Brent Valley Golf Academy 2022-23: Annual Report
Summary.................................................................................................................................2 What was new this year?.......................................................................................................3 In the news..............................................................................................................................4 Survey..................................................................................................................................... 4 Attendance and completion.................................................................................................. 5 Photo gallery.......................................................................................................................... 5 Continued golf participation................................................................................................. 6 Social outcomes.....................................................................................................................7 Financial review..................................................................................................................... 7 Year 3.......................................................................................................................................9 The Future...............................................................................................................................9 APPENDIX 1: Our sponsors and partners in 2022-23:......................................................10 APPENDIX 2: How we met Ealing Council priorities:....................................................... 11
www.bvga.org ●@bvga_parakeets
Summary
After a successful launch year (see last year’s report), in October 2022 we launched a second programme thanks to generous funding from Ealing Council, Middlesex Golf, Brent Valley Golf Club and Heathrow Community Trust. As in the previous year, we reached out to our local schools and we recruited 19 children to take up places on our Academy Programme. We gave each child a set of golf clubs to keep for the year and we kitted them out with shoes, gloves and branded fleeces and shirts. We organised thirty-four 2-hour coaching sessions, together with competitions and social events.
www.bvga.org ●@bvga_parakeets
What was new this year?
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We contacted more schools. In 2021, we contacted our four most local schools, while in 2022 we contacted twelve (Ada Lovelace, Belvue, Bolder, Brentside, Cardinal Wiseman, Dormers Wells, Drayton Manor, Ealing Fields, Elthorne Park, Featherstone, Villiers and William Perkin).
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More children. We recruited 19 children, compared with 16 on 2021.
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We doubled our coaching hours. We created two separate groups so if a child couldn’t attend a session, they could catch up on a different date in the other group. This also allowed our coach to give the children more individual tuition.
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Improved digital presence. We created a website www.bvga.org and Instagram and Twitter accounts @bvga_parakeets. We also started using a new photo platform that allows children and parents to download photos more easily.
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New fund-raising options. Our website has a “Donate” button where individuals can make direct donations with Gift Aid status. Our photo platform also allows parents to buy prints.
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New trustee. The charity appointed a new trustee to our board of trustees, Elspeth Malcolm, who is Brent Valley Golf Club’s welfare officer.
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More volunteers. We expanded our volunteer pool to nineteen.
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First ever Parakeets Prize. We organised a competition with shortened holes and notional handicaps, allowing all the children to compete, with prizes at our graduation party for the best scratch and stableford scores.
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New storage. We built on-site storage for the children’s clubs. This allows them to play on the course without relying on lifts from their parents.
www.bvga.org ●@bvga_parakeets
In the news
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In January, 2023, England Golf named the Academy a finalist in the Diversity and Inclusion category of their Annual Awards.
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On January 22, 2023, BBC London TV broadcast a report on the Academy.
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In November 2022, England Golf visited us and made a short film about the Academy.
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The local Ealing newspaper, Around Ealing, featured the Academy in November 2022.
Survey
We recently surveyed the children and their parents about the 2022-23 programme. You can see the results of the survey here. The main conclusions so far are:
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100% of the respondents found the sessions friendly and encouraging
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71% of the respondents are likely to carry on playing golf.
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85% of respondents enjoyed the sessions socially.
There were some particularly positive comments from parents:
“Oscar has grown in confidence and socially, this has been fantastic for him to make friends of all ages and continue to learn about golf.” (Alison Kot)
“My son is a changed person as he enjoys meeting people to play golf socially and he is now a lot more focused. He is out in the fresh air as much as possible and not at home on his computer which has made a huge difference to him, he has grown in confidence and enjoys being with all ages and made lots of friends. It's been fantastic, thank you for the opportunity, long may it continue for our young people.” (Deborah Payne).
www.bvga.org ●@bvga_parakeets
“Sessions were very well organised, friendly atmosphere, we are very grateful for this opportunity.”
Attendance and completion
The attendance at our 34 sessions for the year was 81%. Of the nineteen children who started the programme, seventeen graduated. You can see the details of each participant’s attendance here. This marked an increase on last year’s 68%, thanks, we believe, to the fact that we created two parallel groups and allowed the children to attend sessions on a choice of two different dates.
We presented certificates of completion to the seventeen students who finished the programme. You can see pictures (use access code 2367) of those who were able to attend the ceremony on July 29 here, presented with their certificates by Clare Balding.
