Why sponsor a school?

Advantages and benefits of sponsorship

To apply for specialist status, each school has to raise £50,000 from the private sector and build long-term beneficial relationships with industry. The success of the specialist schools programme is therefore not down to the schools alone: they rely heavily on support and investment from the private sector to help them make improvements to better serve their pupils and local communities.

Whilst much has already been achieved, there is still a long way to go to ensure that we provide every pupil with the best education possible, allowing them to realise their full potential. There are still some 1,000 schools that have not yet gained specialist status and for many of these schools, the process of improvement and becoming specialist will be an arduous one. They will therefore need as much help from the private sector as possible. As well as being an opportunity to invest in education – arguably the most fundamental and important experience in anyone’s life – there are a number of benefits associated with supporting specialist schools:

Raise educational standards in our schools

Specialist schools outperform non-specialist schools by 10% even though their intake of ability is similar. Raising educational standards in our schools, especially in areas of social disadvantage, is crucial to the long-term prosperity of England.

Unlock government funding

For every £1 invested in a school by a sponsor, the Government provides on average an additional £12. This means that when a school achieves its target of £50,000, additional funding worth £600,000 will come from the DfES: a huge sum of money going towards the improvement of teaching and learning in the schools the sponsor chooses to support!

Create beneficial partnerships

Sponsors can, if they wish, develop long-term relationships with their schools including:

• Appointing governors to the school’s governing body;
• Provision of careers advice and work placement opportunities for students.

We want to get involved in helping to run schools from the inside. We believe there’s a considerable element of business ethos which can be usefully transferred to the running of schools. Sir Peter Lampl, Sutton Trust, sponsor of over 25 specialist schools

Valuable PR exposure

Supporting a specialist school provides innumerable and ongoing opportunities to raise the profile of a particular sponsor through the association with a flagship national government initiative. In addition to national recognition and perhaps just as important, sponsors can expect a substantial level of local recognition as a considerable proportion of the increased investment going into a school is used to help and improve local communities.

Community involvement

Sponsoring specialist schools gives you the opportunity to put something back into your community.

Staff involvement

Supporting a local school provides numerous opportunities for your staff to get involved in the local community. Sponsors are able to place up to 2 representatives on the school’s governing body, which is a an exciting opportunity for staff development.

In addition, there are mentoring opportunities, working with both teachers and pupils to impart expertise and experience.

Recruitment

This is a real opportunity to build long-term relationships with schools and to influence the ways in which our young people are taught and exposed to industry. You have the opportunity through sponsoring a school to promote careers in your industry to our young people. Many sponsors have used this as an opportunity to devise work experience programmes that are beneficial to both their industry and the partner school(s).

Tax efficiency

Every penny donated to the programme is deducted against tax, eg if a company makes a gross donation of £50,000 to the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust for their chosen school(s), this enables the company to obtain tax relief at 30% thereby reducing the net cost to £35,000.

No need to give until September 2008

Donations can be given up to 18 months after your pledge is made. For instance, if you were to agree now to pledge £25,000 to a local school submitting a bid for specialist status in October 2006, this money need not be given to the school until September 2008.

The Music Sound Foundation has agreed to sponsor over a five year period a number of arts colleges specialising in music, with £1,500,000 sponsorship. The DfES matched funding of £600,000 per school was of great significance in making this decision. Eric Nicoli, Chairman, EMI Music Sound Foundation

Contact details

If you are interested in supporting schools or events please contact:

Nick Ryan
Head of Development

Specialist Schools and Academies Trust
16th-17th Floor Millbank Tower
21-24 Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP

Tel: 020 7802 2333
Nick.Ryan@ssatrust.org.uk