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2025-08-31-accounts

Annual Report

1 September 2024 to 31 August 2025

Registered Charity: 1195909

steelcitychoristers.org.uk

The printing of this report was kindly sponsored by A&R Tradeprint Ltd

www.artradeprint.co.uk 515 Abbeydale Road, Sheffield, S7 1FU Located on the corner of Broadfield Road and Abbeydale Road

Report of the Trustees for the Year Ending 31 August 2025

The trustees are pleased to present their annual report and independently examined accounts for our financial year 1 September 2024 to 31 August 2025.

Chair’s Report

Dear Reader,

2024-25 was a huge year for Steel City Choristers! We seized as many opportunities as we could squeeze into our diary, including an Evensong at St Paul’s Cathedral, a five-day residence at Winchester Cathedral and our first international tour to Germany. This was on top of continuing to serve a wide range of local churches and other communities, many of whom wouldn’t otherwise have had access to cathedral-quality choral music.

Delivering our ambitious programme of activities over the last year marks a real coming of age for Steel City Choristers as a credible and capable charity. Our ability to plan, finance and deliver tours worthy of any cathedral choir successfully, on top of our busy regular schedule of activity, is a huge testament to the dedication and skill of our team of volunteers.

In particular, we owe a huge debt of thanks to Jeremy Dawson, one of our trustees, who masterminded our tours to both Winchester and Germany, as well as our day trip to sing at St Paul’s. Others also worked hard to raise funds, book performances, plan meals, research social activities and more. Our team of non-singing chaperones played a vital role taking good care of our choristers, and we couldn’t have made it work if our adult Clerks hadn’t been willing to take time off work and give their time freely to the choir. Working together we were able to organise and deliver two fantastic tours without the services or cost of a professional tour company.

As we stretched ourselves to deliver so much over the year, we had to dig deep to draw on and strengthen the relationships that were needed to make things possible. This was true within the choir community including in relation to trustees’ ability to work constructively together under pressure, the way our mixed-age group of choristers relate to each other and to adults, and the number of parents recognising and responding to the need for more chaperones and fundraising. It was also true in respect of our relationships with our hosts and partners, and we are grateful to all those with whom we collaborated.

We enjoyed making music over the year with Hallam Sinfonia, Sheffield Bach Choir and National Festival Orchestra, Sheffield Chamber Choir, Sheffield Chorale, the Sterndale Singers and the choir of St John's Church, Ranmoor. It was also a pleasure to welcome our President Hilary Davan Wetton back to Sheffield to work with us for a day.

We were also excited to develop a new partnership with Cambridge University Schola Cantorum, formed following the unexpected and controversial closure of St John’s Voices. Our choirs share a significant theme in our back stories, as well as a commitment to both excellence and diversity in choral music. We had great fun hosting and singing with three members of Cambridge Schola over the course of a weekend in Sheffield this year, and look forward to the return leg when we will bring both full choirs together for a service of Compline in Cambridge in early 2026.

We were also grateful for the support of communities across Sheffield. They invited us to serve them with our music and in so doing enabled us to offer our choristers a hugely varied programme of performance opportunities. Some went further and supported us financially, making a donation to

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the charity in gratitude for us singing for them and in recognition of the significant cost of training the choir. A small number partnered with us more closely to host fundraising concerts, offering us their building free of charge and helping to raise an audience. The prospect of venue costs and the challenge of selling tickets have limited our appetite for concerts to date, but this new model offers a viable way forward, enabling us to both enjoy performing more music than we would in a service, while also raising funds.

Looking back at the breadth and variety of performances we have delivered over the course of this last year in and around Sheffield and in London, Southwell, Winchester, Berlin and Leipzig, and at the rich and supportive rehearsals, training and tuition we are delivering to our diverse group of choristers, it’s hard not to feel just a little proud of the depth and quality of the musical education we have given them.

Challenges do remain. It was only a small proportion of the communities that we sang for that made a financial contribution to our costs; numerous grant funders decided not to make repeat awards to us last year; and we remained heavily reliant on leadership and management provided pro bono by a small group of committed volunteers. As the choir prepares to celebrate its fifth anniversary, the trustees and I will be reviewing these and other barriers to the long term sustainability of the organisation, and acting where we can to build a firmer foundation for the future. A key priority will be to reduce our reliance on grant funding by encouraging as many people as possible to give, even a little, on a regular basis to help us grow a reliable and steady source of income. Could you help? Read more at steelcitychoristers.org.uk/donate.

Thank you again for your interest in Steel City Choristers and welcome to our annual report for 2024-25.

As in previous years, we have aimed to provide a full and transparent record of our activities and our finances, celebrating our achievements and giving credit where it is due. This year, we have added more photos to bring the words to life and some section indexing to help guide you through the report. I hope you are inspired by what you read, and that it prompts you to think about how you can help us on our journey ahead.

Kate Caroe Chair of trustees

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2024-25 Headlines

Steel City Choristers is an independent choir in the cathedral tradition conducted by Eleanor Jarvis. Our mission is to serve communities with our music and inspire and train children to sing.

We ended the year with 33 children in the choir from 9 Sheffield postcode areas: 37% speak another language at home; 43% are non-white; 66% are female; 20% have a special need, and 94% are educated in the state sector or at home. We had 11 regular adult singers.

This year we sang 54 performances for 33 hosts (20 churches, 6 cathedrals and 7 others) - 18 of which were new hosts. This included 31 church services and 23 concerts or other events, reaching 6,400 people. By the end of the year we had sung a total of 160 performances for 69 different hosts since we were founded, including 46 churches or cathedrals.

We sang 80 different pieces of music, over 90% of which was sacred repertoire. We sang for a number of significant occasions including a centenary service for All Saints Church, Totley, a Solemn Mass celebrating a new Anglican shrine for All Saints, Arksey and at the installation of the new Lord Mayor for Sheffield City Council.

We sang two services at Southwell Minster and one at St Paul’s Cathedral. We also sang Choral Evensong every weekday during a five day residency at Winchester Cathedral. On tour in Germany, we sang a service and recital in Berlin Cathedral, a recital in Bach’s church in Leipzig and three other concerts.

We worked collaboratively with others, singing joint concerts with the Hallam Sinfonia orchestra and a joint Evensong with the choir of St John’s, Ranmoor. We established a partnership with Cambridge University Schola Cantorum.

We received coverage from Classic FM when we sang for Dan Walker’s coast-to-coast cycle ride, and our tour to Germany featured in the Sheffield Star online and in print as a centre-page spread.

Total expenditure was £75,479, just over half of which related to the cost of our exceptional trips and tours and half to our core activities in and around Sheffield. Our income was from a range of sources including donations (31%), performances (8%), grants (23%), choir members’ contributions for tours (25%) and other sources (13%).

Total in-year income fell short of total expenditure, resulting in a net in-year deficit of £2,433.

Steel City Choristers remains a going concern. We ended the year with 6 months’ reserves, a new Special Opportunities Fund into which we have started to save for exceptional future costs, and funds to carry forward equivalent to just under half of the costs we anticipate next year.

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1. About Steel City Choristers

Our Mission

Steel City Choristers is passionate about the power of music to change lives. Our mission is to inspire and train children to sing and serve communities with cathedral-quality choral music.

