It Takes A Village Fund Booklet | St Joseph's Catholic Primary School, Chelsea

From the Executive Head

St Joseph’s is a top performing school, rated Outstanding by Ofsted. We have high aims for all our pupils and seek to develop the ‘whole child’. We do all this within a kind and supportive environment, where we celebrate lots of cultures under one roof. United by faith, we encourage our whole community to share, grow and flourish in faith and love for the benefit of the individual, those around them, and the wider community.

Unfortunately, the current education funding crisis continues to threaten schools, with small primary schools suffering the most through cuts and freezes. We must take proactive steps to enable us to retain and improve what we can offer pupils at St Joseph’s, particularly following a challenging time which has impacted young people. We need to invest in resources such as books, computers and our exceptional staff. For those pupils most in need of additional support, we would like to engage a speech and language therapist and reading recovery specialists. We want to do more, but with budgets reducing, and increasing cuts threatened, we need more financial support now than ever. We are therefore looking to increase donations from our community, with people giving whatever they can, in whatever way they can.

Karen Wyatt

Funding Challenges

State schools are receiving smaller and smaller amounts per pupil each year, and are therefore being asked to do more with less funding. As a result, our school has had to make cuts, such as losing teaching assistants from some classes. Grants that schools can receive are also subject to cuts, meaning we have had to find more money ourselves from smaller pots.

Over the same time, costs for the school have risen. This includes running costs such as heating and electricity. When the government requests that schools give pay increases for staff, or increase pension contributions, this all needs to be found ourselves with no additional support.

Lots of our families love that St Joseph’s has a village school feel. The Fund pays homage to this key element of what makes our school so special, whilst highlighting that our whole community must come together for the benefit of our young people. Through the fund, we encourage all families to consider a gift to the school at a level that suits them and their families, for the benefit of all the pupils. The Fund will be used to support the school’s priorities, i th b t i d t hi d f il Th k

Making a Gift that is Right For You

We are a school that aims to support the community, but we also rely on our community for support. The focus of the Fund is on a collective effort with everyone considering how they can play a role in the success of the fund and supporting all pupils at our school.

Please consider making a gift at a level that is right for you and your family, taking your existing commitments into account. Your gifts, alongside those of other parents and members of our community, will enable us to support pupils at our school as much as possible, both now and in the future.

If you are a UK taxpayer please remember to tick the Gift Aid box on our pledge form and add 25% to the value of your gift– at no extra cost to you. This will also enable you to claim tax relief in your Self-Assessment tax return if you are a higher-rate taxpayer