Our mission at St Margaret’s CE Primary School is to provide all of our pupils with an excellent education underpinned by our Christian values. Our whole community at the school – the staff team, pupils and Governors work very hard every day to achieve our mission, and we are very fortunate to have such a large building and extensive grounds within which to deliver this education. However, this is not without its challenges, and we want to ensure we maintain and continue to improve and develop our school for all of our pupils’ benefit – now and in the future.

You will likely already be aware that Voluntary Aided Church schools, such as St Margaret’s, receive funding for buildings in a different way to community schools.  The Governors are responsible for 10% of any money we spend on capital projects (building work, large scale maintenance work and equipment that costs over £2000).  The overwhelming majority of C of E and Catholic schools across the UK already have Voluntary Building Contributions funds set up that parents contribute too if they can, and many of you will be aware of these from other schools your other children attend. As a school, we are now in the position of most other Voluntary Aided schools, where we are going to be reliant on the support of parents to help us fund the necessary building projects to provide the best possible learning environment for our pupils.

We work closely with the Diocese of Chichester who are responsible for large scale building project and maintenance funding of C of E schools such as ours. Since September 2018, you will have noticed the work we have completed - the much needed resurfacing of both playgrounds, the canopy built for the Early Years outdoor learning area, the new Gazebo classroom and the recent tree works that have needed to be done for Health and Safety reasons. Additionally, we have completed a full condition survey of the school with an architect and the Local Authority, and identified a programme of 3-5 years’ work that is essential at the school in order to maintain our wonderful environment.

As part of this, we prepared a large funding bid to the Diocese for this academic year. The major works that need undertaking at the school include a complete refurbishment of our heating and hot water system (which many of you will know has caused us several problems over the last few months); a complete replacement of the lighting and emergency lighting across the school site; replacement of some of the windows around the school, and refurbishment of classrooms and corridors. As you can appreciate, these will form the basis of multiple bids over several years. I am delighted to tell you we have recently heard that our bid for the priority work – a complete overhaul of our heating and hot water system has been successful, and we have been awarded £150,000 of funding to complete this work. As we have to fund 10% of all building projects ourselves, we will need to contribute £15,000 to ensure the work can go ahead.

We are therefore requesting a suggested minimum annual donation of £45 per pupil, but any donated amount will be gratefully received. This could be paid over 3 terms - £15 a term. We understand that not all families can afford to contribute, and would like to reassure you that all pupils are treated equally, irrespective of whether or how much their parents contribute. You can donate using this link: https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/10193. You can also share this link with others that you know, who may want to contribute to the Building and Maintenance fund of St Margaret’s School.

If you are a UK tax payer we would be most grateful if you could tick the Gift Aid box too, as this provides an additional 25p for every £1 donated, at no cost to you.  

We would like to thank you in advance for your donations to the Building and Maintenance Fund, and recognise all the other kinds of contributions made by you all to the life of our wonderful school community. Your support is greatly appreciated by us all.