Trustees’ Annual Report for the period
From 01-Jan-2024 (Period start date) To 31-Dec-2024 (Period end date)
Charity name: L’ecole des Filous
Charity registration number: 1165754
Objectives and Activities
| SORP reference | ||
|---|---|---|
| Summary of the purposes of the charity as set out in its governing document |
Para 1.17 | To advance education in the French language and culture in such ways as the trustees shall think fit in East Hertfordshire and the surrounding area, in particular by providing tuition to bilingual children attending local schools who have an existing knowledge and understanding of the French language to enable them to practise the French language as an extra- curricular activity in order to extend their written and oral linguistic skills and by providing tuition to promote their understanding of the diverse cultures of the French speaking world. |
| Summary of the main activities in relation to those purposes for the public benefit, in particular, the activities, projects or services identified in the accounts. |
Para 1.17 and 1.19 |
• Providing language tuitions to bilingual children in East Hertfordshire and surrounding areas every Saturday mornings during term time for 2 hours. The quality of teaching has been valued by our members. Our teachers are all native French speakers and either qualified teachers or experienced and as a result the improvements in the children’s language skills have been noticeable. Our aim is to maintain small classes (about 8 children per teacher in each class) in order to maintain the impact of teaching on each pupil. We had 4 classes in the first 2 terms of 2024 down to 3 classes from september 2024, and 1 to 2 teaching assistants moving between classes in order to maintain that close relationship teacher/pupil or teaching assistant/pupil especially when there is a different level of aptitude in French within the same class. • Offering a French literature library with access for our students and their families. |
| • Organising social and cultural events open to our students and their families. Through the years, we have arranged events linked to celebrations from all cultures, including French speaking countries. Examples of some of our events are listed below: ●Workshop + cineclub themed around specific events/celebrations such as Easter, Halloween, Christmas … ●Musical shows in collaboration with another French school in Southgate ●Trip to London to see films as part of the South Kensington Kids festival or puppet show organised by ‘les parapluies FLAM’ ●Yearly participation in the Ware Carnival ●End of year show followed by a picnic/buffet to celebrate ‘Bastille day’ ●Christmas show ●2 to 3 day summer holiday club in July for our students to enjoy activities taught in French |
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|---|---|---|
| Statement confirming whether the trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit |
Para 1.18 | N/A |
Additional information (optional) You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:
SORP reference N/A Para 1.38 Policy on grant making N/A Para 1.38 Policy on social investment including program related investment N/A Para 1.38 Contribution made by volunteers N/A Other
Achievements and Performance
| SORP reference | ||
|---|---|---|
| Summary of the main achievements of the charity, identifying the difference the charity’s work has made to the circumstances of its beneficiaries and any wider benefits to society as a whole. |
Para 1.20 | The year 2023 was our nineth year as l’ecole des filous. We have carried on working on improving our communication with our current students and their families but also with new potential students via our Facebook pages and Mailchimp, as well as improving our use of Quickfile, a software to manage our invoices to parents and suppliers and launching our new website. We have also continued using Seesaw to help with better and faster communication with the families and with the pupils around sharing homework and tracking progress. As in previous years, we have continued to transfer our passion of the French culture and language to our pupils. One of our teachers led several lunch club activities based on ‘French’ specific themes such as ‘La galette des rois’ in January, ‘Pancake day’ in February, or ‘Easter egg hunt’ in April. We organised our annual ‘end of year’ show mid July around ‘Bastille day’ and celebrated the olympic games since they were in Paris this year. As previous years, teaching the French language to children can be a challenge due to the different levels of speaking/understanding by the children within the same class due to the small size of the school, but the situation has been well managed again by the whole team of teachers, and all the pupils have shown great progress in their ability to understand, speak and write in French. |
Additional information (optional) You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:
| Achievements against objectives set |
Para 1.41 | See above for full details |
|---|---|---|
| Performance of fundraising activities against objectives set |
Para 1.41 | N/A |
N/A Investment performance Para 1.41 against objectives N/A Other
Financial Review
| Financial Review | ||
|---|---|---|
| Review of the charity’s financial position at the end of the period |
Para 1.21 | Our classes are attended in school premises in Ware, Hertfordshire, that are rented by the charity (cost of renting of £9 per hour per classroom, i.e. £72 for each Saturday sessions). Being now in our nineth year running, we have kept the small increase of the tuition fees initiated in September 2023, i.e. £145 for one child and £275 for two children, still maintaining a discount for siblings. The account shows a benefit this year. This is because due to having fewer pupils at the beginning of 2024 we have decided to decrease the number of classes from 3 to 2. With some of our reserve/income, we are still planning to spend it towards investing in new books for our library, organising some workshops, arranging trips to French speaking shows in or around London in collaboration with other French schools and maybe ultimately arranging an exchange with a French school. It has again been difficult to retain our pupils (This year we have had again less than 30 pupils attending our classes) so we are hoping this number will remain stable at least. In the future, we are still keeping in mind to potentially be able to open one or more classes to British children or adults alongside the bilingual children currently attending l’école des filous. |
