2025-08-31-accounts - Slovak School And Community Manchester

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Trustees' Annual Report for the period

Period start date Period end date Day Month Year Day Month Year 01 09 24 To 31 08 25

From

Section A Reference and administration details

Charity name

Slovak School and Community Manchester

Other names charity is known by

Registered charity number (if any) 1185004

Charity's principal address 2 Silchester Drive Manchester Postcode M408NT

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 (ifany)
Anna Pazdurova	Chairman, Founder, Treasurer Safeguarding Lead	1.7.2019	Trustee themselves, Previously trustee o Czech and Slovak School and CommunityManchester
Sandra Nazarej	Trustee, Online Manager Warrington Manager	From 1.1.2021	Trustee Themselves
Miroslava Matusikova	Manchester School Operations	From 1.1.2024	Trustee Themselves
Juraj Janosko Events	Events	From 1.6.2024	Trustee Themselves

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Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)

Name	Dates acted if not for whole year
Sandra Nazarejova	Currentlynon active trustee board member

Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)

Type of adviser Name Address

Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)

Anna Pazdurova - Chairman

Section B Structure, governance and management

Description of the charity’s trusts

Constitution Type of governing document (eg. trust deed, constitution) Charitable Incorporated Organization How the charity is constituted (eg. trust, association, company)

Appointed by the charity trustees, members of our community are always Trustee selection methods welcome and invited to step forward to become trustees (eg. appointed by, elected by) TAR March

Additional governance issues (Optional information)

The organisation has adopted all required policies. You may choose to include The trustees meet on a regular basis and manage all activities of the additional information, where charity in accordance with the constitution. relevant, about: There are policies in place such as: Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy, • policies and procedures Safe Recruitment policy based on principles outlined in Constitution of CIO Slovak school and Community Manchester, Trustee Code of conduct, Conflict adopted for the induction and of Interest Policy, Parents Code of Conduct training of trustees;

the charity’s organisational The charity cooperates on contractual basis with 5 -6 teachers (Incl online) structure and any wider who help school on volunteering basis whilst their teaching time expenses network with which the charity are paid. Charity Trustee board is completely unpaid function – Anna, works; Miroslava and Juraj doesn’t get paid for their work for SCCM. Parents contribute to cost of teaching and premises. Parents contributions
• relationship with any related however doesn’t cover even basic costs therefore charity trustees need to
parties; work on additional fundraising either via organizing events or through
• trustees’ consideration of external grants search and applications. Organization also cooperates major risks and the system with universities in Slovakia and we are providing teacher training via and procedures to manage Ministry o Education in Slovakia, University of Matej Bel and Manchester them. Council – Supplementary Schools Department.

We have also some small folk group of singing / dancing children in traditional dresses who perform at our activities. SLOVACIK WAS FOUNDED IN 2018 as first SLOVACIK in the UK. SCCM also cooperates with other Charitable organizations in the UK and actively supports care homes with “act of kindness” activities with children.

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The charity also works closely with the Embassy of Slovakia in London and Office for Slovakians abroad.We also started cooperation with Matica Slovenska Rijeka Croatia and we continue collaborating with Slovakian universities where we get our teachers continuously trained and we provide traineeship opportunities and cooperation with their students.

The school cooperates with other Slovak Schools in the UK as well and is a founding member of the Association of Slovak Schools in the UK. SCCM also cooperates with other Charitable organizations in the UK and actively supports care homes with “act of kindness” activities with children. School cooperates with St Annes Church Crumpsall. The charity also works closely with the Embassy of Slovakia in London.

In 2025 we received first support after few years from USSZ and also grants which was applied by Anna P. 2023/2024 we haven’t received any financial support from USSZ.

The greatest risk for Charity has been lack of financial support for non profits of our kind, lack of qualified volunteering teachers on market, persistence of volunteers and breach of policies by trustees and volunteering staff

1.Lack of financial support. We didn’t get any external donor money from Slovakia for this period and we purely managed full year from reserves and parents contributions to cost of teaching and premises. We managed to receive grant that Anna Pazdurova wrote project for and was awarded grant (came in June 2024) Mitigation of this risk: Anna will keep continuing applying for grants .

