St Matthew’s PTA Charity Number: 288436
Trustees' Annual Report & Statement of Financial Activity 1 September 2020 to 31 August 2021
3[rd] December 2021
Executive Summary
St Matthew’s PTA is the Parent-Teacher Association for St. Matthew’s Primary School in Cambridge.
The PTA’s year ending 31 August 2021 was affected by Covid-19 restrictions, which meant we were not able to operate most of our usual events such as summer and winter fairs and discos. As a result, our fundraising was limited and we were cautious in spending funds.
However, we were able to operate a number of remote or socially-distanced events, which raised a total of £3,672, and provided educational and fun activities for pupils. We provided grants totalling £1,416 towards school projects and resources.
In addition, the PTA’s on-going Fund St Matthew’s campaign (restricted fund) received £23,169 in donations (primarily monthly donations from parents). Funds raised for this campaign are restricted for granting directly to the school to spend as required. £50,963 from this fund was granted to the school in this reporting period, which includes the £29,795 balance in the fund at the start of the reporting period.
The PTA’s finances are healthy, with assets totalling £21,620 at the end of the reporting period, £2,001 of which is the balance of the Fund St Matthew’s restricted fund.
Reference & Administration Details
Name: St Matthew’s PTA Charity Number: 288436 Address: St Matthew’s Primary School 19 Norfolk Street, Cambridge, CB1 2LD
Names of the Charity Trustees who manage the Charity between 1[st] September 2020 and the date this report was produced:
Office
Name Appointed Resigned Alice Frost Tranah Trustee 20/10/2020 Georgina Fitzpatrick Trustee 20/10/2020 Laura Franks Chair 17/10/2017 20/10/2020 Sebastian Wills Chair 29/10/2019 20/10/2020 Birgit Grothe Treasurer 29/10/2019 20/10/2020 Muslema Mustoe Trustee 29/10/2019 20/10/2020 Katrina Halliday Chair 20/10/2020 12/10/2021 Gabrielle Uncles Chair 20/10/2020 12/10/2021 Laura Franks Secretary 20/10/2020 12/10/2021 Marysol Bell Treasurer 20/10/2020 12/10/2021 Emma Willis Committee 20/10/2020 12/10/2021 Susan Ross Committee 20/10/2020 12/10/2021 Sebastian Wills Committee 20/10/2020 12/10/2021 Laura Franks Chair 12/10/2021 Marysol Bell Secretary 12/10/2021 Sebastian Wills Treasurer 12/10/2021
Structure, Governance & Management
Type of Governing Document:
Constitution
How the Charity is Constituted:
Association
Trustee Selection Methods
Nominated, seconded, and voted for at AGM and between AGM co-opted by committee members at committee meetings.
Additional governance issues
St Matthew’s PTA works closely with the school headmaster and senior staff, as well as with our teacher representative on the committee, Sophie Martin-Hawkins. This year we also worked closely with Sarah Barratt as teacher representative while Sophie Martin-Hawkins was on maternity leave.
The charity is a member of NCPTA (Parentkind).
Objectives
To contribute to school resources to enhance the experience and wellbeing of the staff and children. To run events which increase the involvement of the parent community in the social life of the school and awareness of the role of the PTA. To provide funds/facilities/items for the school outside statutory funds in consultation with the headmaster and/or senior school staff.
Statutory Declaration on Public Benefit
The trustees declare that they have complied with their duty to have due regard to the guidance on public benefit published by the Charity Commission in exercising their powers or duties.
Activities, Achievements & Performance
Events
The PTA usually runs numerous events with the dual aims of raising funds and providing entertainment and enrichment for the school community.
A limited number of events could be run this year due to Covid-19 restrictions.
We held a Spooky dress-up day, a Festive dress-up day and a Summer Carnival dress-up day. They provided a much-needed sense of fun for the children. The Spooky and Summer dress-up days raised a total of £1624 for the PTA through online donations and bucket shaking. Parents were encouraged to donate to Cambridge Sustainable Food on the Festive dress-up day to support those in need in our community.
We provided a bag of Christmas decorations for each classroom, which were very well received. Given the ongoing challenges they were facing, we also felt it was appropriate to give a small gift to each member of school staff as a sign of appreciation on behalf of all parents.
We paid for access to an online pantomime, Jack and the Beanstalk, which the children watched in class and which proved very popular.
We ran the St Matthew’s Advent Calendar on Instagram this year, featuring artwork from the children, which was a lovely festive activity in the absence of our usual events, and a Photography Competition for the children later in the year, judged by local professional photographer Martin Bond.
