School business professional supporting the delivery of a new and exciting environmental building
Fiona Gill, school business professional at Morecambe Road School in Lancashire, has taken on the end-to-end delivery of a major capital project for the school.
Paul Edmondson, who has been headteacher at Morecambe Road School for ten years, began with just a secretary for financial and office support. As Morecambe Road is a special school with a budget of nearly £2.5m, Paul realised he needed someone on board who could manage and make the most of that budget, as well as delivering on the school’s strategic priorities - so he brought Fiona in as a strategic school business professional (SBP).
One such strategic priority has been the coordination of a new and exciting capital project, to build a new, environmentally friendly building for the school, called The Garden Rooms. This building will provide a much-needed learning space for the pupils such as a library and life skills. It will give children a safe space to help them to cope with the challenges that SEND children sometimes feel towards their learning difficulty or disability, without an effect on their access to socialisation or continued learning.
Apart from agreeing the scale of the building, Fiona has been crucial in making this building a reality. She spoke to many stakeholders, including governors, about the school’s long-term needs of such a building, discussing both their current position and what they want to be able to provide in the future. She worked with architects to draw up the site plans, e.g. what type of building this should be and what area of the school estate it should be built to ensure students can make the most of the benefits of outside learning. She also worked with surveyors to look at the environmental impact and managed the necessary ecology surveys to drive forward the completion of planning permission.
Fiona led on the delivery of a budget for the proposed project for Paul to take to governors. She coordinated the fundraising for the project by writing bids to local and national trusts in order to secure grant funding. This was supplemented by charity donations and she agreed with the governing body that the remainder would come from the school budget. Fiona is still working to secure additional grant funding from local and national trusts.
By leaving this in the hands of his SBP, Fiona, Paul has more time and attention to spend on other important aspects of school life. The work that Fiona does for the school means that Paul is able to take the time to eat lunch with his students every day, which is important in a special school, and can undertake other roles, e.g. Ofsted Inspector, which brings in additional funding for the school.
In addition to this specific project, as a member of the SLT, Fiona ensures that the school’s financial procedures are compliant with value, accountability and transparency. She works diligently to ensure the right policies and procedures are in place, keeping the Governing Body informed of any changes.
Paul Edmondson said of Fiona:
A headteacher doesn’t have the capacity to run a school without a good team, and essential to that is finance and business. You need a capable school business professional on that team to make sure all the necessary procedures are in place and properly understood by the relevant people. Without that, capital projects like the one Fiona has driven forward would take up too much of a headteacher’s time.