Persistence of volunteers – after grants received we were able to repay expenses to volunteers first time ever in history of school.This we believe will help volunteers to be able to assist us for longer time.
Breach of policies and procedures We believe our procedures were selfexplanatory in terms of conflict of interest and Data Protection Act. Unfortunately, first time in history of our organization since its beginning in 2017, we had to report Charity commission that there was serious breach of conflict of interest and breach of Data Protection Act by one teacher and one charity trustee ( see report 2023/2024 first page). In addition, Trustee breached also Duty of Loyalty and misuse of charity resources and data protection breach . This was reported on forms CC29 based on charity commission guidelines. Breach was conducted by Maria Musutova (teacher on regular basis since Sept 2023 – March2024, and Ingrid Harandza (Charity Trustee officially on Charity commission since 30.6.2022 and was in charge of Operations of Machester school). Mitigation of this risk: Named 2 persons left. We reviewed all our policies and added strength aspects to volunteering contracts, and code of conducts for all members of charity leadership, volunteers and teachers, so that they can act in the best interest of charity.

The constant long term risk to our activities is frequent lack or limited number of suitably qualified teaching staff and volunteers, so we are on a constant look-out for new colleagues and actively work on teambuilding to keep our volunteers and teachers engaged and felt as part of community.

Section C Objectives and activities

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Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document

Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)

I. To advance education for the public benefit in particular but not
exclusively in the language, history, geography, the arts, culture and
heritage ofSlovakiaby:
• teaching theSlovaklanguage and Slovakhistory and geography to children,
young people;
• teachingSlovaklanguage to adults;
• promoting and organising events that supportSlovakculture, art and folklore;
and
• organising educational trips for children and young people.

II. The promotion of social inclusion for the public benefit among people who are nationals of Slovakia settling in the North West region of England who are socially excluded on the grounds of language and their social position by providing:
• education and training in the English language;
• support and general advice; and
• social and recreational facilities and events involving the local
community.

When planned and organized our activities for the year, we kept in mind the Charity Commission's guidance on public benefit at our trustee meetings. The main focus of our activities was on the education of the children, sustaining national heritage, teaching them the Slovak language and helped social inclusion. The charity ran 6-7 classes including adult classes Slovak. Active classes and online: 1 class preschool kids – class “Motyliky” , class “Sovicky” Adults class 1, English class 1-1 – 1 class, Beginner one to one 1 class, Intermediate online 1 class, Upper intermediate online 1 class, . ln total, we had up to 30 children enrolled, up to 25 active. All children lessons were held at Manchester Communication Academy on Saturdays term-time. We held events too Weekly sessions in premises lasted of 3 hours each. In addition to in person classes we also ran online classes max 2 hours depending on age group. Absolute highlight was that we have been awarded as AMBASSADOR SCHOOL EP and graduation took place in Manchester by European Parliament office in the UK. We are fist Slovakian school abroad in the world who got this award. We also met Minister of Education Mr Drucker at Embassy of London and our staff got updated certificated from Manchester City council – Designated Safeguarding lead. As to the whole timeline of school existence, Signification miles stone for school was Covid 19 situation and we have been still affected by loss of students during Covid which has never returned to original pre-Covid state, Also the fact we haven’ts received grants from any governenment in previous periods created significantly challenging situation and had to use reserve funds. We got grants from Slovakia during this reporting period and we covered loses from last period from then and we will also save it as reserves. Therefore volunteers and trustees were not paid any expenses and we involved many volunteers to ensure our organization is running smoothly. In addition we had to Erazmus students hence this had massive impact on finance balance. Half of students decided to continue online which has been positive fact for school long term and for the future. This had significant impact of school and community finances, but we supported community request to our best abilities.