Photo gallery
You can see a gallery of selected photos from the coaching sessions here.
www.bvga.org ●@bvga_parakeets
Continued golf participation
Of the seventeen children who completed the programme, six have joined Brent Valley Golf Club as juniors and six have obtained their official handicaps. In response to our survey, 71% of respondents said they would definitely continue playing golf. These children now join a thriving juniors section at Brent Valley Golf Club. In addition to the seven parakeets who joined the club the previous year, the juniors section has grown partly thanks to the publicity generated by the Academy and by the critical mass factor of a successful section.
Various of the parakeets have taken part in Middlesex juniors competitions at other clubs such as Ealing, Fulwell and Sudbury.
www.bvga.org ●@bvga_parakeets
Social outcomes
We know from feedback from both the children and their parents that many of the parakeets have made friends with others on the programme. We designed tasks during the sessions that allowed the children to work together on teams so they had a high level of interaction with each other. Many positive bonds were also formed between the children and the volunteers who monitored the sessions. You can get an idea of the fun that everyone had during the programme from the photos on our Facebook page and on our website.
We expanded our pool of volunteers to nineteen, creating a community hub around the Academy’s work.
Financial review
For the 2022-23 year, we received grants totalling £11,500 (£5,000 from Ealing Council, £2,000 from Brent Valley Golf Club, £2,000 from Middlesex Golf and £2,500 from Heathrow Community Trust). We also had income of £800 from the previous year’s children who bought their clubs from us. Our main costs for the year were £9,900 (just over £5,000 in coaching fees and £4,900 in equipment). We had other costs of just under £3,300. This left us with a small deficit for the year, which was compensated by £3,900 carried over from the previous year. Details are shown below:
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Profit and Loss
Brent Valley Golf Academy
For the period 1 July 2022 to 20 September 2023
| Profit and Loss Brent Valley Golf Academy For the period 1 July 2022 to 20 September 2023 |
|
|---|---|
| 1 JUL 2022-20 SEP | |
| 2023 | |
| Turnover | |
| Donations | 524.28 |
| Fundraising | 164.69 |
| Other Revenue | 11,500.00 |
| Sales of clubs | 900.00 |
| Total Turnover | 13,088.97 |
| Cost ofSales | |
| Coaching fees | 5,115.00 |
| Golf equipment and attire | 4,779.86 |
| Total Cost of Sales | 9,894.86 |
| Gross Profit | 3,194.11 |
| Administrative Costs | |
| Advertising & Marketing | 299.00 |
| Audit & Accountancy fees | 214.45 |
| Charitable and Political Donations | 160.00 |
| Competition fees | 100.00 |
| Entertainment | 639.51 |
| General Expenses | 619.00 |
| Insurance | 131.04 |
| IT Software and Consumables | 174.90 |
| Postage, Freight & Courier | 17.25 |
| Printing & Stationery | 42.50 |
| Prizes | 726.00 |
| Repairs & Maintenance | 421.15 |
| Travel - National | 68.28 |
| Total Administrative Costs | 3,613.08 |
| Operating Profit | (418.97) |
| Profit on Ordinary Activities Before Taxation | (418.97) |
| Profit after Taxation | (418.97) |
Profit and Loss Brent Valley Golf Academy
26 Sep 2023 Page 1 of 1
Year 3
At the time of writing, we do not have funding for year 3 as our applications for funding from Sport England and the Lottery Community Fund were declined. We are currently reaching out to our original 74 funders and inviting small donations. We are also contacting local businesses to offer them sponsorship packages. We are confident that we will be able to raise funds though we may have to tailor our final offering based on our final funding outcomes.
Our coach in the first two years, Warren Harris, has taken up a new job nearer to his home so we are currently looking for a replacement.
The Future
Thanks to the generous support of our corporate sponsors and partners (Ealing Council, Middlesex Golf, Brent Valley Golf Club, GolfOnline and Everyone Active) and many individual donors, we were able to run two successful years of coaching and events, during which we promoted the uptake of golf by children who would not otherwise have tried the sport. The Academy is now a registered charity and we have a good website with fundraising functionality. With a strong track record of two years, we also now have a good reputation in the golfing community. Our model of reaching out to urban areas and allowing children to try out golf has been widely praised. With this solid foundation, we are confident that our work can continue into the future.