We organised the traditional Christmas/Greetings card fundraiser, which raised £1306 for the school. We were able to continue to run the Bag2School collections, which raised £761 in this period.
In the Summer term, we ran a Round the World with Banana Woman challenge to encourage the children to walk, run, scoot or cycle as far as possible. We also ran a Bags of Summer Fun project, providing envelopes of activities for each week of the summer holidays.
We organised Year 6 Leavers hoodies again, paid for directly by Year 6 parents. Once again, those in receipt of Pupil Premium had their hoodie funded, the cost of which was covered almost entirely by a pay-it-forward scheme.
In total, events raised £3672 after costs.
School projects supported
Money raised through events, as well as donations and through the Giving Machine and Amazon Smile, is spent fulfilling funding requests from teachers as well as school-wide projects. This year we funded three workshops requested by class teachers for their year groups, Christmas decorations and gifts for all the classrooms and their teachers, and the online Christmas panto. In total grants to the school amounted to £1416. Further funds have been approved for
redevelopment of the school library and for sports equipment and kit, but these have not been paid in the current period.
Fund St Matthew’s
Fund St Matthew’s (previously known as the Funding Shortfall campaign) was started in March 2019 by a group of parents with the support of the PTA committee, and continued to attract generous donations, mainly from parents, carers and other relations of pupils at the school. Its goal is to raise money to support the education of pupils at the school. Most of the money raised for this campaign comes from monthly donations made to the PTA via JustGiving and CAF. These are ringfenced for Fund St Matthew’s and the PTA donates all this money to the school to spend as required.
Originally, the target was to fill ‘funding gap’ left by a £60,000 reduction in the school’s budget for the 2019-20 financial year. This target was reached in December 2020, at which time we announced that further donations would continue to go to the school. Since then the school has decided that donations beyond the initial £60,000 will go towards capital projects that are difficult for the school to fund from its core budget.
In this reporting period, donations received for Fund St Matthew’s (after deduction of JustGiving/CAF fees and addition of GiftAid, handled by those platforms) totalled £23,169. Money granted to the school from the fund during this reporting period was £50,963 (which includes the £29,795 balance of the Fund St Matthew’s ‘pot’ in the PTA’s bank account at the start of this period). At the end of the reporting period, the PTA held £2,001 earmarked for the Fund St Matthew’s fund, and the total raised towards the fund since the start of the campaign in March 2019 stood at £76,329.
Other donations
In addition to the Fund St Matthew’s donations, £78 was donated directly to the PTA, and £193 was raised from The Giving Machine and Amazon Smile, which generate referral fees when parents shop online.
Other campaigns
Following discussions last year about air pollution and road safety in the local school environment, the PTA were asked to help set up the School Streets scheme through the closure of Broad Street at school drop-off and pick-up times. We are very grateful to all the parent volunteers who have coordinated this and manned the barrier in sunshine and showers to ensure a safe space for the children.
Parent engagement
The Classlist online platform continued to be an important way for us to quickly get messages out to parents and help enable communication among parents. We also used it effectively for online ticket sales. We are grateful to our Class Reps who are another effective channel for involving parents.
Financial Review
Statement of the Charity's Policy on Reserves
St Matthew’s PTA seeks to support St Matthew’s Primary School by providing financial and other assistance to those projects agreed by the Trustees (and in consultation with the Headmaster and senior staff) as good causes, whilst maintaining at all times a positive level of reserves. Thus, the amount of reserves remaining at the end of any given financial year will be determined solely by the Trustees, although the treasurer looks to maintain around £10,000 in order to fund customary donations should no further fundraising occur. Our reserves can be spent when agreed by the PTA committee and in line with the objectives of the PTA.
There are no current uncertainties regarding the PTA’s ability to continue as a going concern. Although the level of fundraising was reduced due to Covid-19, requests from the school were also much lower, and our assets were not depleted.
The available funds as at 31st August 2021 were £19,619 (previous period: £16,997) as shown in the accounts.
We recognise and are very grateful for contributions from the school parents for their continued help so that we can carry on supporting the school.
All fundraising is carried out on a voluntary basis by our wonderful parent community. There are no paid fundraisers or committee members in our charity.
Details of Any Funds Materially in Defcit
The Trustees declare that the charity had no funds which were materially in deficit at the date of the statement of assets & liabilities.
Particulars of Any Outstanding Guarantee Given by the Charity
The Trustees declare that the charity has given no guarantee where potential liability is outstanding at the date of the statement of assets & liabilities.
Particulars of Any Outstanding Debt
The Trustees declare that the charity has no outstanding debts which are secured by an express charge on any of the assets of the charity at the date of the statement of assets & liabilities.