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Second and very significant milestone was leaving of 1 trustee and 1 teacher due to serious breach of policies – resulting in breach of loyalty duty, Confidentialty breach and misuse of charity resources and major conflict of interest. Consequently they left and created the same school as ours “copy” school whilst still at truste role, which was reported as conflict of interest and data breach but didn’t stop Charity commission from approving new charity – identical to us, just with different name in Slovak language. Both ours and new schools are located in Manchester. This cause loss of members and created massive community split withing Slovakian community in Manchester and tensions. Considering the fact that there is not lot of Slovakians there is no logical need for 2 schools which is the same for other Europeans schools and their countries are considerably bigger than Slovakia. See more information on previous Annual report for 2023/2024. For the whole Slovak community, we organised a number of expats events, for children, whole families as well Slovak adult population. Regarding events, we managed to make Slovak Folk festival for Slovakians in the UK. May Day and Saint Nicolas Day. We also hosted 30 members of Folk group Breza in October during Slovak Folk workshops where we taught our dance and music heritage at event accessible to anyone. The highlight of events was St Nicolaus day where “Santa” was traveling all over to Manchester in costume and delivered presents. We hosted over10 nationalities and our traditional home made meals are increasingly popular during these events. We have also some small folk group of singing / dancing children in traditional dresses who perform at our activities, called Slovacik since 2018. We were privileged to be featured in Slovak TV JOJ and Radio Slovakia and also at SME Orava where our founder Anna Pazdurova was featured at main page as founder of first Slovak school in North England.It was great honor to host also His Excellency Mr Lubomir Rehak in Feb 2020, Slovak Ambassador at Slovakia Embassy at premises of our school and later his representant in Dec 2025. Our teachers took part in trainings specialized in teaching o bilingual kids – Slovakian as second language organized by University of Matej Bel. Anna Pazdurova got certificate for Teaching of National intangible cultural heritage from University of Matej Bell Banska Bystrica as the only Slovak school in the UK with this certificate. Certificate was obtained in Opatija,Croatia. Our team from SLOVACIK attended training in Slovakia in August 2025. Children proactively organized fundraising “Lemon-aid” Stall projects where they were fundraising money for school on internal school events. Now Lemon-aid has a break due to founders decision and transformation process to different style of fundraising and rebranding. At majority of events we were fundraising to cover operational costs of school. Overall we got a lot of cross-organizational activities which involved significant time with travelling of our volunteers. Volunteers assisted a lot during events and without them we wouldn’t be able to organize it. Trustees took active part in leadership, especially at the events and acted as deputees during running of Manchester operations . Online lessons are running smoothly, there is financial risk though as they have been in loss. Aim is to cover it by grants or increase fees after responsible trustee

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analyses the situation.

Our aim to tryt to involve more our community during our events and lessons. That said, we are very grateful to the parents of the children enrolled at the school who support our events with contributions to our food stalls or tombolas and who help with some of our events.

For unexpected situations, although we do not have an official policy on reserves, we monitor our cash flow very carefully and always have funds to cover the vitals costs during the year, such as rent and teachers' payments. Thanks to reserves we survived this year and we hope to get grants for next years.

We plan to continue cooperation with local charities and actively promote social inclusion which is our purpose and passion of our people.

Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)

Main income of the school is from the school fees. We keep them to the bare minimum as we want the school to be affordable to the widest possible community. The fees have remained on the same level since the school opened

The fees are supplemented by our fundraising events and activities during our events, such as tombolas, children performances food donations to our food stalls, etc.

You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about:

policy on grantmaking;
policy programme related investment;

WE are grateful for regular volunteers who helped to run school successfully online and offline. Significant help was also cooperation with St. Annes community hall, we are grateful for their complimentary premises for our community events.

Our aim is to increase marketing levels to attract more community, organize more events and apply for funding to be able to deliver quality events for community to feel like “at home” and make lasting connections and friendships.

contribution made by volunteers.

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Section D Achievements and performance

Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year

The trustees endeavour to continue the successful management of the school, which has grown significantly since its foundation and has established itself as first and major Slovak community in the North West since 2017 with Children from radius of 100 km and online children from all over the UK and Scotland.

Absolute highlight was that we have been awarded as AMBASSADOR SCHOOL EP and graduation took place in Manchester by European Parliament office in the UK. We are fist Slovakian school abroad in the world who got this award. We also met Minister of Education Mr Drucker at Embassy of London and our staff got updated certificated from Manchester City council – Designated Safeguarding lead. We also hosted University of Matej Bel and co-organized teachers training for all European Slovak teachers in Manchester. We hosted Slovak folk festival in October 2024 for Slovak expats in the UK and organized community events to serve public benefit.

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Section E Financial review

Brief statement of the charity’s policy on reserves

There in no official policy on reserves, however we proactively keep charity operating charity model in way that reserves are created for unforeseen circumstances. We strictly monitor our cash flow in order to support our operating charity model to create reserves and keep charity and community going thus support communities in the UK.

Details of any funds materially in deficit

Further financial review details (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant about:

We organize community fundraising events and we keep expenditures to minimum by keeping volunteers on site. In the future we plan to apply for grants from Slovakia office for Slovaks abroad.

the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising);
how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity;
investment policy and objectives including any ethical investment policy adopted.

Section F Other optional information

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Section G Declaration

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature(s) Full name(s) Position (eg Secretary, Chair, etc) Date
	Anna Pazdurova	Mirka Matusikova
	Chair, Acting Treasurer	Trustee
	30thJune 2026
	30thJune 2026

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