Polish Saturda School in Crawle y y
Report of the trustees for the year ending 30 June 2023
The Trustees of The Polish Saturday School in Crawley present their annual report and audited accounts for the year ended 30 June 2023 and confirm they comply with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011.
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Registered Charity number: 1163462
Polish Saturda School in Crawle y y
1. OUR OBJECTS
The objects of the School are the advancement of education for the public benefit in the Polish language, culture, tradition, and heritage. We aim to provide education and to integrate into the local cultural environment and British society.
1.1 The advancement of education
| 1.1The advancement of education | 1.1The advancement of education |
|---|---|
| Our key objectives for the year included: | |
| Plan | Action |
| • to be up to date with the administrative aspects of the organization |
Reviewing the school’s policies and procedures. Updating of documentation in the school’s paper files and on the website. |
| • to improve the health and safety of students |
Updating the H&S policy. Controlling and planning the duty parents' responsibilities. Reminding to St Wilfrid’s facilities manager about the fire evacuation drill. |
| • to provide resources and materials | Buying the crafts, exercise books, and school equipment needed in the school’s groups. |
| • to add Polish GCSE and AS-level to the curriculum options. |
Preparing the students for Polish GCSE (16 students). Preparing more GCSE teachers for the role of examiner. |
| • to offer a wider variety of classes, clubs, and workshops to children and teenagers |
‘With Passport to Poland’ club Science Clubs (younger and older students’ groups) Mindfulness Drama Class |
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Registered Charity number: 1163462
Polish Saturda School in Crawle y y
| Art Club French classes club. RE - preparing to the First Communion |
|
|---|---|
| • to enhance and improve the co-curricular provision for pupils |
Using the course books and teaching sources recommended byThe Ministry of National Education and the educational organizations. |
| •to build up a Polish book collection or Polish books translated into English and to run the classroom’s libraries. |
Buying new books is recommended to read to children and by children. |
| • to deliver to the staff and volunteer opportunities to participate in the training and courses • to cover the cost of training for Trustees and Staff |
Participating regularly in the online training on Tuesdays & Wednesdays organized by ‘The Polish Teachers’ Club’ (Klub Nauczyciela – As well as in individual training with professionals (ODN, ORPEG, Wspólnota Polska) |
| • to provide continuing support to our pupils through speech therapy |
Cooperation with the Polish speech therapist. |
| • to support the children with learning difficulties. • to provide psychological care for pupils and their families |
Giving the children additional learning support if they need it after normal classes. Organizing the 1:1 sessions with the psychologist whenever it is required by students, parents or staff. Advising and encouraging staff and students to take part in psychologist sessions. |
| • to celebrate the national days | 1stNovember – remembering Polish citizens who died in the local area, especially the Polish Olympic, Mr Jerzy |
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Registered Charity number: 1163462
Polish Saturda School in Crawle y y
| Braun (we take care of his grave), visiting the cemetery and Memorial places. 11thNovember (Remembering Day) 1st-3rdMay (The Days of the Polish Flag, The Constitution and the Poles living abroad. And celebrating Polish Heritage Days – family picnic to to promote Polish culture, the heritage of past generations, solidarity, community values and the positive contribution made by the Polish diaspora to the cultural, economic and social life of this country. The celebration coincides with the Day of Poles Abroad and the Flag Day marked in Poland on 2nd May as well as the 3rd of May Constitution Day. This year’s PHD will focus on celebrating the Polish-British cooperation on breaking the Enigma code, marking the 80th anniversary of Polish codebreakers Marian Rejewski and Henryk Zygalski coming to the United Kingdom. |
|
|---|---|
| • to celebrate and spread the information of the School’s mascot – Wojtek the Soldier Bear and the Polish soldiers who fought during the 2WW |
Special Wojtek remembering lessons and competitions. To teach history following Wojtek the Bear adventure. Giving the mascot of Wojtek to preschool children. |
| • to organize the trip with integration and educational purpose |
Trip to Marvell Zoo in July (school covered cost of transport for children ) |
| • to participate in some co-curricular activities and competitions |
The school’s groups competitions between the school and other schools. |
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Registered Charity number: 1163462
Polish Saturda School in Crawle y y
| • to involve some parents, including trustees in other roles and duties |
Fire Marshal First Aiders Leader |
|---|---|
1.2 Integration
A. into the local cultural environment
Facilitate partnerships with external institutions to build children’s confidence and allow them to learn new skills.
