Trustees Annual Report
for the period 5 September 2023 to 4 September 2024
Charity name: Bessemer Grange Primary School PTFA
Other names charity is known by: Friends at Bessemer; F@B
Registered charity number: 1096913
Charity's principal address: Bessemer Grange Primary School, Dylways, London, SE5 8HP
List of Charity Trustees who manage the Charity:
| Trustee Name | Role | Date acted if not for whole year |
Status at 04 September 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mark Wharton | Treasurer | Active | |
| Alan Foster | Chairperson | Active | |
| Emily Montenero | Secretary | From 1st Oct 2023 | Active |
Structure, Governance and Management
Description of the Charity’s Trusts
Type of governing document: Constitution adopted on 5 February 2003
How the charity is constituted: Unincorporated association
How Trustees are appointed: Trustees are appointed or re-appointed at the annual general meeting
Objectives and Activities
Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document:
To advance the education of the pupils in the school in particular by
-
Developing effective relationships between staff, parents and others associated with the school;
-
Engaging in activities or providing facilities or equipment which support the school and advance the education of the pupils.
Activities in Year ending 4 September 2024
This has been a successful year and we have been able to deliver a full program of events . There were some wonderful events to bring the community together, which have resulted in excellent fundraising results and our being able to support the school with meaningful contributions.
The committee continues to focus on three main goals:
-
Continuing to build a strong Bessemer community,
-
Providing enriching experiences for children and families,
-
Fundraising.
We have been seeking to increase the number of people involved with F@B and increase the diversity of people over the past few years, and while the calls for volunteers for the likes of the Spring and Summer fairs have been reasonably effective, this remains something that is key to the on-going success of F@B.
FUNDRAISING
Objectives: In discussion with the school we created a specific fundraising target for the year of raising over £24,000. Given the school’s budget constraints, they asked that F@B pay for the school music provision. Having specific targets is not only useful to track fundraising through the year, but also to promote F@B’s objectives and encourage donations. In the Summer term (June 2024), the school also asked if F@B can pay for the refurbishment of the school playgrounds with a particular focus on the Early Years playground. This work will be completed in the 2024/25 school year.
Results: in 2023/24 F@B raised Over £51,000. This is a tremendous achievement and is thanks to the generosity of the parents, local community and organisers of the many fundraising events and activities.
F@B is Gift Aid registered, which enables us to make an additional 25% on eligible donations. We have a People’s Fundraising page that people can use to make one-off or regular donations to F@B. This has been very well used this year. We had some regular donations on this page raising an important amount and we have set up donation pages for specific events and ah-hoc fundraising.
Summer Concert – in May 2024 Bessemer parent (five time Grammy award winner), Bill Laurance, performed an intimate, sold-out, concert at St Faiths to raise money for the school music programme. It was the most successful fundraising event of the year (raising ~£5,900). It was also an exciting opportunity for the Year 5 & 6s to perform alongside Bill in the afternoon. A big shout out to Nick Quanrud, Clare Seoul, and Elspeth Humphrey for masterminding the event and especially to Bill for creating a truly memorable and special occasion.
Nature Garden: Thank you to Clare Hewitt for managing the chicken team and all the volunteers helping to maintain the nature garden. We have used the funds that we were awarded from Southwark council’s Cleaner, Greener, Safer grant to buy some new log benches for the Nature Garden and make repairs to the chicken coop along with a new shed for chicken food and equipment. After a storm in January 2024 that brought down numerous trees and branches, F@B paid for repairs to the garden.
Parties in the nature garden have been extremely popular, particularly in the summer term.
The football cage – this continues to be hired by parents for parties and donations are returned to school via F@B. The school also rents the football cage to groups not associated with the school. This is managed through the school’s Business Manager and has raised additional funds.
Winter Raffle – A successful raffle raised >£1500 with many winners of the large selection of prizes donated by parents, local shops and businesses.
Christmas trees – once again F@B partnered with Dulwich Pot and Plant Garden Centre, with every tree purchased using the F@B code eligible for a donation to F@B. A great way of raising money for the school and supporting a local business at the same time.
Winter Fair – We held another popular fair in the downstairs hall and Year 3 & 4 playgrounds. Santa visited and the event proved to be popular with parents and children. A great community event and fundraiser.
Wreath Making – thank you to Ruth for running a lovely wreath making event in the Nature Garden that she plans to run again this coming year.
Bessemer Fun Run – returning this year, this was a very successful event with over 100 children, teachers and parents running either 1km, 3km or 5km. The children were really happy with the medals that they all received. We were very grateful to JAGS for generously allowing the free use of their playing field to make this event a memorable one. Thank you to Laura, Kate and James for organising.
Eid – it was wonderful to be able to celebrate Eid as a school this year – many thanks to Amie Barrow-Dean and everyone else who cooked delicious food or otherwise volunteered.
