Trustees Annual Report
for the period 5 September 2024 to 4 September 2025
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:
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Trustee Role Date acted Status at Sep 4 2025
Alan Foster Chairperson 5 Sep 2024 - 24 July Inactive
2024
Mark Wharton Treasurer Active
Emily Montero Secretary Active
Nicola Cadbury Trustee From 17 August 2025 Active
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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
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Developing effective relationships between staff, parents and others associated with the school;
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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 2025
This past year has been notably successful, allowing us to deliver a comprehensive programme of events. These initiatives have brought the community together and resulted in strong fundraising outcomes, enabling us to provide meaningful support to the school..
The committee continues to focus on three main goals:
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Continuing to build a strong Bessemer community,
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Providing enriching experiences for children and families,
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Fundraising.
F@B Organising team
The core F@B organising team continues to grow. Many hands make light work. This has seen more active members helping with all things music - including live accompaniment at the Christmas concert. There has been continuity in many of the key roles of Chair, Treasurer, Secretary and Communications.
After three years of serving as Chair, Alan Foster, will be leaving the role and Bessemer as his children head into secondary school. In September a new Chair will be voted in while the other committee members will stay in role.
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 Autumn term (September 2024), after the successful upgrade of the Early Years playground, the school also asked if F@B can pay for the refurbishment of the Year 5-6 playground. This work was completed in the 2024/25 school year. The school also asked for F@B to fund the purchase of new books for all the classrooms, for the Royal Institute to provide child education and teacher training for Science Week, for the Year 6 leavers disco and for the continued upkeep of the nature garden and chickens.
Results: in 2024/25 F@B raised over £42,000. 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, raising over £7000, of which £4,610 is from regular donations, raising an important amount. We have set up donation pages for specific events and ad-hoc fundraising.
Bill Laurance Concert – in June 2025 Bessemer parent (five time Grammy award winner), Bill Laurance, performed with bass and percussion in a, 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 over £5,500). 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 for masterminding the event and especially to Bill for creating a truly memorable and special occasion.
Nature Garden and the Football Cage: Thank you to Clare Hewitt for managing the chicken team and all the volunteers helping to maintain the nature garden.
Parties in the nature garden and the football cage have continued to be popular, particularly in the summer
term and first half of the Autumn term, with donations raising over £3,000. 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.
We also held a Nature Garden Open Day community event for the first time in the Autumn term, which was an enjoyable afternoon, and something we’d like to repeat on a regular basis – the Nature Garden volunteer group are leading on this next year.
Winter Raffle – A very successful raffle raised £2600 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, raising £450. 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. A big thank you to Nikki Moffat who somehow signs-up and organisers all the much needed volunteers.
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, raising a wonderful £1,100!
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 Nicola Cadbury for organising and Amie Barrow-Dean and everyone else who cooked delicious food or otherwise volunteered.
Table tennis competition – thank you to Anna Box for initiating a new knock-out competition for both grown-ups and children. It was a fun and popular addition to the Summer Term, as well as raising £300.
Summer Fair – A very well attended fair Summer fair held in the regular location of the hall and Year 3 & 4 playgrounds. There was stunning new signage thanks to Rebecca Lea Williams, our old-favourite stalls were relaunched with pizzazz. The books and games stall was bigger and better than ever. The kitchen was abuzz as a crack team of chefs prepared fresh tucumanas and other delicacies.
And who will forget the weather? Amber weather warnings and 36 mm of torrential rain kept the organisers on their toes. The plastic yellow ducks threatened to escape their hook-a-duck paddling pool and float across the playground.
But there was live music. Charter North Year 8 bands The Haar and Ambulance blasted out Arctic Monkeys with their amplifiers set to volume 11. Bolivian dance troupes dazzled us with colour and traditional dances. Bessemer mum Roberta and her newborn captivated us; and local singer-songwriter, Jon Magidsohn, surprised us with a special set. Then newly formed parents’ band, Parental Guidance, took to the stage and blasted out hit after hit. Thanks to Pietr for organising the sound equipment.