Our innovative choir of children and adults is in the cathedral tradition. This means that child choristers sing the treble line by themselves with experienced adult clerks singing the lower parts of alto, tenor and bass, and that while we are not a religious charity, most of the music we sing was written for Christian worship over the last 500 years.

We have been working hard to develop a model to help sustain and promote excellence in all-age choral music in and around Sheffield since the closure of the city’s cathedral choir in 2020. Since then we have recruited a new generation of children and many new adults to sing with us and enjoyed sharing our music with a diverse range of churches and other communities across the city and beyond. We particularly enjoy singing for those who would not otherwise have access to choral music.

Inspiring and Training Children to Sing

Steel City Choristers is open to boys and girls from Year 2 to Year 13, subject to an informal audition. We are passionate about making a high quality musical education through the choral tradition more accessible. We welcome children of all faiths and none, and regardless of their financial circumstances and prior musical experience.

We aim to provide the best possible musical education to our choristers, inspiring and training them to sing to cathedral standards. We offer twice-weekly term-time rehearsals, regular 1:1 singing lessons, group music theory sessions and specialist small group provision for our boys with changing voices, our senior choristers and our juniors. Singing alongside experienced adult volunteers greatly enhances our children’s musical experience, stretching their aspirations and offering them a wide range of positive role models. Our all-age musical community helps young children find and develop their voice while stretching older ones to sing to adult standards, creating a supportive pathway to high quality musicianship.

We provide our choristers with an exciting, diverse range of performance opportunities, including through projects and collaborations with other choirs and musicians, as well as trips and tours away from Sheffield that stretch us musically, deepen relationships across the choir community, and lay down memories to inspire a lifelong love of singing

We take a holistic approach to supporting our choristers’ development, integrating youth work into our weekly rehearsals and inviting guest speakers to help our choristers to explore and reflect on their experience singing with the choir.

As well as supporting their musical development, singing with Steel City Choristers offers children benefits for their emotional and physical well-being. They build their confidence, stamina and resilience, and develop their relationships and teamwork skills. These are all skills and attributes that will prepare them well for life.

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Serving Communities

We serve a wide range of communities in and around Sheffield with our music, working collaboratively with our hosts to understand their needs and co-create what and how we will sing for them. We want more people to benefit from the beauty and joy of high quality choral music. So we aim to make it more relevant and accessible, particularly to communities with less cultural and social capital, including through our innovative projects Lament and Reasons to Sing!

Our choristers’ dedication means that we perform around 40 to 50 times a year, and have, to date, sung a total of 160 times for 69 different hosts since we were founded. We span the sacred and secular divide by singing for any community that appreciates the artistic and spiritual value of our music.

In line with our roots in the English sacred choral tradition, the majority of our engagements are leading worship in churches. We know that many people find music to be a powerful vehicle for worship, creating a space for personal contemplation and helping them celebrate life and be present in the moment. Our aim is therefore to:

We have sung for a diverse range of churches from many different traditions and denominations, singing services of Mattins, Eucharist and Evensong as well as Songs of Praise style services to celebrate music as a form of worship.

The joys and benefits of choral music are also appreciated by many people in non-religious settings too. So we enjoy singing for a variety of non-church events, including to help raise funds for other local charities.

Our CARE Values

Community

We value, trust and empower our people

Ambition

We work at the cutting edge, continually innovating in our pursuit of excellence

Resilience

We work hard to perform well as a team under pressure

Enjoyment

We have fun, enjoying and sharing the joys of choral music!

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Constitution

Steel City Choristers is constituted as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (Foundation). It was registered as charity number 1195909 by the Charity Commission for England and Wales in September 2021. Our registered address is 2 The Grove, Sheffield, S17 4AS.

Trustees

The charity is governed by a board of trustees. There are no external persons or bodies entitled to appoint trustees to the board and there are no corporate trustees. All appointments to the board are made by the trustees on the basis of people’s relevant skills and experience.

There were five trustees governing the charity in 2024-25.

President and Patrons

Conductor and organist, Hilary Davan Wetton , serves as honorary president of the charity. In addition, we have four patrons:

Advisors

The trustees, and in particular the Chair, are supported by a group of advisors who offer their experience, advice and encouragement on a pro bono basis to help the charity meet its objectives.

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Leadership

The charity does not employ any staff. It currently relies on the good will of volunteers to provide pro bono most of the day to day leadership and management of the choir. The board of trustees delegates leadership on specific strategic priorities in three key areas:

  1. Operations – led by Jeremy Dawson

  2. To Sing: Provide a high quality musical education to our choristers

  3. To Recruit : Attract new children and adults to grow and diversify our membership

  4. To Safeguard : Ensure the safety and wellbeing of everyone involved in the charity.

  5. Partnerships, Projects and Communications – led by Kate Caroe

  6. To Reach Out: Establish and maintain relationships with partners and hosts to plan our performance schedule and diversify those hearing and appreciating our singing

  7. ●To Innovate: Design and deliver creative ways to engage new audiences in choral music, particularly those who wouldn’t otherwise have access to it

  8. To Promote : Raise public awareness and interest in Steel City Choristers.

  9. Finance and Governance – led by Chris Caroe

  10. To Thrive: Ensure the sustainability and financial viability of the organisation

  11. ●To Comply: Ensure the propriety and efficiency of our governance and reporting.

Musical Direction

The freelance musicians engaged to direct and train the choir are:

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Risks

The principal risks facing the charity and how these are mitigated are as follows:

Volunteer risk

That we do not continue to benefit from the very high level of pro bono support we rely on to plan, deliver and administer the choir’s activity.

Mitigation : We try to put relationships first and make efforts to protect the wellbeing of all those who contribute their time and skills voluntarily to enable the successful operation of the choir. We continue to look for opportunities to share tasks more widely to reduce our heavy reliance on a few individuals, and also to weigh up the feasibility of incorporating additional activities within our budget to be undertaken on a paid basis.

Recruitment risk

That we are unable to sustain the number of children and adults singers that we need to operate a viable choir.

Mitigation : We recruit children to sing in the choir without prejudice to their background or prior experience, and we do not charge fees so that money is never a barrier to singing with us. We maximise word of mouth and social media opportunities to encourage children to audition to join us, especially at the beginning of the school year. We hold Come and Sing Evensong and a Be a Chorister at Christmas events each year as well as a ‘bring a friend’ open rehearsal to create opportunities for children to experience singing with us. Our focus on building relationships through our youth work and choir socials supports retention of existing choristers. We encourage boys whose voices change to continue singing with us, including through specialist music training during rehearsal time. We recruit experienced adult singers for the lower parts mainly via word of mouth.

Funding risk

That we are unable to secure the funding we need to sustain our work.

Mitigation : We aim to fund our activities drawing on a diverse range of sources of income. Our priority is to grow the amount of reliable regular income we receive from committed donors. This will enable us to reduce our dependence on grant funding which we know we cannot take for granted. We set an annual budget at the start of the year having regard to funds currently available and likely future income. Financial controls ensure all expenditure remains within budget. We maintain a financial reserve equivalent to approximately six months’ core operating costs in line with our Reserves Policy published on the Policies page of our website. This creates resilience should we need to continue core operations while addressing a significant shortfall in funding.