Summer Fair – A very well attended fair Summer fair held in the regular location of the hall and Year 3 & 4 playgrounds. Bouncy castle, face painting, BBQ, Teddy Tombola, UK African Acrobats, school parents playing live music and more. It continues to be a popular event and good fundraiser.
Summer Raffle – ~£1900 raised and >35 prizes awarded.
Ice Cream Fridays – these have once again proved to be very successful both as community events and a source of fundraising. Thank you to Patrick & Hannah Diamond for resurrecting these. The events have benefitted from the addition of Year 6 volunteers to help run the stalls.
2[nd] Hand Clothes – many thanks to Harriet for managing the 2[nd] hand clothes stalls throughout the year, with uniform available to parents for a small donation.
Science Week – F@B organised with the school and provided the funding for the Royal Institution to visit Bessemer and provide demonstration assemblies for the children and classes for the teachers on how to teach Science. Thank you to Etta Rooney for organising it again.
Donations from Urban Village - We are incredibly grateful to Urban Village for their continued support of the school. They have supported the Winter and Summer fairs.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
Year 6 Disco - An end of year event to celebrate Year 6 finishing their time at Bessemer. F@B provided refreshments.
Communications :
We have maintained the communication channels and network that have been successful over the past few years. Led by Nicola Cadbury we have been pushing out regular comms across several platforms:
-
The weekly school newsletter has a F@B segment.
-
The Whatsapp groups continue to be managed via a central “Whatsapp Warrior” team who push “messages from F@B” – this is an efficient way of reaching a proportion of the school community.
-
Whole school email sent by the school office on behalf of F@B
Safe Streets Campaign (Save Our Bollards) - In November 2023 Southwark Council indicated that they intended to remove the physical barriers (collapsible bollards) from Nairne Grove outside of Bessemer Primary School in January 2024. The council’s plan was to switch to using Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras to restrict traffic instead. F@B helped to coordinate the response from dozens of concerned parents. It was covered by Southwark News, the online Petition got >1000 signatures, and the matter was brought to the attention of local councillors and many more. After meeting with the school, Southwark Council clarified its decision and the school will continue to benefit from a 'school street' - where cars, vans, etc are restricted from driving on the road outside our school for an hour during pick up or drop off time. A big thank you to Alex Bigham, Chris Rowse, Emily Bigland, Martha and many other concerned parents who leapt into action.
FINANCIAL REVIEW FOR 4 SEPTEMBER 2024
Summary of accounts 2023/2024
The total income from the year’s events and grants was £57,390.
The total spend was £41,485 including donations to the school of £34,328.
Funds carried over on 5 September 2023 = £69,969
Funds carried forward at 4 September 2024 = £85,840
The donations to the school were for the following resources / activities:
-
£23,575 for all school music provision
-
£8,000 for playground equipment (deposit for work completed in Sept ’24)
-
£800 for Science week events
-
£1,850 for repairs to storm damage in Nature Garden
-
£218 for Year 6 disco
-
£640 for chickens and nature garden
There were also £175 in admin costs.
A summary of the financial results of the main events is below:
| Event | Income (£) | Expenditure / Costs / Fees (£) |
Surplus / Deficit (£) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Winter Fair 2023 | 5,345 | 805 | 4,540 |
| Summer Fair 2024 | 6,905 | 1,755 | 5,150 |
| Summer Concert | 7,110 | 1,230 | 5,880 |
| Winter Raffle 2023 | 1,695 | 67 | 1,628 |
| Summer Raffle 2024 | 1,980 | 117 | 1,863 |
| Christmas trees (Dulwich Pot and Plant Garden Centre) |
650 | - | 650 |
| Christmas Wreaths | 870 | - | 870 |
| Bessemer Fun Run | 995 | 122 | 873 |
| EID | 470 | 115 | 355 |
| Playstreets & Ice Cream Fridays | 1,780 | 475 | 1305 |
| Football donations | 2,500 | - | 2,500 |
| Event | Income (£) | Expenditure / Costs / Fees (£) |
Surplus / Deficit (£) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nature Garden Parties | 1,250 | - | 1,250 |
| Easy Fundraising | 310 | - | 310 |
| Second-hand Uniform sales | 640 | - | 640 |
| Year 6 Bake Sale | 240 | - | 240 |
| Sports Day Cake Sales | 315 | 5 | 310 |
| Donations from Urban Village (Boards for Fairs) |
1,800 | - | 1,800 |
| General donations | 14,510 | 440 | 14,065 |
| Bessemer Playground Appeal | 1,625 | 40 | 1,585 |
| Bank Interest | 1,500 | - | 1,500 |
| Donations to School and other costs | - | 35,255 | -35,255 |
| Total | £57,390 | £41,485 | £15,870 |
Also included in the income above is a payment of £2,900 from Southwark’s Cleaner, Greener, Safer grants, for money spent on the Nature Garden over past two financial years.
