register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?subid=0&regid=306983

Birkenhead the other GDST school in Liverpool were private selective schools. They then got funding from a philanthropist (can't remember who) to select on a purely needs blind basis. Sadly this wasn't viable long term so the decision was made to convert these 2 schools into state academies so that they could continue to provide a high level of education supported by GDST centralised admin and staff training etc in a very deprived area. It is a really good thing for girls in Liverpool and the surrounding area.

Although their accounts look healthy you need to divide that investment profit across the total number of GDST schools and then it isn't very much at all. GDST school aren't rolling in it and have a big push for their bursary funding at the moment to allow them to continue to fund places for girls who couldn't go there otherwise.

I will own up to being a GDST alumna - I owe everything to the opportunities they gave me.