School Budget Mastery: The basics and beyond (School Financial Success Guides)

School Funding Reform chapter updated for 2021/22. Changes in school funding and rising costs are making many schools and academies anxious about their future financial position. Creating a realistic budget and keeping to it are fundamental to strong financial leadership and essential for your school's survival.

'School Budget Mastery' provides a comprehensive guide to help you achieve your goals, taking you step by step through the process of preparing your budget and monitoring progress against it throughout the year. You will also find a wide range of advice on legal requirements, sources of funding and income, the key information needed when preparing your budget and ways to foster a positive financial culture in your school at all levels.

With our guidance, you can achieve value for money and a prudent, effective approach to the use of resources. Suitable for existing, new and aspiring school leaders including School Business Leaders and governors, this will help you to grow in confidence and achieve financial success for your school.

"A really informative and useful guide to all aspects of school and academy budgeting, relevant for both finance professionals and teachers with leadership responsibilities" Jim Farquhar, MAT Director of Finance & Corporate Services

Julie Cordiner is a qualified accountant and independent consultant specialising in school funding and education finance, with over thirty years' experience in local authority education work including ten years as an Assistant Director. Between 2007 and 2015 she was a member of DfE's advisory group on school funding. She advises schools and local authorities on school funding and achieving value for money in order to support better outcomes and enable children and young people to maximise their potential, something she is passionate about. Julie believes everyone deserves the best possible education and we all need to use taxpayers' money wisely, to achieve a fair chance for every single pupil.

With a background in accountancy and sixteen years experience in the school business management profession, Nikola fulfisl a broad, strategic role as Director of Corporate Services in a large secondary school leading on all aspects of school organisation and SMSC. Her experience as a Specialist Leader of Education offering school to school support has widened her perspective of the challenges faced by schools and the potential solutions to those challenges. Nikola passionately believes that every child has the right to a high quality education and that we all have a part to play in achieving this ideal.