Savannah Trustee's Report & Financial Statements 2022-23 SAVANNAH EDUCATION TRUST REPORT & FINANCIAL STATEMENTS Year ended 5 April 2023 Charity name: Savannah Education Trusl Addrass: 58 Appledore Gardens Lindfield West Sussex RH16 2EU Trustees: Paul RamslK)ttom (Chair) Richard Coop¢r Howard Hiekn Stephen Ramsbottom Charity number: 1104896 Website: TRUSTEES, REPORT Ob ectiv¢s and activities Governance The Savannah Education Trust is a charitable tr￿st governed by a trust de¢d dated 23 June 2004. Apart from the founder Trustees, any Tn]st¢es are appointed or reappointed for a terni of thTee years by a r¢solution of Trustccs. The work of the Trust in Ghana is managed by Pastor Charles Karbo (who leads a small t￿n based in tawra). and the Trust works in partnershtp with the local tribal leadership and district governmenL The managemcnt of our schools is thiougb a Committee drawn from the church and the local village comrnunity and tbe ongoing cost of t￿bIng stair is fimded by the Gbanaian goverDJnent tbrough the Ghana Education Service. Ob'ecllves Thc charity's objectiv¢s are the advancement of eAtucation and the relief of poverty of people living in Ghan& In particular, the charity provides an education for some of tbe most disadvantaged children in Upw West Region (Ghana's most impoverished region) by: building and running Christian primary schools in n￿al villages which currently have littl¢ or no access to education. providing essential resources for ￿hOolS which are not provid¢d by government. Thts includes physical r¢sourccs (e.g. iM)rehole. tM)oks) and a targeted programme for teachers (a teacher trnining programme to ensure a steady supply of qualified teach- ers). educating every child ID &ach village in which the Tr￿ works, no mattcr how poor, whether girl or kny. whatever their disadvantage, disability or religion. tailoring. where SK)ssible. the ethication to suit the particular needs of children in this region. Th¢ projects are managed at the local level by l(Kal ttople. Savannah Education Trust works in close wllaboration with Ghanaian partDers." the Baptist churclL the lo￿ Municipal Education Directorat< tribal leadership and patents. The schools are embedded within the Ghana Education Service (GES). who have the ongoitig reswnsibility for teachers. wages. b&sic school resources and inspecting the quality of teaching. Savannah Education Trust is fully Collllllitted to Safegu￿ding the welfare of all children and young people with whom it eomes into contact. The schools which we create and are government schools and the immediate responsibility for safeguarding therefore sits with GES. Our own staff are committed to thesc principles and work closely with government officials and teaching staff who have overall Tesponsibility for child pmtection issues. Our safeguarding policy is publicly avaÈlable. We continue to organise safeguarding wnferenees for our staff (and other educational staff in the area). Activilies The villages in which the charity works are in the savannah ¢ountyside cluster¢d around the market town of tawra in Ghana's Upper West Region. Our first Christian primary school was opcned in th¢ village of Bagri dwing Aututnn 2(M)6 and we currently have ten schools, namely (in order of construction): Bagri. GE*ri, paVU￿ Mett0￿ Korlu Tungan-zagkpee. Boo, Baapari, Danko-Buree and LyssalL Alongside the day-to-day business of school life across busy school4 ibe year was also one of exceptional capitsl projects and continued building work. During the year constrnction work was completed to create a new school in the village of Lyssah. Lyssah is a remote village. even for this region of scattered rural settlements. It is on the northern edge of Lawra municipality and hcncc this school -our tenih - is the furthest away from the market town of Lawra. In our existing schools at Baapari and Tungan-zagkpee there was a need to provid¢ a Junior High School (t.e. loosely similar to what in the UK would be called senior school. running from age E I lo 14). DuTing the year. the building worl for the new JHS at Baapari was com- pleted and work at Tungan-zagkpee was starled. Across all of the qavannab gchools. there is an 0￿01￿8 maitit¢nan¢t programme of paint- ing and of rewiring. A project for improving and mechanising the borehole at Bagri (out first school) was started during the year. By the end of the year. half of the schools had been Te- paint¢d as part of a plaDned initiative. A novel development for Savallnah - noted in the repx)rt over the ￿$t two years - has been the construction of a new teacher trainADg and conference centr¢ in IAivra. Building work was virtually completed during the s'ear. and the centre is in use - knth as an office for Savannah st￿T and as & training and resource ¢¢ntre. Life &$ a teacher in a village school can often Et lonely. The centre has become a gathering place for sharing experiences and for more fornial learning. It also houses resources- both digital and traditional - to support staff. The centre forn]s a central element of ambition to maintain a high standard of education in our schools and provide support to our teaching and ancillary staff. The multi-purpose facility has been used &s a SavaI￿ah office for our staff from 2021. Alongside the centre a small number of guest rooms have been constructed. These are already proving useful for the centre. and may also k a source of income in the future (given the general lack of accommodation available in this remote area). To accompany the physical infrastn￿tu[e, two majoi developments took pla￿ to SUPPOTt the Continued improvement of teaching and learning