| Statement explaining the policy for holding reserves stating why they are held |
Para 1.22 | N/A |
| Amount of reserves held | Para 1.22 | None |
| Reasons for holding zero reserves |
Para 1.22 | Being in our nineth year running, we are still not holding a reserve yet in a separate bank account as we had to spend some of the money towards a new website hoping this will help recruiting new families. We are aware that it is recommended, as a good practice, to hold a third of the running costs in a reserve account, and we are still hoping to be looking into this in the near future. |
| Details of fund materially in deficit |
Para 1.24 | N/A |
| Explanation of any uncertainties about the charity continuing as a going concern |
Para 1.23 |
Account – Year end 2024 (January to December)
| Expenses | Income | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teachers fees and management cost |
£4,062.00 | Tuition fees: School | £10,359.93 | ||
| School rental costs | £2,700.00 | ||||
| Other expenses | £1,189.10 | ||||
| Insurance | £238.74 | ||||
| FLAM subscription | £215.50 | ||||
| Total expenses | 8,409.35 | Total income | £10,359.93 | ||
| Benefit | £1,954.59 | ||||
| Balance carried forward from 2023 |
£12,158.28 | ||||
| Balance at the end of 2024 | £14,112.87 |
| Additional information (optional) | Additional information (optional) | Additional information (optional) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| You may choose to include further statements where relevant about: | |||
| The charity principal source of funds is the | |||
| subscription fees from the families of the | |||
| The charity’s principal | children joining in. | ||
| sources of funds (including | Para 1.47 | ||
| any fundraising) |
| Additional information (optional) You may choose to include further statements where relevant about: |
Additional information (optional) You may choose to include further statements where relevant about: |
Additional information (optional) You may choose to include further statements where relevant about: |
|---|---|---|
| The charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising) |
Para 1.47 | The charity principal source of funds is the subscription fees from the families of the children joining in. |
| Investment policy and objectives including any social investment policy adopted |
Para 1.46 | N/A |
| A description of the principal risks facing the charity |
Para 1.46 | Due to the current increased cost of living, the number of pupils attending the school is potentially going to continue to decrease in the coming years. Also, it is getting harder to find French speaking native teachers since Brexit. |
| Other | N/A |
Structure, Governance and Management
| Description of charity’s trusts: |
||
|---|---|---|
| Type of governing document (trust deed, royal charter) |
Para 1.25 | Constitution |
| How is the charity constituted? (e.g unincorporated association, CIO) |
Para 1.25 | Charitable Incorporated Organisation |
| Trustee selection methods including details of any constitutional provisions e.g. election to post or name of any person or body entitled to appoint one or more trustees |
Para 1.25 | Trustees are appointed by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of charity trustees. |
Additional information (optional)
You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:
| Policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees |
Para 1.51 | As per constitution and including safeguarding training and DBS if deemed required. |
|---|---|---|
| The charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works |
Para 1.51 | Part of ‘ Parapluie FLAM’, French organisation grouping several Saturday morning schools teaching French and providing educational, cultural and administrative support. |
| Relationship with any related parties |
Para 1.51 | N/A |
| Other | N/A |
Reference and Administrative details
| Charity name | L’ecole des filous |
|---|---|
| Other name the charity uses | |
| Registered charity number | 1165754 |
| Charity’s principal address | 42 Heath drive WARE SG12 0RF |
Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity
| Trustee name | Office (if any) |
Dates acted if not for whole year |
Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee (if any) |
|||
| 1 | Nadege Galle | |||||
| 2 | Catherine O’Sullivan | |||||
| 3 | Xavier Mutzig | |||||
| 4 | Emilie VanBaalen | |||||
| 5 | Marine Yalicheff | Started Sep- 24 |
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| Corporate trustees–names of | the directors at the date the report was approved | |||||
| Director name | ||||||
| N/A | N/A | N/A | ||||
| Name of trustees holding title to property belonging to the charity | ||||||
| Trustee name | Dates acted if not for whole year | |||||
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
Funds held as custodian trustees on behalf of others
Description of the assets N/A held in this capacity Name and objects of the N/A charity on whose behalf the assets are held and how this falls within the custodian charity’s objects Details of arrangements for N/A safe custody and segregation of such assets from the charity’s own assets
Additional information (optional)
Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)
| Type of adviser |
Name | Address |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information) | ||
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
Exemptions from disclosure
Reason for non-disclosure of key personnel details
N/A
Other optional information
N/A
Declarations
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above. Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees
| Signature(s) | Electronically signed by: Nadege Galle Reason: I am signing for the reasons as stated in the document. Date: Oct 29, 2025 21:59:38 GMT |
Electronically signed by: Benjamin Garcia Reason: I am signing for the reasons as stated in the document. Date: Oct 29, 2025 22:11:40 GMT |
|---|---|---|
| Full name(s) | Nadege Galle | Benjamin Garcia |
| Position (eg Secretary, Chair, etc) |
Chair | Treasurer |
| Date | 29-Oct-2025 |
29-Oct-2025 |