Richard Gray (Chair of Trustees Brent Valley Golf Academy Charity), Helen Weill, Don Stewart and Elspeth Malcolm (Trustees)
August, 2023
www.bvga.org ●@bvga_parakeets
BRENT VALLEY GOLF ACADEMY APPENDIX 1: Our sponsors and partners in 2022-23: Ealing MIDDLESEX GOLF www.ealing.gov.uk BRENT VALLEY HEATHROW COMMUNITY TRUST GOLF CLUB everi one goLFonLI-ne ACTIVE www.bvga.org • @bvgaJ)arakeets
APPENDIX 2: How we met Ealing Council priorities:
Creating good jobs
The Academy employed a professional coach, Warren Harris, who was able to transition from part-time to full-time, partly on the basis of the year’s worth of coaching hours committed to him by the Academy, and the additional hours contracted by BVGC club members who became aware of him through the Academy. The council-contractor who runs the course, Everyone Active, also came to an agreement with Warren, to allow him to promote his services as part of their golf offering. He has since found full-time employment nearer to his home.
Through its work, the Academy has generated new business for Everyone Active by connecting the friends, family and local community of the Academy participants to the course, creating new work for its staff (on reception, in the bar and on the green-keeping team).
Tackling the Climate Crisis
One of the priorities with the plan for the Academy was to build ties with our local community. For this reason, we contacted the schools nearest to the course to invite them to propose candidates. Brent Valley Golf Course is very unusual in being located in a very urban environment. That gives it a unique advantage to enable beginners to try out the sport without having to travel by car.
Most of the Parakeets usually walk to the course for their sessions because they live so near the course and during springtime they go out on the course after school to play and practice. Two other key elements in the Academy plan have enabled them to do this: a) the season ticket donated to each Parakeet by Everyone Active and b) the set of clubs that each one was given to keep for the year.
In 2022 we built an on-site storage unit where the children can store their clubs with a key in a secure box located inside the lower clubhouse, which is open until 10pm in the spring and summer. This means they no longer have to rely on lifts in their parents’ cars to travel to the club and play on the course.
Fighting inequality
There are two main barriers that often prevent youngsters from trying out golf: 1) The cost of the equipment and course fees; 2) Ignorance about the sport - most golfers are introduced to
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the sport by friends or family who already play - and a stereotype that golf is a sport only for white middle-aged men.
The Academy programme overcomes the first of these barriers by giving the Parakeets a set of clubs for the year, shoes to keep, unlimited balls and everything else they need to play the sport, and by giving them free unlimited access to play on the course.
Most of the Parakeets come from backgrounds with no connections to golf - as a group, they represent various different cultural heritages. Unlike many golf clubs and contrary to the stereotype, Brent Valley Golf Club, as a municipal club, is very inclusive and has members from a wide range of demographics and communities, so we provide a welcoming and friendly environment for the young parakeets. As such, the Academy gives youngsters opportunities to play a sport they wouldn’t normally have encountered and to build new relationships with other children and with adults in their local community, which, again, they wouldn’t otherwise have had.
The coaching sessions also give the parakeets the support and instruction needed to learn how to play the sport in a safe and enjoyable setting.
www.bvga.org ●@bvga_parakeets
Profit and Loss
Brent Valley Golf Academy For the period 14 July 2022 to 31 May 2023
| Profit and Loss Brent Valley Golf Academy For the period 14 July 2022 to 31 May 2023 |
|
|---|---|
| 14 JUL 2022-31 MAY | |
| 2023 | |
| Turnover | |
| Fundraising | 160.00 |
| Other Revenue | 6,375.00 |
| Sales of clubs | 800.00 |
| Total Turnover | 7,335.00 |
| Cost of Sales | |
| Coaching fees | 4,205.00 |
| Golf equipment and attire | 4,553.97 |
| Total Cost of Sales | 8,758.97 |
| Gross Profit | (1,423.97) |
| Administrative Costs | |
| Advertising & Marketing | 205.00 |
| Audit & Accountancy fees | 160.45 |
| Charitable and Political Donations | 160.00 |
| Competition fees | 100.00 |
| Entertainment | 448.27 |
| General Expenses | 619.00 |
| Insurance | 131.04 |
| IT Software and Consumables | 63.60 |
| Printing & Stationery | 22.50 |
| Prizes | 666.00 |
| Repairs & Maintenance | 421.15 |
| Travel - National | 68.28 |
| Total Administrative Costs | 3,065.29 |
| Operating Profit | (4,489.26) |
| Profit on Ordinary Activities Before Taxation | (4,489.26) |
| Profit after Taxation | (4,489.26) |
Profit and Loss Brent Valley Golf Academy
17 Oct 2023 Page 1 of 1