in our schools. First. at the end of the previous financia] year, we appointed a School Improvement Officer to work a¢TOSS all of our sch(K>l sites. Secondly. we started working with attother UK NGO, PEAS, about imaginative ways to improve the quality of ¢ducation at the sch(K)Is. See .or .uklcountriesl for more about this parthership. A feeding programme, providing a meal for each schoolchild each day has been an im- portant part of our activities since we started. In this region, children are used around the home and in the fields to help with domestic chor¢s and fanniog. A meal helps to ease acute pressure on families, and encourages them to rele&8e children from this type of work Increas- ingly, the Ghanaian govonment is taking over the resFK)nsibility of this element of our work. Lunch tor children attending Junior High Schools has until now not been part of the govern- ment's prograuune and so renwins the reswillsÉbility of the charity. The Trust is supporting the schools (and indccd the whole district) through a teacher train- ing programme. Many schools, particuIarly in nwal locations. struggle to attract qualified tea¢heTS. This is corllpounded by the fact that many qualified teachers choose to work in more affluent areas of Ghana. The scholarships have I￿n given on the understanding thal onc¢ tratning is completed. the teacher WAII return to work ID Lawra Municipality. Upper Wcst Region. It is the intention that the new teacher training centre will complement this pro gramme, not least with continuing profe￿lOnal developmenL During the year, the decision w&s made to support t￿he[S fiffther by building, as funds aIlow, accommodation for teachers and their families alongside our sch(x)Is. The first such provi- sion is IRkely to be at Boo, chosen because it is one of th¢ fiwthest schools away from the markel town of Lawr& Over 15 years after the work start¢d. the villages in which we work are being transfonned. It Temains very moving to hear of stories of individual lives transfornied. One example is Oliver who was ordy a small child when our first school opening in Bagri. Living in a simpl¢ mud hut. neither of hts parents had ¢njoyed any ¢ducation. He was part of the third cohort of students proudly to walk to our new school in Bagri every day. Having completed his schooling, he took a plumbing course - and now works helping to a small plumbing business in Lawr& Different local stakeholders have different (although complementary} motivations for supporting the work. For the church. one of their prayers has long been that the schools will h¢lp support their loral churches. It is therefore very moving to attend Bagri Church. and to see latge numbers of educated young people. This is personified by Oliver. who takes the early morning Bible Study - and (on one recent occasion when trustees attended) gave an excelleni talk speaking fluently in Ix)th Da8aari and English. The Savamlah Education Trust is extreTn¢ly grateful to supporters who have generously funded its work during the last year. Without ihis supporL our ongoing activities would not have been possible. It has been a source of much encouragement to trustees and the executive team during the yeaT. We continue also to acknowledge, with grdlitude, the kind voluntary help that we have received. Income in the year toialled £348.323 the majoTity of which was voluntary income. We continue to t-ll￿ regular. pledged income through direct debits particularly helpfill in planning fut￿re activities. We are also very 8ratefid to hav¢ receiv¢d a numbcr of grants from grant- making chaTitics during th¢ yeat. The level of surplus or deficit varies year to year, largely de￿ndIng on the capitsl infrastructure investment in any giv¢n year. This year we re￿)rt a deficit for the year of £23,955. Reserves lic ture l(ms Ttusiees have reviewed the charity's need for reserves in line with the guidance issued by the Charity Commission. The reserves are held for three puryM)ses. FITSL Trustees dcem it pn￿ellt to hold contingency funds to cover the costs of the fut￿ maintenance of ￿h0O]S and associated buildings. There is therefore a growing need as our school network expands to ten schools. Secondly. we have the ambition of expanding into firther villages (including, for the year abead. the completion of a new school in Lyssah). The sFwl of expansion into new villages will b¢ dictated to a considerable extent by availability of funds, particularly &8 funding is also needed to continue the work in existing villages. Thirdly. as well &s these planned and w)tential Capital projects, the charity continues to have considerable ongoing costs, particularly for the feeding and teacher training pmgrall]mes. We are very conscio￿$ that the annual recurrent costs are incT¢asing year by year. not least &s the schools reach pupil c2pacity. It is helpful to hold at lea¥t one ycar's worth of the charity's core costs (i.e. staff and core programmes) in reserve. The key project planned lor the next financial year& if the Lord will. is the undertaking of a major new project: a Teclmical High School. The Truste¢s bave nominally designated £75,(M)O from the rescrves towards these futur¢ capilal costs and a similar sum towards maintenance costs. On 5 April 2023 th¢ charity held reserves (net of these fimds nominally designated for Capilal projects and maintenance) of £362,603. Approved by Trnstees aDd Signed OD thelr behalf Date.. 31 De¢emb¢r 2023 Independent examiner's report to the trustees I report on the accounts of the Tnst for the year ended 5 April 2023. which are set out on pages 10 to 16. Re3pec¢ive responsibilities of¥rt