==> picture [544 x 262] intentionally omitted <==
----- Start of picture text -----
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Charity Name|No (if any)|
|Bessemer Grange Primary School PTFA|1096913|
|Receipts and payments accounts|CC16a|
|For the period|Period start date|Period end date|
|To|
|from|05/09/2023|04/09/2024|
|ee|ee|ee|ee|
|Section A Receipts and payments|
|Unrestricted|Restricted|Endowment|
|Total funds|Last year|
|funds|funds|funds|
|to the nearest £|to the nearest £|to the nearest £|to the nearest £|to the nearest £|
|A1 Receipts|
|Donations|20,008|1,325|-|21,333|25,687|
|Fundraising Events|24,174|-|-|24,174|22,023|
|Raffles|3,675|-|-|3,675|-|
|Nature Garden hire|3,750|-|-|3,750|920|
|Bank Interest|1,497|-|-|1,497|156|
|Grant Income|-|2,932|-|2,932|-|
|-|-|-|-|-|
|-|-|-|-|-|
|Sub total|(Gross income for|
|AR)|[[ 53,103 ]]|4,257|-|57,360|48,786|
----- End of picture text -----
==> picture [548 x 399] intentionally omitted <==
----- Start of picture text -----
|||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Sub total|(Gross income for|
|AR)|[[ 53,103 ]]|4,257|-|57,360|48,786|
|A2 Asset and investment sales,|
|(see table).|
|-|-|-|-|
|-|-|-|-|-|
|Sub total|-|-|-|-|-|
|Total receipts|53,103|4,257|-|57,360|48,786|
|—_——|—=|
|A3 Payments|
|Donations Paid|31,371|1,325|-|32,696|22,122|
|Cost of donations|444|40|-|483|376|
|Cost of Fundraising Events|4,512|-|-|4,512|3,775|
|Cost of Raffles|164|-|-|164|-|
|Cost of Nature Garden|2,490|54|-|2,544|2,588|
|General Overhead|173|-|-|173|660|
|-|-|-|-|
|-|-|-|-|-|
|-|-|-|-|-|
|Sub total|[ 39,154 ]|1,419|-|40,572|29,521|
|A4 Asset and investment|
|purchases, (see table)|
|Tote Bags|917|-|-|917|-|
|-|-|-|-|-|
|Sub total|[ 917 ]|-|-|917|-|
|————|Total payments|40,071|1,419|-|——|41,489|29,521|
|Net of receipts/(payments)|13,033|2,838|-|15,871|19,265|
|A5 Transfers between funds|2,838|- 2,838|-|-|-|
|A6 Cash funds last year end|69,969|-|69,969|50,704|
|Cash funds this year end|===|85,840|=S=>=>|0|- 85,840|69,969|
----- End of picture text -----
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
13/01/2025
1
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
==> picture [547 x 775] intentionally omitted <==
----- Start of picture text -----
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|Categories|Details|Unrestricted|Restricted|Endowment|
|to nearest £|to nearest £|to nearest £|
|B1 Cash funds|Bank account|85,672|-|
|Petty cash|169|-|-|
|-|-|-|
|Total cash funds|85,840|-|-|
|(agree balances with receipts and payments|
|account(s))|OK|OK|OK|
|<==|==>|
|Unrestricted|Restricted|Endowment|
|funds|funds|funds|
|Details|to nearest £|to nearest £|to nearest £|
|B2 Other monetary assets|-|-|-|
|-|-|-|
|-|-|-|
|-|-|-|
|-|-|-|
|-|-|-|
|oo|
|Fund to which|Current value|
|Details|asset belongs|Cost (optional)|(optional)|
|B3 Investment assets|-|-|
|-|-|
|-|-|
|-|-|
|-|-|
|—_|==|
|Fund to which|Current value|
|Details|asset belongs|Cost (optional)|(optional)|
|B4 Assets retained for the|-|-|
|charity’s own use|-|-|
|-|-|
|-|-|
|-|-|
|-|-|
|-|-|
|-|-|
|-|-|
|oul|
|Fund to which|Amount due|When due|
|Details|liability relates|(optional)|(optional)|
|B5 Liabilities|-|
|-|
|-|
|-|
|-|
|Signed by one or two trustees on|Date of|
|behalf of all the trustees|Signature|Print Name|approval|
|Mark Wharton|13/01/2025|
|Alan Foster|13/01/2025|
|=|
|CCXX R2 accounts (SS)|2|13/01/2025|
----- End of picture text -----
Independent Examiners Report to the
Trustees of Bessemer Grange Primary School PTFA (F@B)
Year-end 4 September 2024
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the Bessemer Grange Primary School PTFA (‘the Trust’) for the year ending 4 September 2024.
Responsibilities and basis of report
As the charity trustees you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the Act’).
I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
Independent examiner’s statement
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that, in any material respect:
-
accounting records were not kept in respect of the Trust as required by section 130 of the Act; or
-
the accounts do not accord with those records.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Alice French
AAT student member
86 Casino Avenue, London, SE24 9PL
12 January 2025