Safeguarding risk

That a safeguarding incident occurs despite the policies and procedures in place to keep everyone safe.

Mitigation : We have appropriate checks and training in place for all adults who are involved with working with children in the choir. Members of our trained team of chaperones are present at every rehearsal and event involving our children. Our robust safeguarding policy and procedures are reviewed at least annually in line with Charity Commission guidance.

Retention risk

That our Director of Music leaves unexpectedly.

Mitigation : The trustees have developed a positive and collaborative relationship with our Director of Music and are confident that she shares our strong sense of ownership and pride in relation to the operation and future plans for the choir. We have agreed with her that she will provide three months' notice of any intention to step down from her role.

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2. Review of Activities in 2024-25

Overview

In 2024-25, Steel City Choristers maintained its intense schedule of activity serving communities in and around Sheffield, while also planning and delivering two week-long residential tours to Winchester and to Germany.

Chorister Recruitment

Over the year, we recruited 7 new children to the choir - three as choristers and four as juniors. Four of our juniors progressed this year to become probationers in the main choir and went on during the year to be given their surplices and welcomed as full choristers. At the end of the year we had 33 children in the choir: 27 choristers, 4 juniors, and 2 boys with changing voices:

In the choir stalls at Winchester Cathedral At the Lyceum Theatre stage door

We held our Be a Chorister at Christmas event as part of an Advent carol service to create an open opportunity for any child to experience performing with the choir. However, the majority of our new recruits were introduced to the choir by word of mouth.

We were delighted for two of the choristers who left us this year. One who left mid-year was accepted to become one of the first ever girl choristers at St Paul’s Cathedral, and the other, one of our sixth-form boys, left at the end of the year to take up a gap-year bass choral scholarship at Hereford Cathedral.

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Music Education

Eleanor Jarvis continued as our Director of Music this year, bringing her tenure with us to three years. We were pleased to welcome Timothy Peters back to Sheffield, engaging him as our Assistant Director of Music with a focus on singing tuition to our younger choristers.

We offered our choristers a rich, varied and fun musical education through the choral tradition that included regular rehearsals, small group tuition, singing lessons, and music theory lessons as well as a wide range of performances, musical workshops, and exciting opportunities to tour in this country and abroad.

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On the whole, choristers’ attendance rates were high despite their intense schedule of rehearsals and performances. We recognise the dedication and commitment this reflects from their parents as much as from the children themselves. We are grateful for all the efforts parents make to accommodate our varied programme in their family’s schedule and to transport their children to our ever changing set of venues across the city and beyond.

2024-25 Feedback from Supporters and Congregation / Audience Members

“Steel City Choristers provides excellent musical and social development for children & young people. A great community!”

“Those very young choristers - singing that kind of church music - are wonderfully impressive.”

“Very pleased to see so many young people singing in the choir at a time when so many choirs across the country are struggling to recruit new members.”

“Beautiful singing, how wonderful to see young people involved.”

“Steel City Choristers is doing a wonderful job introducing children and young people to the joys of choral singing, being part of something bigger than themselves, making new friends, having fun and sharing unique experiences and places together.”

Holistic Development

As part of our holistic approach to supporting our choristers’ development, we continued to build in time for youth work during our Monday rehearsals each week. We organised and led our own youth work sessions drawing on input from members of the choir community and outside guest speakers. Over the year, the choristers enjoyed a wide range of youth work activities, including:

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We also invested in events that helped to build relationships between the children and between them and adults across the choir community. We enjoyed each other’s company at our annual Chorister Concert and Quiz and Chips evening, as well as on our termly choir socials which included bowling, roller skating and going out for an all you can eat breakfast! This year we also introduced socials for the adult clerks, taking them out for a meal at Christmas and at one other point in the year.

An OutoftheBox story at Southwell Minster

Youth work discussion with Bishop Pete

2024-25 Feedback from Choristers

We asked our choristers in a youth work session to make a picture using OutoftheBox materials to reflect what they value about choir and what Steel City Choristers means to them. This is some of what they said:

“Choir is a good place to belong because it helps you make friends and express your feelings, and if you're not feeling well they can help you.”

“It's good at choir cuz you get to learn how to sing. I could sing a bit but now I can sing much better and that can serve me for my life.”

“The people say kind things to other people in choir.”

“Different people talk together and everyone has different personalities.”

“Everyone is from lots of different backgrounds and we sing for lots of different people.”

“I haven't been here very long but everyone is very nice and I feel welcome.”

“Singing but at the same time worshipping. I enjoy myself.”

“There's lots of different people in choir - lots of different backgrounds and cultures and differently-abled people. It makes you feel welcome and feel like you fit in. People all go to different schools and it feels like a family.”

“We enjoy ourselves through singing and make friends.”

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Hosts

We sang for a total of 33 different host communities in 2024-25, including 20 different churches and 6 cathedrals. 18 of these were hosts for whom we sang for the first time, bringing the total number of hosts that we have sung for to date to 69, including 46 different churches or cathedrals.

New host communities, by term

The diversity of the communities we sang for reflects our commitment to sharing choral music as widely as possible. We sang services for both Catholic and Anglican cathedrals, and in churches from a wide range of traditions and denominations including: Anglo-Catholic, Liberal Anglican, Conservative Evangelical Anglican, Charismatic Anglican, URC and Methodist. We sang for churches in a variety of settings ranging from the rural Hope Valley, to the Sheffield suburbs and inner-city Sheffield estates.

We continued to look for opportunities to share our singing with those who would not otherwise have access to choral music. This included singing for:

Our hosts often invited us to sing to help celebrate significant moments in the life of their community, including:

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The installation of the new Lord Mayor

Support Dogs Christmas concert

2024-25 Feedback from Hosts

Father Blair Radford, St Peter & St John, Barnsley

“The Steel City Choristers bring a musical delight to our worship. In a world so devoid of joy they bring a ray of light and joy to our services.”

Sue Williams, Church Warden, St Swithun's Church, Manor

“I love every performance and applaud the way you care for the choristers, ensuring they learn, enjoy the music and have fun!”

Revd Canon Dr Catherine Okoronkwo, Residentiary Canon and Steward, St Paul’s

“It was such a treat and blessing to hear Steel City Choristers sing Evensong here at St Paul’s Cathedral. What a wonderful ministry.”

Our Schedule

We sang 54 performances in 2024-25, including 31 church services and 23 concerts or other events. We had many more invitations to sing but didn’t have the capacity to accept them all. The intensity of our schedule increased from 42 performances in the previous year mainly due to our 11 tour performances: five services of Evensong at Winchester Cathedral, and one service and five other performances in Germany.

Total singing engagements - 3 year trend

Performances 2022-23 2023-24 2024-25
Church Services 25 24 31
Concerts and other events 16 18 23
Total 41 42 54

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We estimate that we reached around 6,400 people through our performances in 2024-25, a significant increase on the 4,300 we reached in the previous year. Given our ambition to introduce more people to the English choral tradition, we were pleased that the number of people attending our choral services totalled approximately 3,370, up from 2,160 last year. Average attendance at our 14 services of Choral Evensong was 44.

We sang our 150th performance for Roundabout’s Night at the Musicals at the Lyceum Theatre in Sheffield in June 2024. By the end of the year, we had sung a total of 160 performances since we were founded.

