Since 2019, Fund St Matthew’s has raised an incredible £126,000 for the school! Thank you to everyone who has donated. At the PTA AGM a few weeks ago, Mr Davies reiterated how important this money has been to the school. As well as filling the £60,000 funding shortfall in 2019-20, this money has paid for 15 Chromebooks and an outdoor learning area. A further £48,000 is with the school.
Mr Davies also spoke about how the school budget has recently been plunged into uncertainty due to increases in teacher and support staff salaries (sadly both still decreasing in real terms) without any government funding to pay for them, and increased energy costs which will kick in, for St Matthew’s, in the spring.
As a result, the school has decided to keep the £48,000 Fund St Matthew’s money it currently has as a contingency, with the hope that it will become available again for the originally planned projects when the funding situation improves.
Mr Davies has asked the PTA to use future Fund St Matthew’s donations to pay for school improvements directly rather than automatically sending the money to the school, to maximise the impact of donations. Fund St Matthew’s donations will therefore now be held by the PTA (a registered charity with published accounts) until they are spent. As before, they will be accounted for separately from other PTA activities, and the school will remain involved in deciding which which projects to fund.
The projects we would like to fund next are the long-planned outdoor eating area, improvements to the school library, making the roof terrace into a more useful space, and playground enhancements to enable more different types of play. We need more volunteers to help plan and implement these projects. If you could be part of a team that delivers these projects, please contact info@fundstmatthews.com.
Thank you again to everyone who donates to Fund St Matthew’s. If you’re not already donating and would like to, you can sign up here.