Description

State and state-integrated school funding is made up of various components that have different eligibility rules and funding structures. Staffing for your school is based on your roll, but there are also additional allowances and staffing that you are eligible for.

Being aware of what’s available to your kura is crucial for accessing the funding and staffing you are entitled to, and for making the best use of these resources.

My guests are:

• Hannah Levy, Ministry of Education finance advisor – Otago/Southland
• Martyn Wetherall, principal of Laingholm School
• Mārama Stewart, former tumuaki and Ministry of Education leadership advisor
• Adrian Edwards, Ministry of Education finance advisor - Bay of Plenty/Waiariki.

This podcast was produced for the Ministry of Education as part of Te Ara Tīmatanga mō ngā Tumuaki - The Beginning Pathway for Principals.

You can learn more about this topic by accessing Te Ara Tīmatanga mō ngā Tumuaki - The Beginning Pathway for Principals e-learning modules on the Education LMS: https://training.education.govt.nz

Show notes

Episode themes:

• School budgets are based on the school’s income, which mainly comes from the Ministry of Education, and generally you want your income to match your expenditure.
• The main forms of funding from the Ministry are teachers’ salaries, which are paid by the Ministry, the operational funding for the running costs of the school, and learning support funding. Locally-raised funds (or school fundraising) also contributes to the school’s income.
• Responsibility for the school’s budget is most often delegated by the board to the principal.
• Ministry of Education finance advisors can advise you on all financial matters, including banking staffing. They can come and give you a finance 101 when you start - in as much detail as you like - just give them a call.
• When you first start at a school, speak with the person who manages (or has been managing) the school’s finances to see if your school is in surplus (income greater than expenditure), or deficit (expenditure is more than income), and to have them talk you through what you need to know.
• It’s important to keep an eye on the budget throughout the year. Sometimes spending will go over budget, and you’ll need to take action on that. For example, if there’s a lot of teacher sickness, you can apply for additional relief teacher funding to make sure you can cover those costs.
• It’s important to understand banking staffing, which is the amount of money you get for the number of teachers the Ministry says you can have. If you’re allowed 10 teachers and you hire 11, you’ll end up accumulating debt that you’ll need to pay back.
• You can find most of the funding information about your school in the Pourato tool (link below).

Additional information

Pourato https://applications.education.govt.nz/pourato

Funding and financials https://www.education.govt.nz/education-professionals/schools-year-0-13/funding-and-financials

Managing staffing usage (banking staffing) https://www.education.govt.nz/education-professionals/schools-year-0-13/funding-and-financials/managing-staffing-usage-banking-staffing

Day-to-day financial management including link to Financial Information for Schools Handbook (FISH) https://www.education.govt.nz/education-professionals/schools-year-0-13/funding-and-financials/day-day-financial-management#paragraph-9126

Questions

1:59 [Hannah] Obviously, a school has a budget to work within. What's a school's budget based on?

2:34 [Hannah] There are different pots of money and different sources of money for different things. What are those different pots of money?

2:57 [Hannah] Who's responsible for the financial governance of a school, what do they need to do, and what kinds of things do they decide?

4:47 [Hannah] What's the key financial information that a new tumuaki going into a school needs to understand about their kura?

5:57 [Martyn] Where can a new tumuaki find information about the finances of their kura?

7:25 [Martyn] What is banking staffing?

8:21 [Adrian] Can you tell me what you do as a financial advisor, please?

11:31 [Hannah] What are the dangers if a school's finances aren't managed well?

12:48 [Martyn/Mārama] Did you have any financial experience before you became a tumuaki, and if not, how did you learn what you needed to know? 

15:08 [Hannah] Can you give us a bit more detail about the different streams of funding, and what they each pay for, please?

17:55 [Adrian] What does operational funding cover exactly?

20:28 [Hannah] Can you tell me about Pourato?