Singing Engagements to date, by term and type

All Singing Engagements in 2024-25

# Date Host Host Event Reach
1 29-Sep-24 St Mary's Church, Ecclesfield Evensong 55
2 03-Oct-24 Sheffield City Centre Singing for Dan Walker, Classic FM 30
3 13-Oct-24 St Peter & St John, Barnsley New Eucharist 31
4 13-Oct-24 St Peter & St John, Barnsley Evensong 16
5 20-Oct-24 St Andrew's URC Morning service 42
6 28-Oct-24 Winchester Cathedral New Evensong 25
7 29-Oct-24 Winchester Cathedral Evensong 43
8 30-Oct-24 Winchester Cathedral Evensong 78
9 31-Oct-24 Winchester Cathedral Evensong 47
10 01-Nov-24 Winchester Cathedral Evensong 41
11 17-Nov-24 All Saints Church, Totley New Centenary Service 250
12 21-Nov-24 Samuel Worth Chapel New Fundraising Concert 26
13 24-Nov-24 St Mark's Church, Broomhill Come and Sing Evensong 28

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14 01-Dec-24 Mount Tabor, Parson Cross Advent Carol Service 47
15 05-Dec-24 Sheffield Cathedral Carols on the Forecourt 100
16 07-Dec-24 St Matthew's, Carver Street Recital with Hilary Davan Wetton 45
17 12-Dec-24 All Saints Church, Ecclesall Charity Concert for Support Dogs 100
18 14-Dec-24 Sheffield Town Hall New Concert with Hallam Sinfonia - 2pm 150
19 14-Dec-24 Sheffield Town Hall Concert with Hallam Sinfonia - 5pm 100
20 15-Dec-24 Cambridge Street Collective New Carol Singing 70
21 22-Dec-24 St John's Church, Owlerton Carol Service 210
22 24-Dec-24 St Mary's Church, Ecclesfield Christmas Eve Carol Service 300
23 24-Dec-24 St Mark's Church, Broomhill Midnight Mass 80
24 10-Jan-25 St John's Church, Owlerton New Year Celebration 60
25 25-Jan-25 Sheffield Cathedral Breathe Deep Youth Event 261
26 09-Feb-25 St Swithun's Church, Manor New Service with Schola Cantorum members 38
27 15-Feb-25 St Matthew's, Carver Street Wedding 80
28 01-Mar-25 St Mary's Church, Ecclesfield Wedding 80
29 09-Mar-25 St Andrew's Church, Psalter Lane Morning Service 78
30 15-Mar-25 Sheffield Cathedral St Matthew's Passion with Bach choir 200
31 23-Mar-25 St Marie's Cathedral, Sheffield Joint Classical Sheffield Concert 200
32 29-Mar-25 Whirlow Spirituality Centre Devotional Performance 36
33 05-Apr-25 St Paul's Cathedral, London New Evensong 500
34 18-Apr-25 St Mark's Church, Broomhill Good Friday Service 311
35 18-Apr-25 St Marie's Cathedral, Sheffield Good Friday Service 300
36 26-Apr-25 Holy Trinity Church, Millhouses Fundraising Concert 50
37 11-May-25 St Mary's Church, Ecclesfield Evensong 39
38 18-May-25 Beauchief Abbey Evensong 36
39 18-May-25 Sheffield Town Hall Lord Mayor’s Installation 120
40 01-Jun-25 Southwell Minster New Eucharist 80
41 01-Jun-25 Southwell Minster Choral Evensong 41
42 04-Jun-25 All Saints, Arksey New Solemn Mass 40
43 15-Jun-25 St John's Church, Ranmoor Children's Come & Sing Evensong 36
44 18-Jun-25 Lyceum Theatre New Roundabout’s A Night at the Musicals 1,000
45 22-Jun-25 St Matthew's, Carver Street Corpus Christi Service 89
46 27-Jun-25 St Peter's Church, Hope New Fundraising Concert 56
47 28-Jun-25 St Peter's, Horbury New Horbury Music Conference Evensong 30
48 06-Jul-25 Holy Trinity Church, Millhouses End of term Evensong 38
49 05-Aug-25 Alte Lankwitz community centre New Community Concert 45
50 06-Aug-25 Berlin Cathedral New Recital before Midday prayers 150
51 07-Aug-25 Lankwitz Church New Concert 65
52 08-Aug-25 St Thomas Kirche, Leipzig New Recital 52
53 09-Aug-25 Zum Guten Hirten, Friedenau New Concert 104
54 10-Aug-25 Berlin Cathedral Morning Eucharist Service 320
Number of New Hosts
18
Total Reach
6,449

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Repertoire

We selected our repertoire to meet the needs of our hosts and the nature of the services or events they invited us to sing for. We also took into account how much new music we could learn in the available rehearsal time. Our twice-weekly rehearsal schedule meant that, over the course of the year, we could learn and perform a wide repertoire of 80 different pieces of music.

Over 90% of the music we sang (74 pieces) was sacred repertoire typical of a cathedral choir or active parish church choir. We sang several settings of liturgical office texts including settings of the Eucharist, canticles and responses for Evensong, as well as psalms and a wide variety of anthems. We also sang larger and more challenging works including the Bach St Matthew Passion . We actively chose pieces by contemporary composers, as well as several female composers including Joanna Forbes-L’Estrange, Sally Beamish, Eleanor Daley, Imogen Holst, Sasha Johnson Manning and Kathryn Rose.

Our full sacred repertoire list (other than psalms and hymns) was:

2024-25 Sacred Music Repertoire 2024-25 Sacred Music Repertoire
Anthems
●
Bairstow -Blessed City, Heavenly Salem
●
Bairstow -I Sat Down Under his Shadow
●
Briggs -Media Vita
●
Bruckner -Christus Factus Est
●
Bruckner -Locus Iste
●
Bruckner -Os Justi Meditabitur
●
Burton -Rest
●
Byrd -Ave Verum Corpus
●
Byrd -Ne Irascaris Domine
●
Daley -Upon your Heart
●
De Severac -Tantum Ergo
●
Gardiner -Evening Hymn
●
Gibbons -Almighty and Everlasting God
●
Gibbons -Drop, Drop Slow Tears
●
Gjeillo -Ubi Caritas
●
Handl -De coelo veniet
●
Haydn -The Heavens are Telling
●
Holst -A Hymne to Christ
●
John IV of Portugal -Crux Fidelis
●
Jones -Bring us O Lord God
●
Leighton -Solus ad Victimam
●
MacDonald -Crux Fidelis
●
Nardone -I Give you a New
Commandment
●
Palestrina -Sicut Cervus
●
Parry -My Soul, There is a Country
●
Parry -There is an Old Belief
●
Paulus -The Road Home
●
Purcell -Thou knowest, Lord		 Mass settings
●
Stanford in C and F
●
Darke in F
●
Byrd -Mass for Three Voices
●
Byrd -Mass for Five Voices
Canticles
●
Brewer_in D_
●
Byrd -Second Service
●
Dyson_in D_
●
Forbes-L’Estrange -Kings College Service
●
Gibbons -Short Service
●
Howells -St Paul’s Service
●
Rose_Canticles_
●
Wood_in D_
●
Wood_in E flat no. 2_
●
Stanford in C
●
Victoria -Magnificat Sexti Toni
Responses
●
Ayleward
●
Clucas
●
Johnson Manning
●
Rose
●
Tomkins
Advent and Christmas
●
Adam -O Holy Night
●
Beamish -In the Stillness
●
Britten -This Little Babe
●
Britten -A New Year Carol
●
Gardner -Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing
day

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We sang 31 services and 23 other performances…

for 26 churches and 7 other hosts…

steelcitychoristers.org.uk

2024-25

reaching 6,400 people…

including tours to Winchester and Germany.

