Tiffin's (Money) Box Is Empty: What's The Latest
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Tiffin's (Money) Box Is Empty: What's The Latest
Any news of the financial mess at Tiffin? Has anyone in the school or the LEA taken responsibility? How do the local council tax payer like bailing out the school which seems to be filled with children from far and wide?
lewarcher - not quite sure I understand what you mean.
It is a publicly funded school - so there is a need to know. If the LEA finance dept missed what was happening; and if the head missed what was happening; and if the GB missed what was happening there is a need to know.
Or have GS become private fiefdoms not subject to the Freedom of Information Act or that there should be no discussion about such an event on a GS discussion board?
It is a publicly funded school - so there is a need to know. If the LEA finance dept missed what was happening; and if the head missed what was happening; and if the GB missed what was happening there is a need to know.
Or have GS become private fiefdoms not subject to the Freedom of Information Act or that there should be no discussion about such an event on a GS discussion board?
Sorry to have confused you.
I forget there is a lot of righteous indignation on this board.
What I meant was:
Tiffin, like almost every secondary school in Britain, communicates as little as possible about its management processes because there is a belief at the school, like at almost every secondary school in Britain, that parents' views, feelings and thoughts are selfish, irrelevant and ill-informed.
And just to be clear - I think this a major failing - though you only have to read this board to have some sympathy with schools' taking this view.
I forget there is a lot of righteous indignation on this board.
What I meant was:
Tiffin, like almost every secondary school in Britain, communicates as little as possible about its management processes because there is a belief at the school, like at almost every secondary school in Britain, that parents' views, feelings and thoughts are selfish, irrelevant and ill-informed.
And just to be clear - I think this a major failing - though you only have to read this board to have some sympathy with schools' taking this view.
This arrived on Friday:
Dear Tiffin Parents,
I wanted to thank all those parents who attended the recent briefings on the financial situation at the School. The response has been positive and I hope that any misconceptions arising from press reports were laid to rest. Some people asked if we could distribute the information more widely, and we considered this but I hope you will understand why we decided that it was not in the best interests of the school, because of the risk of sensitive financial data being made public and taken out of context. There will be another opportunity to hear about the financial position at the forthcoming Head's Question Time on Monday 16th March, at which Governors will be present, and I would encourage anyone who was unable to make the previous meetings to attend. We will also be providing updates on financial progress within the next few weeks.
I thought it would be helpful to send out a brief summary of who the Governors are, and a document is attached to this note. This is also published on the Governors section of the Tiffin School website. Governors do attend many School functions and hopefully this will help you to identify them and to find out about their background.
A newly constituted Finance Committee has been set up with James Heath in the Chair. This Committee is able to support the School with financial planning, and liaises with the School and other external bodies on income and overall financial management. A key aim is to provide better information about the parental contributions paid through Tiffinian Limited for the Tiffin Education Fund, including a more detailed picture of how the funds support the "extras" which Tiffin School provides over and above what would be possible from government income alone. The School's finances are complex, but I do realise that this transparency is important to give you total confidence that your contributions are well managed, and do provide huge benefits to the education of your sons.
Regards,
Stuart Lester, Chair of Governors, Tiffin School
Dear Tiffin Parents,
I wanted to thank all those parents who attended the recent briefings on the financial situation at the School. The response has been positive and I hope that any misconceptions arising from press reports were laid to rest. Some people asked if we could distribute the information more widely, and we considered this but I hope you will understand why we decided that it was not in the best interests of the school, because of the risk of sensitive financial data being made public and taken out of context. There will be another opportunity to hear about the financial position at the forthcoming Head's Question Time on Monday 16th March, at which Governors will be present, and I would encourage anyone who was unable to make the previous meetings to attend. We will also be providing updates on financial progress within the next few weeks.
I thought it would be helpful to send out a brief summary of who the Governors are, and a document is attached to this note. This is also published on the Governors section of the Tiffin School website. Governors do attend many School functions and hopefully this will help you to identify them and to find out about their background.
A newly constituted Finance Committee has been set up with James Heath in the Chair. This Committee is able to support the School with financial planning, and liaises with the School and other external bodies on income and overall financial management. A key aim is to provide better information about the parental contributions paid through Tiffinian Limited for the Tiffin Education Fund, including a more detailed picture of how the funds support the "extras" which Tiffin School provides over and above what would be possible from government income alone. The School's finances are complex, but I do realise that this transparency is important to give you total confidence that your contributions are well managed, and do provide huge benefits to the education of your sons.
Regards,
Stuart Lester, Chair of Governors, Tiffin School
The latest statement requiring deconstruction - sent Tuesday 24/03/2009.
Dear Tiffin Parents,
We would like to give you an update on the financial situation and some related matters.
It now looks as though the School will be able to manage in the immediate future without taking a loan from the Royal Borough of Kingston (RBK) as a result of tightly controlling spending for the past few months, although the School will still be significantly over budget for this current financial year. This has required using most of our reserves, which will need to be built back up over the next few years to put the School in a solid financial position again.
