## **Annual Report of** ## **The Marie Sklodowska- Curie Polish Saturday School Wimbledon-Putney** ## **Registration number 1179554** ## **Governing Document : CIO Association** ## **Registered 14 August 2018** ## **Report of Trustees for the year ending 31.08.2020** The Governors of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Polish Saturday School Wimbledon- Putney present their annual report for the year ended 31.08.2020. ## **Our Aims** 2019-2020 was a challenging year to our students and our whole school community due to the COVID19 pandemic. We are very grateful to our staff, pupils and their families for the way they helped our school to continue working and delivering Polish education to our pupils. It was an enormous challenge, especially during the first lockdown, when we had to rapidly adjust our ways of working , with little notice. The School operates since 1960, teaching Polish language, history, culture and heritage to children between the ages of 3 and 18. On 18[th] August 2018 the School was formally registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales as Association. We are members of the Polish Educational Society (registered in England and Wales - charity no 1159980) which supports Polish education in Great Britain. In February 2019 we received confirmation of registration with HMRC, which allows us to receive Gift Aid donations, with effect from 14.08.2018. We are a relatively new charity; however, we have a 60-year history as a supplementary school. We promote and teach Polish language, culture, and traditions through a specially designed curriculum for Polish schools outside of Poland, preparing our students to take GCSE and A level exams under the AQA examination board. Through cultural events and activities, we broaden the students’ knowledge of Poland and its heritage. We aim to create an ethos of being a community in which all students and their families feel at home, respected and involved. Many extracurricular activities are designed to bring Polish history, culture and heritage closer to our students so that, when they leave our school, they feel truly enriched. ## **On the 8[th] of November 2019 in recognition of our contribution to popularising Polish culture and history in the UK by the President of Poland, The First Lady handed a symbolic flag to our school. This event took place at Polish Embassy UK in London.** ## **Our objectives** Our objectives for the year 2019-2020 were to reflect our academic aims in our work, as well as our ethos as stated by objectives of a charitable organisation. That academic year, as previously mentioned, was significantly interrupted by COVID-19 pandemic. It caused unavoidable changes to 1 the way we provided Polish education to our pupils and functioning of our school as a whole. Following national lockdown on the 23rd March 2020 our staff/ volunteers and governors had to adapt very quickly to the restrictions. Thanks to the availability of online platform Zoom and access to Google Classroom, we were able to deliver lessons for all of the year groups, including nursery. These of our staff who were not able to continue working, were subscribed to the Government funded furlough scheme. This included our duty officers and teachers’ assistants. During summer 2020 exam session our GCSE and A level students were not able to sit their exams owing to the national regulations . Instead, the teachers provided teacher assessed grades. The volume of work that the teachers had to put into preparing the necessary documentation was significantly higher then the usual GCSE/A level preparations . The teachers were appropriately remunerated for their additional work during that time. During 2019-2020 we aimed to: - Continue to offer a broad, relevant curriculum, helping our students to learn Polish language, history and traditions alongside achieving excellent end of year, GCSE and A level results, - Broaden the curriculum through well planned and prepared extracurricular activities- they were able to take place until March 2020, when all extracurricular activities were paused, - Form good relationships and play a part in our community through organising charitable events aimed to help both local and national charities, - - Provide bursaries to families with financial difficulties to help with the payment of school fees, - Provide relevant training/ information about training available online during pandemic to our teaching staff, - Strengthen our school community through events aimed to involve our parents in the life of our school, while fundraising for its needs. The Christmas Fair and cake sales are some examples of these events and they very strongly rely on parental involvement and turn out. Sadly during 20192020 these activities were only possible until 21.03.2020 when lockdown restrictions and subsequent social distancing rules prohibited us from organising whole school events. - Despite obvious challenges and difficulties during 2019-2020 the school attendance remained relatively stable. We also did not experience any significant financial issues. ## **Pupil numbers and fees** During 2019-2020 our school had 538 pupils in 26 classes (forms). The number of pupils per class varied between 20-24 . 