B. into British society
| B.into British society | B.into British society |
|---|---|
| Our key objectives for the year included: | |
| Plan | Action |
| • to integrate the Boarding Trustees and the teaching staff |
Staff and Trustees meetings. Birthday cards for students and staff. The end of the school year party for Staff, Trustees, and Families. |
| • to assist Polish children and their families arriving in the area to integrate into a new environment |
Giving the children and parents advice on where to find some public services, schools etc. |
| • to assist the children to recognize their status as the students of the Polish supplementary school |
The School’s ID to Polish children living abroad – the project of the President of the Republic of Poland |
| • to assist the teachers in recognizing their qualification as teachers of the supplementary school abroad |
The School’s ID to Polish teachers working abroad in the Polish supplementary schools – the project of the President of the Republic of Poland Joining Zwiazek Nauczycielstwa Polskiego za Granica |
| • to cooperate with the Polish scouts’ organization |
Working together to organize and participate in some special events, and assemblies with ‘SZCZEP POMORSKI 62 DRUŻYNA HARCEREK ODRA |
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Registered Charity number: 1163462
Polish Saturda School in Crawle y y
| ZUCHY DZIEWCZYNKI ORZEŁKI SKRZATY BIELIKI and SZCZEP URSYNÓW 25 DRUŻYNA HARCERZY BUKI ZUCHY CHŁOPCY ORZEŁKI Our students who are scouts take part in practical voluntary service in the local community. |
|
|---|---|
| • to develop cooperation with local authorities and organizations |
Building relationships with Mr Karl Parks, Groups Advisor (Crawley Community & Voluntary Service) Building relationships with Crawley's Diverse organization |
| • to play our part in the life of our local community through our community access and service programs |
Updating the school’s website and making it the mainstream of ongoing information. To be active on the Facebook parents group. To spread the urgent and the most important information through mobile and e-mails. To collect the signed Code of Conduct for Parents to avoid some prohibited behavior in the school area and to keep financial fluency. |
| • to improve the ways of sending information to parents |
The open event is at the beginning of the year. |
| • to promote the Polish Culture and Heritage to other nations |
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Registered Charity number: 1163462
Polish Saturda School in Crawle y y
2. REVIEW OF ACTIVITIES AND FEES
2.1. Pupils and staff numbers
Our educational activities are carried out through our Preschool classes, Primary classes, and Secondary classes. The popularity of the school has been demonstrated by the strong demand for places and the provision of additional classes for preschool children. The number of pupils in the children's classes reached 314 students.
The number of staff was 42 teachers including classroom assistants. We also had 6 duty parents.
2.2. The fees
Family discounts policy
To underline the value we place on continuity for families, we offer discounts where parents have more than one child at the School.
Our fees for the 2022/23 year were:
£380 per one child, £600 per two or £720 per three children or more .
We also had the fees:
Enrolment Fee - £10 is required to enroll on an official register. Paid once. Not refundable in the case of leaving the school.
Textbooks Fee - the school orders the textbooks on behalf of students and parents repay the cost which is from £15 to £30 (depending on the group) or they can just borrow the course book and bring it back at the end of the school year.
2.3. Access and Assistance
It is important to us that access to the education we offer is not restricted to those who can afford our fees.
Parents who have any problems with payments are asked to submit a written request to trustees for postponement of monthly payments or a total exemption. We make every effort to assist parents on limited budgets.
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Registered Charity number: 1163462
Polish Saturda School in Crawle y y
3.OUR FINANCES
3.1. The financial strategy
The Trustees are continuing their strategy of deploying all net incoming resources to invest in educational purposes. As a charity, the parents of our pupils have the assurance that all the income of the School must be applied for educational purposes. As an educational charity we enjoy tax exemption on our educational activities and on our investment income and gains provided these are applied to our charitable aims.
We pay tax as an employer through the national insurance contributions we make. The school is mainly financed directly by parents and the Polish Government.
3.2 Reserves and Financial Health
The Trustees regularly review the finances, budgets, and spend against budget together with a monthly cash flow analysis as part of the effective stewardship of the School.