Charity Number: 1195909

We also sang our own arrangements of a number of popular songs to help make choral singing more accessible to a wider audience.

2024-25 Popular Music Repertoire

Arranged by Jeremy Dawson: Arranged by Timothy Peters:

Musical Collaborations

We developed and/or maintained musical collaborations and partnerships with a number of organisations over the course of the year.

Page 22

We were also pleased to connect with the Metal Methodist community and begin to explore the possibility of a partnership through which to explore the common Reasons to Sing! that sit behind our highly contrasting musical traditions.

With members of Schola Cantorum on the Manor With the choir of St John’s Ranmoor

Residence at Winchester Cathedral - October 2024

On our first ever week-long residential tour we sang Choral Evensong at Winchester Cathedral every weekday during October half term 2024. We were accompanied on the organ by our former Director of Music and current Sub-Organist at Winchester, Joshua Stephens.

Singing each day in the beautiful setting of the country’s longest cathedral was a memorable and inspiring experience. Going away together helped develop relationships across the choir. Our choristers developed their stamina and resilience as they were stretched to sing to the best of their ability for five days in a row, working hard physically and concentrating mentally to perform five choral services to the high standard that Winchester expected. Overall, it was not only great fun, but excellent training in how to work in a professional way as part of a team.

We stayed at Lyons Copse Scout Centre and each day, before rehearsing for Evensong, we enjoyed an outing. We explored Winchester and visited the Winchester Science Centre and the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth. On our last evening we had a campfire in the woods.

We are grateful to the Hollowford Trust and Worrall Male Voice Choir Musical Grants Foundation for their specific financial support that helped make our tour to Winchester possible.

In the Winchester Cathedral song school

In the quire at Winchester Cathedral

Page 23

Trips to St Paul’s Cathedral and Southwell Minster - April and June 2025

In April 2025, we hired a coach for a day trip to London to sing Evensong at St Paul’s Cathedral. We rehearsed first in the song school in the Crypt before being joined on the organ by our former Director of Music Joshua Stephens, to rehearse in the stalls. Before Evensong, those with a head for heights climbed the steps to the Whispering Gallery and onwards up to the top of the dome, enjoying wonderful views across London on a beautiful clear spring day. Evensong itself was attended by a huge congregation which made singing into the cathedral’s enormous acoustic all the more exciting!

In June 2025, we sang both Sunday services at Southwell Minister. We received a very warm welcome and talked with a number of people who had followed our story and were keen to know more about our pioneering work. Between the two services, the choristers either played in the gardens or joined an outdoor OutoftheBox story session with members of the congregation.

At St Paul’s Cathedral At Southwell Minster

Tour to Berlin & Leipzig - August 2025

We had a wonderful week in Germany in August 2025. We were based in Berlin, staying in a youth hostel in a south eastern suburb of the city. We travelled by public transport each day to our venues and other activities, other than for on one day when we took a day trip by coach to Leipzig. In total, there were 45 of us on tour, including a team of six non-singing chaperones who helped to look after the children as we travelled and prepared for our performances.

Our schedule of over the week was:

Page 24

Although we were performing every day, we made sure there was time to have fun together exploring Berlin. Over the course of the week we climbed the Berlin Cathedral dome for views across the city and walked to see Check Point Charlie, the Brandenburg Gate and the Holocaust Memorial. We also visited the Berlin Spy Museum, Berlin Zoo and the Berlin Musical Instrument Museum. On our day trip to Leipzig we enjoyed a visit to the Bach Museum.

We were kindly hosted throughout the week by Martin Haesner, the Director of the Lankwitz Trombone Choir, known to members of the choir through previous language exchanges to Berlin. We are indebted to him for his help organising many aspects of the tour, particularly for the warm welcome he orchestrated from his parish congregation and which he himself offered by hosting the whole choir at his house for a barbeque and by welcoming the choristers to meet and feed his small flock of sheep!

At the Brandenburg Gate Our recital at Berlin Cathedral

We are grateful to the Ecclesfield Welfare and Educational Charities, Hollowford Trust and Sheffield Church Burgesses Education Foundation for their specific financial support that helped make our tour to Germany possible.

We are also grateful to all those who supported our fundraising efforts and to our non-singing chaperones who helped make the tour possible. The whole tour was an incredible amount of work and a huge responsibility for us as a team of volunteers, but we had a wonderful week and really enjoyed getting to know each other and the children better. Our Clerks joined in enthusiastically with the spirit of the tour, establishing men’s and women’s close harmony groups, and giving the children warm encouragement while also enjoying themselves too - especially after dark!

Singing Workshops

While the workshops we have delivered in schools in the past have been well received, there has turned out to be little correlation between this and recruitment into the choir. In light of Sheffield Cathedral’s expanding Schools Singing Programme and the Sheffield Music Hub’s ongoing schools work, trustees decided that workshops in schools would not be a core priority for 2024-25 . We remain keen to develop more in-depth partnership with one or more schools through which we might have more long term impact on the musical development of their pupils and create a more supported pathway to pupils considering joining our choir.

Page 25

Communications

We maintained communications with our Friends and other supporters through four editions of our email newsletter, with the number of subscribers increasing from 294 to 362 over the course of the year. We also maintained an active presence on social media, particularly Facebook, engaging at least weekly with over almost 1,100 followers as well as members of national groups such as the Choral Evensong Appreciation Society and Friends of Cathedral Music.

We received several mentions on Classic FM for singing for Dan Walker outside the Crucible Theatre during his coast to coast charity cycle ride in October 2024. We were also pleased that our tour to Germany in August 2025 was featured by the Sheffield Star online and through a single large photo filling the inside pages of the print edition.

With Dan Walker from Classic FM

Our Berlin tour featured in the Sheffield Star

Volunteers

We benefited hugely from a wide range of people giving their time freely as volunteers to support the choir over the course of the year - thank you if you were one of them!

Page 26

leadership of the organisation. All of them volunteered their time to lead and govern the charity and many of them went above and beyond to volunteer their time and skills to support the operational management and administration of the choir, including:

Overall Reflections on the Success of our Model

As we continue to pioneer a new model for sustaining and diversifying access to the all-age English choral tradition, we have remained viable over the last year because we have had sufficient people to sing, sufficient people to sing for, and sufficient money to cover our costs.

We have recruited singers because:

We have had plenty of people to sing for because:

We don’t charge fees to our singers or hosts, but have raised money because:

Page 27

Another critical factor in the ongoing viability of the choir over the last year has been sufficient capacity to lead the organisation and administer its programme of activities. We remained highly dependent on a small number of committed volunteers going above and beyond to give much more than could be reasonably asked of their spare time to run the choir. This includes, but is not limited to our committed group of trustees.