35 teachers and 9 teacher assistants ( including 5 school leavers ) were working in the school. This included a music teacher, a history teacher and an RE teacher. Our fees in 2019-2020 were as follows: - 1[st] child £280 per academic year - 2[nd] child £240 per academic year 2 - 3[rd] child £ 120 per academic year - 4[th] and above child- exempt from fees During 2019-2020 we offered help in the form of bursaries to the amount of £ 1,160. The Governing Body tries to keep our fees at low, competitive level. Any changes to fees reflect our expenses such as a raise in salaries and/or rental. ## **Finances** The accounts are presented to parents at the Annual General Meeting which normally takes place in November. The budget for the following academic year is also presented and discussed to give the parents and carers a chance to have their voice on such matters. AGM took place on 16.11.2019. The School’s main income is the school fees (over £139,000). We also received support from Stowarzyszenie Wspolnota Polska (The Polish Community Association in Warsaw) to the value of £ 3,837. The fairs and cake sales organised by the PTA brought in over £2,500 net funding. The main expenses of the School are teachers’ salaries and rent for using the premises of Ursuline High School in Wimbledon. The School also provided school books for the students and paid for some of the teachers training. During pandemic and lockdown some of our staff, owing to lockdown restrictions, were not able to work. We therefore signed up to the furlough scheme offered by the British Government. This allowed us to keep in employment 13 members of our staff. To emphasise the value we place on continuity for families, we offer discounts where parents have more than one child in our school. To attract and retain high quality staff we offer a discount scheme for children of those employed by the School. The Governing Body aims to keep the accounts with a healthy surplus to provide additional funding in case of unexpected events such as the need to find new premises and redundancy payments if the school were to close down. More detailed information on the accounts are available in the Accounts Report. ## **Academic achievements** During summer 2020 exam session, our GCSE and A level students were not able to sit their exams owing to the national regulations . Instead, the students received teacher assessed grades. These were based on course work and mock test exams, taken during the whole year. The volume of work that the teachers had to put into preparing the necessary documentation was significantly higher then the usual GCSE/A level preparations . The teachers were appropriately remunerated for their additional work during that time. We are very grateful to them for their commitment and hard work. There were 26 A level students who gained the following results: - A* 12 students 3 - A 13 students - B 1 student Therefore, our A*-B result was 100%. 34 students took GCSE exam and gained the following results: - “9” 21 students - “8” 9 students - “7” 3 students - “5” 1 student A*-B – 97% We are immensely proud of these results. ## **Review of activities and achievements:** 2019-2020 was a challenging year to our students and our whole school community. It restricted all aspects of our school life. We however managed to organise a few extracurricular and whole school events before the lockdown. We enhanced our students experience of Polish culture through organised theatre trips to the Syrena Theatre at the Polish Cultural Institute in Hammersmith. Pupils from years 1-4 enjoyed the play “Pinokio”, A level students were able to watch a play called “Tango””- part of their curriculum in preparation for the A level exam, years 8 and 9 had theatre trip to enjoy “Weddings of brides”. The school supported staff development through the following training: - Courses preparing GCSE and A level teachers for the new format of these exams - CPR and First Aid courses - Webinars on remote teaching/ learning We took part in the annual “Wierszowisko”-Polish Poetry Festival organised by the Polish Educational Society. The virtual final ( first in the event’s history) gave our pupils fantastic results- 1[st] place in the age group 7-8 , 3[rd] place in 9-10, and 3[rd] place in the 15-16 age group. We planned and coordinated a few whole school events such as the school cafe, Christmas Bazaar, Christmas Jumper fundraising event and Nativity Play. Unfortunately, owing to Covid19 pandemic, we could not go ahead with our annual Easter and Summer fairs. These events were designed to bring the school community together and keep our Polish traditions alive. We organised parent teacher evening for all year groups. We are proud of offering our pupils a library, well led and staffed by volunteers. The library prides itself in an impressive book, audiobook and CD collection, continuously updated and restocked by the library team. Every year students are rewarded for their active participation in the life of the library, offering therefore an encouragement to read in Polish, listen to Polish audio-books, and watch Polish films. The library participates in curriculum activities offering education visits for youngest students, teaching them about the value of reading and how to look after borrowed books/audiobooks and CDs. 4 Parents of the youngest age groups can normally also attend the library during specially dedicated times. This came to an abrupt stop when the school buildings were shut. We have very close links with the Polish Scouts association. Many of our pupils are able to join the Polish Rainbows/Brownies and Scouts. Their activities normally take place immediately after school hours. We invite Scout leaders at the beginning of the school year to encourage new members to join. Close links with the Polish Scout movement in the UK reflects our ethos of cultivating our Polish heritage and Christian values. We are also supported and have close links with St John Evangelist Polish Catholic Church in Putney. The priests and nuns are employed by our School to provide RE lessons for our pupils, which form part of the curriculum. The School year starts and ends with a Holy Mass dedicated to our school community. ## **The School Structure** The school is led by the Head Teacher, Mrs Maja Brodzinska. The Head Teacher led a team of 35 teachers and 9 teacher assistants in the academic year 2019-2020. The Governing Body consisted of 10 trustees, including the Head Teacher. The names of the Trustees in 2019-2020 were as follows: Maria Brodzinska- Head Teacher Brygida