Summer Raffle – £3,100 raised and over 40 prizes awarded. Both raffles this year raised over £1,000 more than previous years – this was likely due to a combination of better marketing, more prizes, and raising the raffle ticket prices from 50p to £1. Thanks to everyone who helped source prizes, and to Rhiannon for managing the website.
Ice Cream Fridays and Cake Sales – these have once again proved to be very successful both as community events and a source of fundraising. A shortage of Mint Choc Chip ice creams in the local Sainsbury’s will need to be solved for in 2025-26. Cake sales were organised by year group for the first time, encouraging some parents and carers to volunteer for the first time. Overall, ice creams and cakes raised £2,850.
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. A great way to reduce waste of old clothes, and also raised £600 for F@B.
Toy Rug Sales – Another new event for this year, and thanks to Clare for organising. We had two rug sales where children could have a pitch in the playground after school to sell some of their pre-loved toys, books and games.
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.
Donations from Urban Village and Greater London Properties - We are incredibly grateful to Urban Village for their support of the Winter Fair. We are delighted that the Summer Fair was sponsored by GLP (Greater London Properties) and we hope their support will continue.
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:
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The weekly school newsletter has a F@B segment.
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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.
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Whole school email sent by the school office on behalf of F@B
FINANCIAL REVIEW FOR 4 SEPTEMBER 2025
Summary of accounts 2024/2025
The total income from the year’s events and grants was £49,085, with costs of fundraising of £7,000 The total spend was £65,900, including donations to the school of £65,282.
Funds carried over on 5 September 2024 = £85,840
Funds carried forward at 4 September 2025 = £62,040
The donations to the school were for the following resources / activities:
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£24,962 for all school music provision, incl delivery of a new piano donated by the National Theatre
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£24,000 for playground equipment for Early Years
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£15,000 towards new astro turf in the Year5/6 playground, with the school also contributing
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£1,025 for Science week events
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£1,850 for repairs to storm damage in Nature Garden
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£294 for Year 6 disco
Other costs included £370 for chicken care, and £248 in admin costs.
A summary of the financial results is below:
| Event | Income (£) | Expenditure / Costs / Fees (£) |
Surplus / Deficit (£) |
Previous Year (£) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter Fair 2024 | 4,853 | 1,280 | 3,573 | 3,640 |
| Summer Fair 2025 | 4,737 | 2,476 | 2,260 | 4,250 |
| Summer Concert 2025 | 5,814 | 1,505 | 4,309 | 5,880 |
| Winter Raffle 2024 | 2,751 | 113 | 2,637 | 1,628 |
| Summer Raffle 2025 | 3,132 | 200 | 2,932 | 1,863 |
| Christmas trees (Dulwich Pot and Plant Garden Centre) |
450 | - | 450 | 650 |
| Christmas Wreaths | 1,119 | - | 1,119 | 870 |
| Bessemer Fun Run | 538 | 136 | 402 | 873 |
| Playstreets, Ice Creams and Cake Sales |
3,740 | 704 | 3,036 | 1305 |
| EID | 608 | 217 | 391 | 356 |
| Nature Garden Parties | 3,114 | - | 3,114 | 1,250 |
| Easy Fundraising | 459 | - | 459 | 310 |
| Second-hand Uniform sales | 594 | - | 594 | 640 |
| Sports Day Picnic and Cakes | 707 | 86 | 621 | 310 |
| Table Tennis Tournament | 327 | 10 | 317 | - |