As trustees, we are very conscious that we want the organisation to outlive our capacity to sustain our huge efforts, but that we cannot assume that the volunteers who come after us will be able to be as generous with their time. In order to secure the long term viability of the choir, a more sustainable model will need to be developed through which the workload is either shared by a larger group of volunteers or sufficient funds are raised to pay staff to lead and manage the choir under the oversight of the trustees.

Our tours to Winchester and particularly Berlin, were a strong stimulus to engage more members of the choir community in voluntary roles, particularly as chaperones and to help with community fundraising activities. We are very grateful to everyone who started helping to share the load this year and make our ambitious programme of activities possible. We look forward to further strengthening our work together as a team over the year ahead.

2024-25 Endorsements

Ian Naylor, Head of Music Education in Sheffield

“Money just can’t buy the kind of all-age musical community Steel City Choristers has created. The educational benefits are enormous, musically and socially. It’s something really very special. I’m so proud to have them as one of our Music Hub partners here in Sheffield.”

Tom Daggett, Director of Music and Schools Singing Programme, Sheffield Cathedral

“Steel City Choristers are going from strength to strength - it is the geographical and musical range of their performances and the impact on young lives, as well as all who hear them sing, that is really impressive. They are a gift to our city and region.”

Lindsay Gray, former Director of the Royal School of Church Music

“I’d like to add my warmest congratulations to everyone involved in Steel City Choristers for everything that has been achieved during the last five years; it is remarkable!

Setting up a new choral group is never straightforward, but despite a number of challenges at various stages the choir has gone from strength to strength, providing invaluable singing experience for so many individuals, giving pleasure to congregations and audiences, and creating a high profile for the group, not only in Sheffield but much further afield too. Indeed, the last year has seen exceptional activity, with no less than 54 performances, including visits to Winchester and St Paul’s Cathedrals as well as a first foreign tour to Germany which was clearly a wonderful experience for all involved!

I’d like to wish everyone connected with Steel City Choristers all the very best for the next five years; it’s clear that exciting times lie ahead to match and even go beyond all of the astonishing achievements which we have seen so far!"

Page 28

3. Review of Finances in 2024-25

Core cost remained relatively flat compared to last year, while the addition of two week-long tours meant that our total annual expenditure rose significantly from £41,938 to £75,479. With considerable effort across the choir community and generosity from a range of funders and donors, we managed to raise a total income of £73,046. This led to a modest in-year deficit of £2,433.

EXPENDITURE

Total expenditure in 2024-25 was £75,479, an increase of 80% on last year.

Trips and Tours

The biggest driver of this year’s significantly increased expenditure was our trips and tours - two week-long tours, one of which was overseas, and a day trip to London. These were not only a massive draw on our organisational capacity as an organisation, but also on our finances. In total, they accounted for £38,411 or 51% of our expenditure in 2024-25.

We made every effort to keep our tour costs to a minimum. In particular, we undertook all of the planning and organisation of the tour ourselves without the aid of a professional tour company. We also worked hard to find budget accommodation, staying in a Scout Activity Centre near Winchester costing only £9 pppn, and a Youth Hostel in Berlin that cost only £23 pppn. Although they introduced additional costs, it was important to budget for social activities while away on tour to ensure the children really enjoyed themselves, to fill the time when we were not singing, and to create opportunities for the choir to bond socially.

Some of the costs of the trip and tours we undertook in 2024-25 were incurred in advance last financial year, and some minor costs for our Berlin tour in August 2025 were not settled by the end of the month, and so will fall into next financial year. In total, across all three financial years, the full cost of this year’s trip and tours was £45,240.

The total cost of trips and tours taking place in 2024-25

Winchester London Berlin TOTAL
Oct 24 Apr 25 Aug 25
£ £ £ £
Travel 1,191 1,600 18,458 21,249
Accommodation 972 - 7,245 8,217
Food 1,534 480 7,349 9,363
Musician’s fees 850 255 1,200 2,305
Other 1,060 - 3,046 4,106
Total 5,607 2,335 37,315 45,240

Page 29

Core Costs

Deducting the tours, as well as the money that passed through our accounts on behalf of others (such as the cost of clothing ordered and paid for by choir members), remaining expenditure relating to the cost of operating the choir’s core activities in and around Sheffield amounted to just over £35,000. These costs were made up of:

We increased the hourly fees we paid to our Director of Music and other musicians in line with recommended Musician Union rates and invested more in building relationships with our Clerks. Mid-year, we also took the decision to invest more in our younger choristers by paying for our Assistant Director of Music to provide tuition during our Monday as well as our Friday rehearsals.

INCOME

Our aim is to develop a diverse and sustainable funding model based on income from those who recognise the high quality of our music education and the value of our work to promote and sustain the choral tradition. This enables us to remove money as a barrier to people accessing choral music by allowing the children and adults that sing with us and the host communities for whom we sing to give to the charity as they are able, rather than be charged fixed fees.

Total income in 2024-25 was £73,046. Operational income (total income less the funds received to give or spend on behalf of others), totalled £71,528 and was made up from a range of sources as follows:

Donations - £22,407

Major donations remain a very significant source of income, for which we are hugely grateful. Generous philanthropists have such a significant impact, particularly considering the effort it can take to raise equivalent funds from other sources.

Page 30

If we were not a charity and simply charged parents fees to cover the cost of running the choir, they would need to be paying over £100 a month per child, before the costs of any trips or tours. This would create a barrier to most if not all of our families. Instead, we encourage parents to give to the charity to the extent that they can afford to do so, and many do. However, we know that many parents feel that music is an expensive activity and that they chose for their child to join our choir because it provides an affordable musical education. Parents’ charitable donations alone fall a long way short of funding the choir. However, together with donations from others, giving from individuals does amount to a significant source of income for the charity.

Total giving by Friends of the choir was up around £2,000 on last year’s £9,275, a similar increase to the previous year, and made up of £10,427 in recurring donations plus £719 in one off gifts. Over the year, we welcomed seven new Friends that pledged regular monthly donations, one that pledged an annual donation and four that made a one-off donation. In total, over the year, 37 people gave monthly, two gave annually, and six gave a one-off donation.

Friends of Steel City Choristers in 2024-25

Liz Arnesen, Carol Atherton, Joachim Atunwa, Chris Bowes, Vivien Bowes, Keith Brown, Chris & Kate Caroe, John & Linda Caroe, Joe Chacko, Katy Cooper, Catherine Cooper, James Cowley, Jeremy Dawson, Joy French, Andrew Horsfield, Ling Sum Hui, Virge James, Paula Jones, Clare Keppas, Tony Laycock, Roger Ledbetter, David & Barbara Mangles, Kieran Morgan, Alastair & Rachel Morris, Iain Nisbet, Gill O'Connell, Dorothy & Lee Puchala, Katharine Salmon, David Salter, Dan & Sarah Walker, Mike Warren, David Willington and 13 others.

Ad hoc giving from other individuals fluctuates according to circumstance, and is not therefore a source of income that we can budget on. We are grateful that this year it was up significantly, at over £1,000 more than the £215 donated last year.