A number of actions have already been taken to bring costs back into line, which include:
Tighter control of variable costs, including IT spend and refurbishment plans.
Staff leaving this year not being replaced; coverage has been enabled by increases in the time existing staff spend teaching and some increases in class sizes bringing them more into line with other similar schools.
Measures are being progressed to bring overall staffing into line with normal levels for our type of school.
As a result we are now very hopeful of the School being able to operate with a break-even budget for the year ending March 2010, with a slight surplus the following year, assuming some continued reduction in staff costs through normal turnover; and some increases in income.
The School leadership team, the governors, and the local authority have been working together on these plans to ensure minimal impact to the curriculum and to the opportunities on offer to your sons. Due to their sensitive nature and continuing investigation it is not yet possible to give all the details of where these savings are being made, but we are now confident that the School can be returned to a healthy financial position without damaging its educational status and performance.
More details will be available as plans are progressed in the coming weeks and months.
On a related matter, the report from the Audit of Governance for Tiffin School by RBK is very nearly complete and will be made public, probably in the next few days. RBK will continue to monitor the School’s financial recovery plan and progress over the next two to three years.
In the next couple of weeks we’ll also be publishing information to give full clarity on the operation, income and expenditure of Tiffinian Limited, the charity through which your voluntary contributions are passed on to the School.
Finally, some of you have asked how they can contact the Governors. Your normal route for raising any concerns about the School should be via the teaching staff and the School leadership team, or in some cases through the Tiffin Parents’ Association. However we recognise that the current situation is a special case. Governors do not generally have the resources to undertake individual communication, but we do value your views and any comments can be sent to the Clerk to the Governors, Jane Pierce, at jpierce@tiffin.kingston.sch.uk who will forward them as appropriate. For future reference Jane's email address can be found on the School Website by following the path 'about us' / 'staff list' under 'Head, Governors and Administration'.
We would like to again thank all parents for your continuing support and understanding through this challenging time. We hope you feel reassured about the future of the first class education on offer from Tiffin School.
Tiffin School Governing Body
Dear Tiffin Parents,
We would like to give you an update on the financial situation and some related matters.
It now looks as though the School will be able to manage in the immediate future without taking a loan from the Royal Borough of Kingston (RBK) as a result of tightly controlling spending for the past few months, although the School will still be significantly over budget for this current financial year. This has required using most of our reserves, which will need to be built back up over the next few years to put the School in a solid financial position again.
A number of actions have already been taken to bring costs back into line, which include:
Tighter control of variable costs, including IT spend and refurbishment plans.
Staff leaving this year not being replaced; coverage has been enabled by increases in the time existing staff spend teaching and some increases in class sizes bringing them more into line with other similar schools.
Measures are being progressed to bring overall staffing into line with normal levels for our type of school.
As a result we are now very hopeful of the School being able to operate with a break-even budget for the year ending March 2010, with a slight surplus the following year, assuming some continued reduction in staff costs through normal turnover; and some increases in income.
The School leadership team, the governors, and the local authority have been working together on these plans to ensure minimal impact to the curriculum and to the opportunities on offer to your sons. Due to their sensitive nature and continuing investigation it is not yet possible to give all the details of where these savings are being made, but we are now confident that the School can be returned to a healthy financial position without damaging its educational status and performance.
More details will be available as plans are progressed in the coming weeks and months.
On a related matter, the report from the Audit of Governance for Tiffin School by RBK is very nearly complete and will be made public, probably in the next few days. RBK will continue to monitor the School’s financial recovery plan and progress over the next two to three years.
In the next couple of weeks we’ll also be publishing information to give full clarity on the operation, income and expenditure of Tiffinian Limited, the charity through which your voluntary contributions are passed on to the School.
Finally, some of you have asked how they can contact the Governors. Your normal route for raising any concerns about the School should be via the teaching staff and the School leadership team, or in some cases through the Tiffin Parents’ Association. However we recognise that the current situation is a special case. Governors do not generally have the resources to undertake individual communication, but we do value your views and any comments can be sent to the Clerk to the Governors, Jane Pierce, at jpierce@tiffin.kingston.sch.uk who will forward them as appropriate. For future reference Jane's email address can be found on the School Website by following the path 'about us' / 'staff list' under 'Head, Governors and Administration'.
We would like to again thank all parents for your continuing support and understanding through this challenging time. We hope you feel reassured about the future of the first class education on offer from Tiffin School.
Tiffin School Governing Body
OK how about this
We are attempting to remedy the financial mess by cutting resources at the school and in particular teachers and capital expenditure. This won't affect your son's education although you might wonder why we were planning to spend the cash if it added no value.
Oh and please don't bother the governors. We are very important and you are only the parents.
We are attempting to remedy the financial mess by cutting resources at the school and in particular teachers and capital expenditure. This won't affect your son's education although you might wonder why we were planning to spend the cash if it added no value.
Oh and please don't bother the governors. We are very important and you are only the parents.