3.3. The financial report
Total funds: £112,064 including unrestricted funds £100,100 and restricted funds £11,964.
Total spending: £113,135
We have huge financial support from Polish and British organization:
Stowarzyszenie Wspólnota Polska (Senat RP): £10,081
Co-op grant: £1,883
You will find details of the financial report in the separate attachment.
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Registered Charity number: 1163462
Polish Saturda School in Crawle y y
4. STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT
4.1. Role Of School Trustees
Polish Saturday School in Crawley is run by a board of volunteer parents whose children attend the school. They are trustees of the School. Holding the roles of trustees they are involved in most of the decision-making. Our charity trustees are responsible for the overall management and control of The Polish Saturday School in Crawley.
Being a school trustee is an interesting and rewarding way of becoming involved in school life.
4.2.The Trustees Meetings
Trustees meet regularly. During 2022/23 school year trustees had 4 meetings. As well they meet on most working Saturdays.
4.3. No Benefits for Trustees
All trustees give of their time freely and no remuneration or expenses were paid in the year. No Trustee or person connected with a Trustee received any benefit from the school's budget.
4.4. Trustees Recruitment and Training
The Governing body requires breadth and depth of experience to carry out its duties effectively and efficiently. When recruiting new trustees the important attribute is a passion for the work of our Schools and an understanding of education as a holistic and rounded experience of personal growth. We advertise straight to school parents for new trustees. We had two trustees who resigned during the last two school years for personal or work-related reasons.
4.5. Key management personnel
The Trustees consider that they, together with the Headteacher and the Deputy comprise the Key Management Personnel. The Trustees give the pay and remuneration of the
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Registered Charity number: 1163462
Polish Saturda School in Crawle y y
Head Teachers, Deputy, Teachers, and all paid staff is set by the Finance Committee and is kept under annual review.
A number of criteria are used in setting pay:
-
nature of the role and responsibilities
-
competitor salaries in the area
-
the sector average salary for comparable positions
-
trends in pay in recent years.
A clear pay system in the School has affected the ease of recruitment to certain roles.
The Trustees can pay higher salaries or refund costs for exceptional candidates where this is in the interest of the School.
All financial aspects comply with the law and employing rules.
4.6. Organizational Management
The Trustees determine the general policy of the School. The day-to-day running of the School is delegated to the Head, supported by Deputy and senior staff.
The Headteacher undertakes the key leadership role of overseeing educational and administrative functions in consultation with the Deputy and senior staff. The day-to-day administration of the School is undertaken within the policies and procedures approved by the Trustees which provide for only significant expenditure decisions and major capital projects to be referred to the Trustees for prior approval.
The Head oversees the recruitment of all educational staff. The Trustees oversee the recruitment of administrative and non-teaching support staff like duty parents.
The Head and Deputy are invited to attend Trustees’ meetings.
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Registered Charity number: 1163462
Polish Saturda School in Crawle y y
5. RISK MANAGEMENT
The Trustees are responsible for the overseeing of the risks faced by the School. Detailed considerations of risk are delegated to the Headteacher and Senior Management of the School. Risks are identified and assessed and controls are established throughout the year. A formal review of the charity’s risk management processes is undertaken on an annual basis. Risk is managed under the headings of financial sustainability, school safety, student welfare, employment, school trips and events, and community access.
The main risks that the Trustees have identified and the plans to manage those risks are:
1. Governance. The trustee board lacks relevant skills and time to ‘do more’. Trustees need to consider their efforts and possibilities.
2. Money. Our ability to continue is reliant on pupil fees and the ability to pay bills as they fall due. We operate on a low level of reserves. This risk is managed by marketing activity and active cash-flow management. The school has an additional source of funding every year which is The Polish Government grant but we never can be sure whether we receive it or the amount of donation so we cannot include this funding in the school income. It can be a reserve for some extra activities or projects.
3. Reputation. The School’s success is built on its reputation for the education and wellbeing of our pupils. We manage this risk through safeguarding policies, staff recruitment policies, and active identification and resolution of health and safety-related issues.
