The School Maintenance Fund
What is the Maintenance Fund?
All Saints CofE Primary School is a voluntary-aided Church of England school, which means first and foremost that your children benefit from an education with a Christian ethos. It also means that the London Diocesan Board for Schools (LDBS) takes responsibility for major or essential works to the buildings and grounds of all church schools within the Diocese, ranging from new windows to roof repairs. All of these are funded by contributions to the Maintenance Fund.
Where Diocesan funds allow, the Diocese will also fund projects requested by the school, for which the school pays a 10% contribution to the costs; for example, internal alterations to create a new learning space from part of a classroom. In order to qualify for that funding, we have to pay into the Diocesan Maintenance Fund pot every year.
Why is any additional funding needed?
You may think the school doesn’t need any additional funding. Indeed, the school is looking good because we have benefited from Maintenance Fund support in replacing water tanks.
Without your support we would not be able to maintain and develop the school to the level we currently enjoy. If we were unable to make Maintenance Fund contributions these essential works would not happen and the school would quickly fall into disrepair.
Why are parents asked to contribute?
The school does not have any “spare” funds from which to make the annual Maintenance Fund Contribution, so parents are asked to make voluntary donations. The Diocese calculates how much we need to pay, based on the number of pupils we have and the number of those pupils eligible for Pupil Premium. In turn, the school asks parents to contribute to the Maintenance Fund by paying an amount recommended by the Diocese. Currently, the recommended minimum donation is £70 per pupil, per school year. We must stress we ask you to only pay what you can afford, and if you can pay more, extra donations are greatly appreciated.
What happens if the Maintenance Fund is not paid to the Diocese?
The school MUST contribute the required amount to the Diocese each year in order to qualify for maintenance funding. In addition, depending on the work being done, the school will be asked to pay a contribution amounting to 10% of the total cost. This contribution is also drawn from the voluntary payments from parents, built up over time.
I donate to the school PTA – isn’t that enough?
Maintenance Fund payments are accounted for separately from fundraising. If, in any year, Maintenance Fund payments from parents do not reach the amount requested by the Diocese because not all parents have paid their contribution, the PTA are asked to provide a top-up amount from their fundraising.
This has an effect on the things that the PTA can do with the funds they raise and means that they have less money to provide enhanced experiences and equipment that make a real difference to our children’s enjoyment of school and the range of opportunities to which they are exposed. These include the Christmas in-school pantomime; the non-fiction library; table-tennis equipment; and the ongoing works to our Forest School – all the things that are not funded by the government or the Diocese and which make the school extra-special.
How do I pay my Maintenance Fund contribution?
- Existing Parents will be able to pay via School Gateway: You can choose to pay the balance in full or in instalments. You can also make extra donations if you wish.
- Cheque: You can pay an annual instalment by writing a cheque for £70 (please make this payable to ‘All Saints CE Primary School’ and print the name of your child on the back of the cheque). Please hand this to the school office.
- Alternatively, you can pay by cash in a marked envelope, ‘Maintenance Fund” please print the name of your child and hand this to the school office.
Thank you for supporting our School!
