Schools in Financial Crisis Is there a solution? Everywhere we look in the news today there are stories about schools struggling to function in the face of budget cuts. You might think, ‘Nothing new there. Everyone is in the same boat.’ However, this situation is having an incredibly damaging impact on the quality of particularly secondary education for our children. This will potentially have a wide-ranging effect on every aspect of the life of the nation for years into the future, as these children become working adults. Massive budget cuts Recent reports from School Cuts, the education unions alliance, reveal that schools in England have suffered losses of more [...]

A Beginner’s Guide To Accounting For Leases In Schools Most schools have used leasing at some time but in recent years there have been reports that some schools that have found themselves on the wrong side of accounting rules. We’ve put together a beginner’s guide to understanding leases for schools, written for the teachers and school managers who aren’t accountants. Don’t assume you need to pay for new equipment upfront These days with tighter-than-ever budgets, few schools have the luxury of keeping a sufficient pot of money to allow them to pay cash for big investments in new equipment, such as IT, vehicles or gym equipment. Often schools assume this [...]