4. Curriculum. Educational excellence requires the ablest teachers with state-of-the-art facilities to deliver the curriculum to able students. We manage this risk by offering salaries paid to the teaching staff. We also constantly looking for the best teachers and
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Registered Charity number: 1163462
Polish Saturda School in Crawle y y
assistants in the community. AQA has introduced the changes in the Polish GCSE and A-level exams. So we need to adapt our teaching to the new Specifications.
5. Staff. We find problems with finding enough qualified teachers, especially when some members of staff need a break because of maternity or life changes. We keep the permanent recruitment.
6. Venue. We use St Wilfrid’s premises but sometimes some complaints occur, which can destroy the relationship between us and St Wilfrid’s School’s management. We try to compromise in difficult situations and make sure both parties are happy with our cooperation.
7. Rotation of students.
Through the risk management processes established for the School, the Trustees are satisfied that the major risks identified have been adequately mitigated where necessary. It is recognized that systems can only provide reasonable but not absolute assurance that major risks have been adequately managed.
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Registered Charity number: 1163462
Polish Saturda School in Crawle y y
6. FUTURE PLANS
6.1. The strategies of the School Maintaining
The Trustees intend to continue their current strategies of maintaining the School’s position by investing to provide high-quality education for our pupils.
The Headteacher continues to review the curriculum to ensure that the educational qualifications remain appropriate for our pupils’ development.
6.2. Financial plans
Our plans will be financed primarily from fee income. The funds from Polish Government will be limited so we need to apply for some funds and grants offered by the educational organizations or local authorities.
The Trustees have prepared the Budget for the school year 2023/24.
6.3. Key Objectives For The School Year 2023/24
- to recruit more qualified teachers
We constantly feel a lack of teachers. Even if we recruited some new staff during the school year, some teachers leave the school because of their everyday duties, mainly other jobs. Many teachers are referred offs on some Saturdays so we need to recruit some supply teachers.
The profile of students is changing. We have mostly students who were born in the UK and their first language is English. It affects the methods of learning and demands some new knowledge, flexibility, and abilities from teachers. We need to support them by organizing more training and professional courses for our teachers.
- to update the school’s website
We are working on our school website.
• to manage the school’s data
The school's data is quite a big problem for us, especially management of recruitment and financial aspects. We will look for the best solutions and we will take a few administrative steps to resolve those problems.
- to find a storage to keep school staff in a safe place.
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Registered Charity number: 1163462
Polish Saturda School in Crawle y y
- to control the school’s budget monthly
We plan to have an eye on the group's expenses and the school’s budget every month to make sure we have a balance between the income and the expenditure.
7. THE CHARITY TRUSTEES
New Trustees are appointed by the existing Board of Trustees.
From July 2022 to June 2023 we had 5 trustees:
Mr Andrzej Skulski Mrs Kamila Zalewska
Mrs Gabriela Sokołowska
Mrs Zaneta Tofil
Mr Tomasz Sokołowski
CONTACT DETAILS
Addresses:
Polish Saturday School, CCVS, Gleneagles Court, Brighton Rd, Crawley RH10 6AD
Place where we have lessons:
St Wilfrids Catholic School, Old Horsham Road, Crawley, RH11 8PG
Website www.szkolawcrawley.org
Registered Charity No: 1163462
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Registered Charity number: 1163462
Recelpts and payments accounts CC16a Forthe pe0d Section A Reeeiptg 2nd payments Vn•trict•d hjnds A1 RWKI 2k+P Sub totsllGfrwa forARI 4AsB•i l•w4strn•nt ¢0 TotalGlts Irp).i•Tr 11.954 Pa 79,1 2.7 11123 17.513 lJ.217 aj It(• fjJ1 pps Tr1 lj Sub tolal 1113 A4 Ass¢t and Invv6tynwnt rcha•s see table Lld 471 1•7 1•7 Sub tol•l ToMlp•rnnts 101M 1*.4t4 Nei ofreGelPWp4ynftts1 . A6 Cash funds I•61•r •nd G•¥h lh end 37.201 Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period R?Élrictpd Endowment lunds
81 Ca•h lutyd• Totsl run fvno BJ kn¥B•tm•nt u•ets B4 kn••t• retsln•d forth• 170 In 4TU Det?ils 85 Llibllltl•¢ tNome Dqte of ndrnij 3/as 5/24