| Event | Income (£) | Expenditure / Costs / Fees (£) |
Surplus / Deficit (£) |
Previous Year (£) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Donation from Urban Village (Winter Fair Boards) |
900 | - | 900 | 900 |
| Donation from GLP (Summer Fair Boards) |
1000 | - | 1000 | 900 |
| General donations | 7,592 | 194 | 7,398 | 14,065 |
| Donations through Work | 1,293 | - | 1,293 | - |
| Bessemer Playground Appeal | 1,424 | 36 | 1,388 | 1,585 |
| Bank Interest and Fees | 2,016 | 22 | 1,994 | 1,500 |
| Donations to School and other costs |
- | -65,878 | -65,878 | -35,255 |
| Total | £49,085 | -£73,026 | -£23,800 | £15,870 |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|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|05/09/2024|04/09/2025|
|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|11,673|1,424|-|13,097|21,333|
|Fundraising Events|24,445|-|24,445|24,174|
|Raffles|5,883|-|5,883|3,675|
|Nature Garden hire|3,646|-|3,646|3,750|
|Bank Interest|2,016|-|2,016|1,497|
|Grant Income|-|-|2,932|
|-|-|-|-|-|
|-|-|-|-|-|
|Sub total|(Gross income for|
|47,662|1,424|-|49,086|57,360|
|AR)|
|A2 Asset and investment sales,|
|(see table).|
|-|-|-|-|
|-|-|-|-|-|
|Sub total|[ - ]|-|-|-|-|
|—_——|Total receipts|47,662|1,424|-|—=|49,086|57,360|
|A3 Payments|
|Donations Paid|41,282.34|24,000.00|-|65,282.34|32,695.86|
|Cost of donations|194.39|36.17|-|230.56|483.44|
|Cost of Fundraising Events|6,414.47|-|6,414.47|4,512.45|
|Cost of Raffles|327.99|-|327.99|163.55|
|Cost of Nature Garden|381.72|-|381.72|2,544.01|
|General Overhead|226.37|-|226.37|173.00|
|Bank Charges|21.52|-|-|21.52|
|-|-|-|-|-|
|-|-|-|-|-|
|Sub total|[ 48,848.80 ]|24,036.17|-|72,884.97|40,572.31|
|A4 Asset and investment|
|purchases, (see table)|
|Tote Bags|-|-|-|917|
|-|-|-|-|-|
|Sub total|[ - ]|-|-|-|917|
|————|Total payments|48,849|24,036|-|——|72,885|41,489|
|Net of receipts/(payments)|- 1,187|- 22,612|-|- 23,799|15,871|
|A5 Transfers between funds|- 22,612|22,612|-|-|-|
|A6 Cash funds last year end|85,840|-|85,840|69,969|
|Cash funds this year end|===|62,041|=S=>=>|-|-|62,041|85,840|
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CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
23/11/2025
1
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
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|---|---|---|---|---|
|Categories|Details|Unrestricted|Restricted|Endowment|
|to nearest £|to nearest £|to nearest £|
|Bank account|61,938|-|
|B1 Cash funds|Petty cash|103|-|-|
|-|-|-|
|Total cash funds|62,041|-|-|
|—===>=>|
|(agree balances with receipts and payments|
|OK|OK|OK|
|account(s))|
|Unrestricted|Restricted|Endowment|
|funds|funds|funds|
|Details|to nearest £|to nearest £|to nearest £|
|-|-|-|
|-|-|-|
|-|-|-|
|B2 Other monetary assets|
|-|-|-|
|-|-|-|
|-|-|-|
|—_—=|
|Fund to which|Current value|
|Details|Cost (optional)|
|asset belongs|(optional)|
|-|-|
|-|-|
|B3 Investment assets|-|-|
|-|-|
|-|-|
|oo|
|Fund to which|Current value|
|Details|Cost (optional)|
|asset belongs|(optional)|
|-|-|
|-|-|
|-|-|
|-|-|
|B4 Assets retained for the|
|charity’s own use|-|-|
|-|-|
|-|-|
|-|-|
|-|-|
|iss|
|Fund to which|Amount due|When due|
|Details|
|liability relates|(optional)|(optional)|
|-|
|-|
|B5 Liabilities|-|
|-|
|-|
|Signed by one or two trustees on|Date of|
|Signature|Print Name|
|behalf of all the trustees|approval|
|Mark Wharton|23/11/2025|
|Anna Box|23/11/2025|
|——|
|CCXX R2 accounts (SS)|2|23/11/2025|
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Independent Examiners Report
To the Trustees of Bessemer Grange Primary School PTFA (F@B)
Year End 4 September 2025
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 2025.
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:
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accounting records were not kept in respect of the Trust as required by section 130 of the Act; or
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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
20 November 2025