Declaration
The Trustees declare that they have approved the above report and authorised that it be signed on their behalf.
Signed on behalf of the PTA trustees
Sebastian Wills Trustee 3[rd] December 2021
ST MATTHEW'S PTA
Registered charity no. 288436
Receipts & Payments Accounts for the period 1st September 2020 to 31st August 2021
| RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS | 2020-21 | 2020-21 | 2019-20 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Receipts | Payments | Net Receipts | Net Receipts | ||
| Fundraising activities | |||||
| Fairs | - | - | - | 2,352 | |
| Discos | - | - | - | 939 | |
| Dress-up days | 1,624 | - | 1,624 | 1,103 | |
| DVDS | - | - | - | 18 | |
| Cake Sales | - | - | - | 792 | |
| Christmas cards | 5,185 | 3,879 | 1,306 | 1,154 | |
| Bags2School | 761 | - | 761 | 356 | |
| Other activities | |||||
| Year 6 hoodies | 234 | 252 | -18 | -17 | |
| Summer Bag of Fun | 532 | 240 | 292 | - | |
| Competitions etc | - | 293 | -293 | ||
| Sub-total | 8,336 | 4,664 | 3,672 | 6,698 | |
| School Projects Funded | |||||
| Classroom donations/decorations (Christmas) | - | 383 | -383 | -2,300 | |
| School Equipment/Facilities | - | 186 | -186 | -6,903 | |
| Library books/resources | - | -256 | |||
| Excursions/Activities | - | 815 | -815 | -1,000 | |
| Other grants/gifts to school | - | 33 | -33 | -1,138 | |
| Sub-total | - | 1,416 | -1,416 | -11,597 | |
| Operating expenses | |||||
| Insurance and subscriptions | - | 123 | -123 | -122 | |
| PTA Equipment/Resources | - | - | - | 39 | |
| Sub-total | - | 123 | -123 | -83 | |
| Other Income | |||||
| Referral schemes | 193 | - | 193 | 289 | |
| Donations to PTA | 78 | - | 78 | 1,460 | |
| HMRC Gift Aid claims not handled by donation platforms | - | - | - | - | |
| Sub-total | 271 | - | 271 | 1,749 | |
| Total excluding Fund St Matthew’s | 8,607 | 6,203 | 2,404 | -3,234 | |
| Fund St Matthew’s (previously Funding Shortfall) campaign (restricted fund) | |||||
| Grants made to school | - | 50,963 | -50,963 | -23,365 | |
| Donations received | 23,169 | - | 23,169 | 36,086 | |
| Sub-total | 23,169 | 50,963 | -27,794 | 12,721 | |
| Income and expenses from this account sheet but relating to prior year | 217 | - | 217 | 4,681 | |
| TOTAL | 31,993 | 57,166 | -25,173 | 14,168 | |
| ASSETS AND LIABILITIES AS OF 31st AUGUST | 2020-21 | 2019-20 | |||
| Cash Assets | |||||
| NatWest Bank Balance | 21,430 | 49,594 | |||
| Cheques written not yet cashed | - | -2,992 | |||
| Cash in hand (float) | 40 | 40 | |||
| Sub-total | 21,470 | 46,642 | |||
| Debtors (long-term) | |||||
| FilmBank deposit | 150 | 150 | |||
| Sub-total | 150 | 150 | |||
| Liabilities | |||||
| Sub-total | - | - | |||
| Total assets @31st Aug | 21,620 | 46,792 | |||
| Breakdown by fund | |||||
| Funding Shortfall campaign (restricted fund) | 2,001 | 29,795 | |||
| General fund | 19,619 | 16,997 | |||
| Check: movement in cash assets against net income | Cash assets | 31stAugust 2021 | 21,470 | ||
| Cash assets | 31stAugust 2020 | 46,642 | |||
| Movement in cash assets | -25,173 | ||||
| Net income | -25,173 | ||||
| Difference (should be zero) | - |
Independent examiner's report to the trustees of St Matthew's PTA. I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of St Matthew's PTA (the Trust) for the year ended 31st August 2021. Responsibilities and basis of report As the charity trustees of the Trust you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ('the Act,). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act. Independent examiner's statement I have completed my examination. I confinn that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect: 1. accounting records were not kept in respect of the Trust as required by section 130 of the Act; or 2. the accounts do not accord with those records. I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Signed: Name: Kevin Woor Relevant professional qualification or membership of professional bodies (if any): FCCA Address: 17 Ainsworth Place, Cambridge, CB12PG Date: 11 April 2022