Wimbush- Chair of Governors Katarzyna Stelmach-Postigo- Vice Chair Lucyna Rogowska- Secretary Monika Zasadzinska- Treasurer Renata Puzio Agnieszka Klak Dorota Zaborowska-Wawrzyniak Kinga Grabarkiewicz-Elliott Radoslaw Gotkowicz Apart from the teaching staff, the school also employs an administrator and 3 duty officers. The Head Teacher and Treasurer are remunerated. The remaining members of the the trustees board are volunteers. We give employment opportunities to our A level graduates, who are able to work as teachers’ assistants in our lower school. This is on a yearly contract basis. The Marie Sklodowska- Curie Polish Saturday School rents its premises from Ursuline High School in Wimbledon, London. Lessons take place during Saturday mornings, 35 Saturdays a year. The School 5 year is divided into 3 terms. The lessons take place between 9:00-12:30. During breaks parents on duty help to provide a secure environment for the pupils. All staff and volunteers of the School undergo DBS checks. ## **Charitable actions** Our school prides itself in offering support to charitable organisations. The very strong and well led Parent Association at the School organises fund raising events throughout the school year, involving our families in them, thus keeping the ethos of our school alive. During 2019-2020 our charitable events were limited by the onset of COVID-19 pandemic. One of the charitable events we organised was coffee morning in aid of Mcmillan Cancer Support raising £ 428.96. In total £ 738.96 was donated to good causes. ## **Governors recruitment** The Governors /Trustees are elected by the parents during the Annual General Meeting or by the Body of Governors, if a vacancy arises later in the school year. The Governors/Trustees hold their position for 3 years and can be re-elected if they wish to stand again, in accordance with our Constitution. The positions are advertised to the School community and any parent can apply. Each applicant has to be endorsed by 2 current Governors/Trustees. The majority of Governors work for the school on a voluntary basis. The Headteacher, appointed by the Body of Governors, and the Treasurer are remunerated. ## **Plans and aspirations** Our School celebrated its 60[th] anniversary in the autumn 2020. During 2019-2020 we planned to mark this milestone with events designed to illustrate our School’s history, achievements and show our talents .The preparations were sadly cut short by the Coronavirus pandemic. We had a very limited celebration for our pupils and staff (restricted by social distancing rules and following risk assessment) in School in October 2020. We will be working towards making our School paperless by moving all our records into cloud storage as well as making application for places in the school fully computerised. We are hoping to continue engaging our Parents in the life of our School by continuing our recent initiative -the school café. We are hoping new parents /families will get actively involved in our annual initiatives such as school fairs, fund raising activities and other events. 6 ## **Professional advisors:** Bank : : Lloyds Bank: Sort code 30-94-77. Account 04231031 Insurers : Ansvar DA through Keegan & Pennykid Insurance Brokers Auditors: Olena Zakrzewska Contact details: Address: Marie Sklodowska-Curie Polish Saturday School Wimbledon-Putney Ursuline High School Crescent Road Wimbledon SW20 8HA Website www.polishschoolputney.com 7 CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES S¢hool ￿mb￿utr Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For th• wlod 1A119 To 3118f20 Section A Receipts 2nd payments Unrgstri¢t fvnds Endowm8nt Total funts L•st ymr A1 R•¢•lpts scho￿ FUn￿r￿81n Granis and d)nal￿% (Xhbr thur￿￿9 a(aMI Inter*s1 fIL￿ved 106 10$ io 42 Sub tot•l(Grou Incom• forAR 140,J77 10 100,•$4 147.738 A2 A￿•1 and Inv•stm•M •alM, I tsbl•l. Sub totri Total rne*ts 140A77 10,178 180,904 147.738 A3 P•ym•nts Renl 11XI,97T Eduoryllonal vx ondrfvr• (Jher c*arllDbkn actlvplK*¥ Admlnpotr4lN* •x 717 Sub total 131,796 131,716 135.885 A4 Ass•t and Inv•sthi•nt puroh4s•s. Is•• tabl•) Sub total rotalpayments 131,798 131, 135,886 Nee ￿receIp￿PaymontsJ A6 Tr4n$f•rn b•¢wMn fun AO fAsh fvnds last y￿r •nd cash funds this ye•r end 8,681 10.578 39.938 10.f18 .10,678 19.159 11.863 39.938 59.097 11,863 Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Unrnstrrct•d fvnd$ R•$triotsd fund8 Endowmgnt B1 C*sh funds t• nMr••t 111.927 111x7 fvnds t• byMr•s¢t t•r•r•*te 82 Oth•r mon•t•ry ass•ts Cuwr•M ¥•lu• B3 IhV•Stm•nl *ss•ts Curr•nt vilu• B4 Ass•ts r•tsln•d f•r th• oharfty's own us• nbm du• BO Llabllltl•s Skjned by Or￿ ortwo trugte•• on bohLlol •ll the trustees intN Date of approvaf 9141￿ Ii/,-14 Independent examinerfs report to the trustees of Marle Sklodowska4urfe Pollsh Saturday School Wimbledon4>utney I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the Marie Sklodowska- Curie Polish Saturday School Wimbiedon-Putney ffhe Trust) for the year ended 31 August 2020. Responslbllltles and basis of report As the charity trustees of the Trust you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ('the Acr). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carying out my examination I have followed all the applicab Directions given by the Charty Cornmwion under section 145(5)(b) of the Act. Independent examin•rfs statement I have completed my examination. I confimi that no material matters have come to ry attention in connection wrth the examination giving cause to believe that in any material respect: 1. accounting records were not kept in respect of the Trust as required by section 130 of the Act,. or 2. 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 Ihts report in order lo enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Signed: Name". Aleksandra Zakrzewska Qualification: FCA Address: 16 Avondale Avenue. Worcester Park, Surrey lff47PD Date.. 11 October 2021