BRENT VALLEY GOLF ACADEMY Est 2021 Registered charity number ll99648 Brent Valley Golf Academy 2024 Annual Report ORENT VALLEY OLF ACAt*MY ## Contents **Introduction............................................................................................................................ 3 What was new in 2024........................................................................................................... 4 Feedback survey.................................................................................................................... 5 Parent testimonies................................................................................................................. 6 Attendance and completion.................................................................................................. 7 Continued golf participation................................................................................................. 9 Volunteers...............................................................................................................................9 Social outcomes...................................................................................................................10 The 2025 Programme...........................................................................................................10 Photos and media................................................................................................................ 10 How we met Ealing Council priorities................................................................................ 11 Financial information...........................................................................................................13 Financial notes..................................................................................................................... 14 Fundraising...........................................................................................................................15 The charity and trustees......................................................................................................16 Our sponsors and partners in 2024....................................................................................17** www.brentvalleygolfacademy.org @bvga_parakeets 2 ## Introduction Brent Valley Golf Academy (“The Parakeets”) runs a free golf programme for around sixteen local children in the Hanwell, Southall and Ealing areas. We give each of the selected children around 40 hours of golf coaching with a professional coach and all the golf kit they need. Our aims are to introduce golf to children who wouldn’t normally have an opportunity to play the sport and to provide children from our local community with a regular sociable outdoor physical activity. Our first programme was launched in October 2021 after a crowd-funding process with generous support from Ealing Council, Middlesex Golf, Brent Valley Golf Club, Golf Online, Heathrow Community Trust, Everyone Active and many individual sponsors. We ran the programme again from October 2022 to June 2023, and then again, for a third year, from April until November 2024. In 2022 Brent Valley Golf Academy became a registered charity with five trustees. Richard Gray (Chair of Trustees) January, 2025 www.brentvalleygolfacademy.org @bvga_parakeets 3 ## What was new in 2024 - We hired a new coach, Giulio Morella, of the North London Golf Academy, after our previous coach Warren Harris moved away from the area. - We reached a sponsorship agreement with Event Caddie to supply all the children’s shirts and fleeces for free. They also generously gave the children gift boxes at their graduation. - Middlesex Golf agreed to give us £2K of funding as part of the county’s Development programme. Brent Valley Golf Club also confirmed another year of £2K of funding and we received generous funding from the National Association of Public and Proprietary Golf Courses (NAPGC). - Through our new coach, we were able to use the North London Golf Academy’s inside simulator facilities for some of our sessions. The quad bays enabled the parakeets to analyse the detail of their swings and added a new level of technology support to the programme. www.brentvalleygolfacademy.org @bvga_parakeets 4 - Our local Member of Parliament, James Murray, was the guest of honour at our graduation ceremony. We hope this will raise awareness in local government of the good that golf can do in the local area in under-priviledged communities. - Helen Weill stepped down as a trustee and we appointed two new trustees, Josh Wilson and Oscar Brown. Josh Wilson was previously a parakeet on the first programme. - We moved to a March-November calendar (previously October-August) partly in order to reduce the number of cancelled sessions due to poor weather during the winter. ## Feedback survey We recently surveyed the children and their parents about the 2024 programme. You can see the full results of the survey here. The main conclusions so far are: - 100% of the respondents found the sessions friendly and encouraging www.brentvalleygolfacademy.org @bvga_parakeets 5 - 75% loved the coaching sessions socially (the other 25% most of the time) - 100% of respondents’ rated the coaching sessions as excellent - 87.5% intended to continue playing golf. - 87.5% said they were well informed. Some feedback we intend to take into next year: - 1) Have more girls; - 2) Hold more informal competitions; - 3) Have longer sessions; - 4) Have fewer sessions in the summer holidays. ## Parent testimonies _“... my son Gurveer recently attended Brent Valley Golf Academy’s programme. I wanted to share how wonderful the experience has been for him and for us as a family._ _Through the golf programme, my son not only improved his technical golf skills, such as his swing, putting, and course strategy, but he also learned valuable life skills like discipline, patience, and sportsmanship. The coaches placed a strong emphasis on goal-setting and persistence, which has made a lasting impact on his confidence and focus._ _The supportive and encouraging environment at Brent Valley Golf Academy truly stood out to us. The coach and all the volunteers were professional, approachable, and dedicated to helping each child grow, regardless of their skill level. The facilities were excellent, and the club fostered a sense of community that made everyone feel welcome.”