We have made slow and steady progress growing income from Friends and other donors in recent years. However, recruiting new Friends is not easy and we are aware of the need to accelerate growth in donations, to mitigate the risk of grant funding drying up over the years ahead. This year, we developed new promotional literature explaining who we are as a choir and making it as easy as possible for people to indicate how they might be able to support us.

The literature we developed this year explaining who we are and how people can support us

Regular giving is really the life blood of the charity for the way it provides a predictable source of income into the future. The proportion of our income (before Gift Aid and excluding contributions for

Page 31

tours and other goods/services) that we receive from individuals who have made a commitment to giving regularly has grown steadily over the last three years.

Further increasing reliable regular giving from committed supporters will be a key priority for the charity in 2025-2026 as we celebrate the choir’s fifth birthday and look to build a firmer foundation for the future.

Performance income - £5,815

Gifts from the churches and other communities that we sang for during the year was only a small fraction of our overall income. This highlights the financial barriers that exist for many communities to accessing high quality choral music, and the charitable nature of our work in sharing our music with those that are not in a position to cover or even contribute towards its actual cost.

We continued to find it challenging to balance our commitment to avoiding money being a barrier, while articulating our financial needs to our hosts. Over the course of the year, only 9 of the 25 services that we sang in and around Sheffield were followed by a financial donation from the church. The average gift was similar to last year at £170.

To help raise funds for our Berlin tour we sang three fundraising concerts during the year. The first was a Clerks’ performance at the Samuel Worth Chapel in the General Cemetery. The other two were full choir concerts, in which we sang music by German and English composers, explained our purpose and mission as a choir, and described our plans for the tour. For each concert, we found and worked in partnership with a host church community that committed to supporting us by providing free use of their building and helping to raise an audience.

We sang for two weddings this year and took a booking for a third. We enjoyed sharing in each couples’ big day, and are grateful for this meaningful source of income for the choir.

Grants - £16,284

We received £9,474 in unrestricted grants:

Page 32

We received £6,810 in restricted grants for our tour to Berlin:

The charity remains heavily dependent on the generous support of grant-giving Trusts and Foundations without which we would not have been able to deliver the full range of activities we planned and budgeted for in 2024-25. All of our grant fundraising was led by one of our trustees on a voluntary basis.

In 2024-25, we received grants from 10 local and national trusts and foundations, totalling £16,284. This is a significant reduction on last year’s grant income of £26,707 from 14 funders, reflecting the fact that during the year, eight applications were rejected by funders that had previously supported us.

We are grateful for funding for the first time from the Harry Bottom Charitable Trust and for continued support from nine other funders. In particular, we would like to acknowledge the significance of the commitment of three funders to providing ongoing year-on-year support: the Worrall Male Voice Choir Musical Grants Foundation, the Mildenhall Charitable Trust and the Sheffield Town Trust (via their three year Subscription List).

We are aware that grant funding can never be taken for granted. While it currently provides an essential underpinning to our finances, our aim is to reduce our dependency on it over time by building up support from our own committed Friends and donors. How much time we have to do so is uncertain, but it is clear that a reduction in Trusts and Foundations’ willingness to support us before we have our own reliable, regular income in place, is one of the biggest risks to the future viability of the charity. The trustees will be keeping a close eye on this risk over the year ahead in order to discern whether the eight applications that were rejected this year by previous funders are indicative of the start of a longer term trend.

Community fundraising - £1,920

Energised by the need to raise funds for our tours, members of the choir community planned and took part enthusiastically in a range of fundraising activities over the course of the year. Our sponsored 100 Days of Music Making brought in an additional £1,217 this year, with a bake sale and use of Easy Fundraising being the largest contributors, alongside a range of other initiatives, to a further £700 raised. The trustees are really grateful for the stronger sense of shared ownership

Page 33

that has emerged this year across the choir community, particularly among parents, for raising funds for the charity.

Home made Christmas good for sale

Brian Smith’s original water colour

Income from Sales

We were delighted that Brian Smith, the celebrated Sheffield-based water colour artist, painted us a beautiful scene of the choir singing outside the iconic Sheffield Winter Garden, the arches of which were the inspiration for our logo. He arranged and oversaw the printing of Christmas cards and prints using the painting, which we offered for sale to members of the choir community, our audiences and wider supporters, including through a new Shop page on our website.

The total cost of commissioning the artwork, printing the cards and distributing orders amounted to £770, meaning that against sales of £1,270 we generated net income of £500.

Contributions for Tours - £17,861

While we do not charge fees to our singers over the course of the year, we did feel that it was appropriate and reasonable to ask parents of choristers to contribute, if they could, to the exceptional costs of our tours this year.

Very mindful of the need to have enough singers for a viable choir and so as not to make money a barrier to any child coming on tour, we set a suggested contribution for each tour, but also offered a lower ‘supported’ rate for anyone to opt into. For any families who could not afford this lower rate, we also made clear they could contribute whatever they could afford. Conversely, we also offered a higher ‘supporter’ rate for those who felt able to contribute more. We did not ask our musicians, adult singers or chaperones who were all giving up their annual leave to work hard all week to contribute to the cost of the tours, however many did choose to make voluntary donations.

Our suggested donation levels compared favourably to the costs we know schools often charge for their trips and, perhaps as a consequence, we were encouraged by the level of financial

Page 34

contributions we received, totalling nearly £13,000. We were also very grateful for the significant voluntary financial contributions we received, which exceeded £5,000.

Other income - £5,971

The contribution of Gift Aid to our income this year was very considerable, reflecting the high level of donations we received last financial year, particularly major donations. We are grateful to all our eligible donors who take the time to provide Gift Aid information with their gifts.

Sponsorship

We are grateful for the ongoing financial support from the Gripple Foundation this year, but have not found any other businesses to have such a progressive and proactive approach to charitable funding. Since developing an information leaflet for potential sponsors in 2021-2022 and a sponsorship page on our website in 2023-24, we have not attracted any other support from the business community. We currently lack the contacts and relationships from which this kind of support is most likely to flow, and also the capacity and time that would need to be invested to develop them.

END-YEAR POSITION

We ended last year with a significant surplus reflecting the effort we put into fundraising ahead of the extraordinary tour costs we anticipated this year. This enabled the trustees to start this year with sufficient confidence in our financial position to make a firm commitment to proceeding with the tours and accordingly setting a much larger annual budget than in previous years. Ongoing fundraising efforts during the year were considerable, but fell just short of our expenditure resulting in a small net deficit of £2,433, reducing the total funds held at the end of the year to £57,310.

We continue to maintain a Reserve of £20,000, equivalent to approximately six months’ operational costs. In line with the Charity Commission’s recommended good practice, this provides a buffer against any future significant or sudden drop in income.

The success and benefits of our trips and tours this year has strengthened trustees’ commitment to pursuing similar opportunities in future years. In order to spread the significant effort of raising the necessary funds to seize such opportunities, the trustees have set aside an initial £15,000 towards the cost of future special opportunities.

The cash carried forward to support expenditure next year, in 2025-26, is therefore £22,310. This equates to just less than half of anticipated expenditure.

In light of this review of our financial position, the trustees see no uncertainty about the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern in the foreseeable future. However, this judgement rests on the assumption that trustees and other volunteers continue to have the capacity and good will to provide significant management and administrative services to the Charity pro bono. This voluntary work is not taken for granted but nevertheless masks the true cost of running the choir. To secure a sustainable future, the cost of these activities may one day need to be built into the budget in full or part, so that they can be delivered by staff paid to run the organisation.

Page 35

4. Statement of Accounts for 2024-25

These accounts cover the period from 1 September 2024 to 31 August 2025.

Income and Expenditure

Unrestricted
funds
Restricted
funds
Total
funds
£
£
£
Income
Donations
22,407
-
22,407
Performance income
5,815
-
5,815
Grants
9,474
6,810
16,284
Community fundraising
1,920
-
1,920
Sales of goods
1,270
-
1,270
Contributions towards tours
17,861
-
17,861
Contributions for goods/services
1,088
-
1,088
Contributions for charitable donations
-
-
-
Gift aid on previous year’s donations
5,971
-
5,971
Miscellaneous
430
-
401
Total income
66,236
6,810
73,046
Expenditure
Director of Music fees
16,460
-
16,460
Other musician fees
8,293
-
8,293
Training
710
-
710
Music purchase
1,668
-
1,668
Travel
370
-
370
Venue hire
2,000
-
2,000
Administrative overheads
1,121
-
1,121
Communications
755
-
755
Clothing
1,098
-
1,098
Social events, food & drink, gifts
3,107
-
3,107
Cost of goods for sale
770
-
770
Trips & tours
26,970
11,441
38,411
Other specific project delivery costs
-
-
-
Miscellaneous
717
-
717
Charitable donations
-
-
-
Total expenditure
64,038
11,441
75,479
Net Surplus
2,198
-4,631
-2,433		 Last
year
£
24,490
3,841
26,707
3,028
-
2,551
1,573
22
2,752
643
64,964
15,775
7,535
505
1,456
112
3,050
1,151
1,357
473
1,992
-
5,535
1,579
1,156
262
41,938
23,026

Page 36

Assets and Liabilities

The cash held by Steel City Choristers as at 31 August 2025 was as follows:

Unrestricted
funds
Restricted
funds
Total
funds
£
£
£
Balance brought forward
59,744
4,631
59,744
In-year surplus
2,198
-4,631
-2,433
Total funds carried forward
57,310
0
57,310
of which:
Reserves
20,000
0
20,000
Special Opportunities Fund
15,000
0
15,000
Restricted Funds
0
0
0
Funds for nextyear
22,310
0
22,310		 Last
year
£
36,718
23, 026
59,744
20,000
0
39,744

The charity holds a small stock of Christmas cards and prints for sale.

There were no liabilities and no debtors or creditors. The charity does not hold any investments.

Payments to Trustees

No payments were made to trustees in 2024-25 for any work conducted as trustees.

A total of £3,941 was paid to four trustees for reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenditure incurred when these could not be reasonably paid directly from the Steel City Choristers’ bank account.

A total of £1,600 was paid to one trustee who undertook paid work for the charity, following all necessary procedures being followed in line with charity guidance.

Page 37

Declarations

Public Benefit

In shaping our objectives for the year and planning our activities, the trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit. This means that we have:

We have exercised our discretion:

Trustee Declarations

No trustees hold title to property belonging to the charity. There are no funds held as custodian trustees on behalf of others. There are no exemptions from disclosure.

Approval

The trustees declare that they have approved this Trustees’ Annual Report.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature Name Kate Caroe Jeremy Dawson Position Chair Treasurer Date 14 November 2025 14 November 2025

Page 38

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STEEL CITY CHORISTERS

Steel City Choristers 1195909 Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the period 9/1/2024 8/31/2025 To from

Section A Receipts and payments
to the nearest £
A1 Receipts
Donations
22,407
Performance income
5,815
Grants
9,474
Communityfundraising
1,920
Sales ofgoods
1,270
Contributions towards tours
17,861
Contributions forgoods/services
1,088
Contributions for charitable donations
-
Gift aid onpreviousyear's donations
5,971
Miscellaenous
430
66,236
-
-
Sub total -
Total receipts 66,236
A3 Payments
Director of Music fees
16,460
Other musician fees
8,293
Training
710
Musicpurchase andprinting
1,668
Travel
370
Venue hire
2,000
Administrative overheads
1,121
Communications
755
Clothing
1,098
Social events, food & drink,gifts
3,107
Cost ofgoods for sale
770
Trips & tours
26,970
Other specificproject deliverycosts
-
Miscellaneous
717
Charitable donations
-
Sub total 64,038
-
-
Sub total -
Total payments 64,038
Net of receipts/(payments) 2,198
A5 Transfers between funds
-
A6 Cash funds last year end
55,112
Cash funds this year end 57,310
Unrestricted
funds
Sub total(Gross income for AR)
A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)		 to the nearest £
-
-
6,810
-
-
-
-
-
6,810
-
-
-
6,810
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
11,441
-
-
-
11,441
-
-
-
11,441
- 4,631
-
4,631
-
Restricted
funds		 to the nearest £
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Endowment
funds		 Total funds
to the nearest £
22,407
5,815
16,284
1,920
1,270
17,861
1,088
-
5,971
430
73,046
-
-
-
73,046
16,460
8,293
710
1,668
370
2,000
1,121
755
1,098
3,107
770
38,411
-
717
-
75,479
-
-
-
75,479
- 2,433
-
59,744
57,310		 Last year
to the nearest £
24,490
3,841
26,707
3,028
-
2,551
930
22
2,752
643
64,964
-
-
64,964
15,775
7,535
505
1,456
112
3,050
1,151
1,357
473
1,992
-
5,535
1,579
1,156
262
41,938
-
41,938
- 4,631 - - 2,433 23,026
- - - -
4,631 - 59,744 36,718
- - 57,310 59,744

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

Categories
B1 Cash funds
B2 Other monetary assets
B3 Investment assets
B5 Liabilities
B4 Assets retained for the
charity’s own use		 Details
Cash
Reserves
Special opportunities fund
Details
Details
Details
Details
Total cash funds
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))		 to nearest £
22,310
20,000
15,000
57,310
OK
to nearest £
-
-
-
-
-
-
Unrestricted
funds
Unrestricted
funds
Fund to which
asset belongs
Fund to which
asset belongs
Fund to which
liability relates		 to nearest £
-
-
-
-
OK
to nearest £
-
-
-
-
-
-
Cost (optional)
-
-
-
-
-
Cost (optional)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Restricted
funds
Restricted
funds
Amount due
(optional)		 to nearest £
Endowment
funds
-
-
-
-
OK
to nearest £
Endowment
funds
-
-
-
-
-
-
Current value
(optional)
-
-
-
-
-
Current value
(optional)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
When due
(optional)
-
-
-
-
-

Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees

Signature

Date of Print Name approval

Steel City Choristers Steel City Choristers Steel City Choristers
31 August 2025
Charity no.: 1195909 Company no.:

I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity for the year ended 31 August 2025

As the charity’s trustees of the Charity, you are responsible for the preparation of

the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charity Act 2011 (“the 2011 Act”).

I report in respect of my examination of your charity’s accounts as carried out under section 145 of the Charities Act 2011 (“the 2011 Act”). In carrying out my examination, I have followed the Directions given by the Charity Commission (under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act.

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that:

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

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01 November 2025
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