_ ## Kiran Kaur Matha www.brentvalleygolfacademy.org @bvga_parakeets 6 " _The Parakeets at Brent Valley has made golf available to teenagers in a way that is fun and accessible. Coach Giulio's friendly and light-hearted approach to all aspects of teaching made it fun to those quite new to the game of golf and lacking confidence. By guidance, tuition, and advice enabled them to enjoy the sport to the best of their ability. My 15-year-old son had a great time with Parakeets and even managed to obtain his Handicap._ " ## Evelina Mista _“20 years ago I took up golf due to getting injured playing rugby. Although I was never going to be part of the PGA tour I thoroughly enjoyed it. Family, life, work and other commitments took over and I was no longer able to commit the time needed to continue to enjoy the rounds as I had done before so the clubs remained in the back of the garage for the last 10 years. Seeing the flyer for the Academy I thought this would be an ideal opportunity for my 14 year old son to take up the sport. Through the expert coaching, sessions and rounds he has taken to it like a duck to water. It has also made me dust off the clubs and we now go out together. Thank you to all the coaches and sponsors for this amazing opportunity. I now am able to participate in sport with my far more athletic son!”_ ## Andrew Bull ## Attendance and completion We kept a register of attendance at our 19 sessions and the total for the year was 63%. Of the fifteen children who took part in the programme, fourteen graduated (one child withdrew www.brentvalleygolfacademy.org @bvga_parakeets 7 from the programme). Two participants joined after the programme had started. You can see the details of each participant’s attendance here. We issued certificates of completion to all the fifteen students who finished the programme. You can see pictures of those who were able to attend the ceremony here. They were presented by our guest of honour, James Murray, our local MP. This was the first year that included the summer in the course and we noted there was a fall in attendance during the summer holidays due to many of our participants leaving the country to visit their families during the school summer holidays. For future years, we plan to have fewer sessions during these holidays. www.brentvalleygolfacademy.org @bvga_parakeets 8 ## Continued golf participation Of the fourteen children who completed this year’s programme, six have joined Brent Valley Golf Club as juniors and two have already obtained their official handicaps. Through our partnership with Brent Valley Golf Club, at the end of each programme all the children are invited to become junior members of the club, which now has nine active members who were previously on one of the Academy’s programmes. The club has attracted children to join its juniors section thanks to the publicity generated by the Academy and the fact that we now have a good critical mass of junior members. While one of the children on the very first programme is now a trustee and active volunteer on the sessions, one of last year’s children has also volunteered to help out with sessions next year. ## Volunteers We have a pool of nearly 20 volunteers of different ages and backgrounds, who assist our coach during the coaching sessions. Not only does this mean the children receive more golfing instruction over a session, it also means we are building relationships between the children and other members of the community and are able to closely monitor their progress and welfare. www.brentvalleygolfacademy.org @bvga_parakeets 9 ## Safeguarding We take the welfare and safeguarding of the children on our programme very seriously. We require regular volunteers to be DBS checked and we follow England Golf’s safeguarding guidelines. You can see our Safeguarding policy here. ## Social outcomes We know from feedback from both the children and the parents that many of the children have made friends with others on the programme and enjoyed the programme socially. 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. ## The 2025 Programme We plan to run the 2025 programme on the same basis as the 2024 programme. We will invite local schools (Ada Lovelace, Belvue, Bolder, Brentside, Cardinal Wiseman, Dormers Wells, Drayton Manor, Ealing Fields, Elthorne Park, Featherstone, Villiers and William Perkin) and childrens organisations to put forward candidates for the programme, which will consist around 20 two-hour sessions from early April until late November and give the children all the kit they need. ## Photos and media You can get an idea of the fun that everyone had during the programme in the photos on our Instagram feed. You can also see and download our photo highlights gallery here and view our graduation slideshow. www.brentvalleygolfacademy.org @bvga_parakeets 10 ## How we met Ealing Council priorities ## _Creating good jobs_ The Academy hired a professional coach, Giulio Merolla. He gained additional coaching hours with 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 Giulio, to allow him to promote his services as part of their golf offering. Through its work, the Academy has generated new business for Everyone Active by connecting the friends, family and local community of the Academy participants, known as the Parakeets, to the course. The Academy has increased confidence that Brent Valley Golf Club is a thriving local organisation with ambitions to do good for its community and its members. ## _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 relatively urban environment. That gives it a unique advantage of enabling beginners to try out the sport without having to travel by car. www.brentvalleygolfacademy.org @bvga_parakeets 11 Most of the Parakeets usually walk to the course for their sessions because they live so near the course and we are confident that in the spring and summer months they will go out on the course after school to play and practice. Three 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; c) on-site storage for clubs. ## _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 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, free unlimited access to play on the course, unlimited balls and everything else they need to play the sport. Brent Valley Golf Club, which we use as a venue for our graduation, is very inclusive and has members from a wide range of demographics and communities, so the club provides a welcoming and friendly environment for the young parakeets. www.brentvalleygolfacademy.org @bvga_parakeets 12 ## Financial information Note: The above reporting period starts on September 21 since our previous annual report’s reporting period ended September 20. In future years, reporting will be for calendar years. www.brentvalleygolfacademy.org @bvga_parakeets 13 ## Financial notes Partly due to a lack of funding after the end of our second programme, we delayed the start of the third programme until March 2024, although this was also partly due to the benefits of better weather during this period. Thanks to the commitment of £2K by Brent Valley Golf Club, £500 from the NAPGC and the prospect of funding of £2K by Middlesex Golf (subsequently confirmed in July 2024), we launched our third programme on a slightly reduced basis (we no longer funded the purchase of shoes). The launch was also made possible by the donation of shirts and fleeces by Event Caddie. With our current reserves and with an additional £1K pledged by Middlesex Golf, we are now in a financial position to launch a fourth year on a similarly reduced basis (no shoe purchases). www.brentvalleygolfacademy.org @bvga_parakeets 14 ## Fundraising With the future pledge of £1K of funding from Middlesex Golf, the charity is currently funded to be able deliver its programme in 2025, but not for any future years. The trustees wish to build the charity’s reserves so we are able to plan for more than one year ahead and to avoid any pause in activities as was the case at the end of the second programme. Here are our current and potential fundraising options: - At the end of each programe we reach out to the children’s parents and appeal for donations. - We are planning a scheme to invite donors to “sponsor a parakeet”. - The trustees have discussed plans to promote legacy donations. - We continue to carefully monitor the market for grants from golfing and sporting organisations, and from governmental institutions. - We continue to invite our parakeets to purchase the golf clubs they have used during the programme (both as a way of raising funds and encouraging them to continue playing golf). - Sponsorship (eg Event Caddie sponsorship of our kit). - A donate button on our website. www.brentvalleygolfacademy.org @bvga_parakeets 15 ## The charity and trustees Brent Valley Golf Academy is a charity with registration number 1199648. The trustees of the charity meet quarterly to discuss and plan the charity’s work. In 2024, two new trustees were appointed, Josh Wilson and Oscar Brown, and Helen Weill stepped down. The trustees are: Richard Gray (Chair) Elspeth Malcolm Don Stewart Josh Wilson Oscar Brown www.brentvalleygolfacademy.org @bvga_parakeets 16 ## Our sponsors and partners in 2024 We are hugely grateful to our sponsors and partners who allowed us to deliver our programme in 2024 and to everyone who has supported us since our launch. www.brentvalleygolfacademy.org @bvga_parakeets 17 ## **Profit and Loss** ## **Brent Valley Golf Academy For the 12 months ended 31 May 2024** |**Profit and Loss**
**Brent Valley Golf Academy**
**For the 12 months ended 31 May 2024**|| |---|---| ||**JUN 2023-MAY 2024**| |**Turnover**|| |Donations|2,769.28| |Fundraising|4.69| |Other Revenue|625.00| |Sales of clubs|100.00| |**Total Turnover**|**3,498.97**| |**Cost of Sales**|| |Coaching fees|910.00| |Golf equipment and attire|225.89| |**Total Cost of Sales**|**1,135.89**| |**Gross Profit**|**2,363.08**| |**Administrative Costs**|| |Advertising & Marketing|194.00| |Audit & Accountancy fees|226.80| |Entertainment|191.24| |Insurance|131.04| |IT Software and Consumables|130.30| |Postage, Freight & Courier|17.25| |Printing & Stationery|65.00| |Prizes|60.00| |Telephone & Internet|19.00| |**Total Administrative Costs**|**1,034.63**| |**Operating Profit**|**1,328.45**| |**Profit on Ordinary Activities Before Taxation**|**1,328.45**| |**Profit after Taxation**|**1,328.45**| Profit and Loss Brent Valley Golf Academy 29 Jan 2025 Page 1 of 1