Making the budget work for your school

The Spring Budget 2017 delivered by Chancellor Phillip Hammond has raised some eyebrows but none more so than those of school leaders in England.

This year’s budget has revealed a significant cut in funding to state schools for an already financially strained education system. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, spending on education has already fallen by 14% between 2010/11-2015/16 with spending per pupil dropping by 6.5% – the first such cut in almost 30 years.

What do these cuts mean for schools?

As budgets decrease, costs have increased synchronously. School leaders face the ultimate juggling act – having to efficiently allocate funds to adequately cater for growing student numbers. This shortage of funds has resulted in larger classes, outdated teaching materials and lack of training/CPD for teaching staff.

The most worrisome knock-on effect of tighter budget are the cuts to teaching staff. Teaching staff typically accounts for a significant percentage of schools’ budget. A south London school Principal stated in an interview with The Guardian that staff costs accounted for 70% of their budget.

How have schools responded?

Operational costs are rising, while budgets are not increasing proportionately. In an attempt to cut costs, the Association of School and College Leaders has suggested the possibility of shorter school days and cutting foreign language and arts subjects.

How can your school work within your budget without disadvantaging your students?

Managed Print Solutions

Maximum efficiency and productivity

Joskos and Sharp have collaborated to deliver print solutions that will enhance school efficiencies, whilst also cutting costs. With Joskos and Sharp, you can benefit from:

Multifunctional devices that support a range of print management tools such as PaperCut and Equitrac for effortless print management; are fully compatible with BYOD environments; and may even be configured to enable fast, simple scanning of documents direct to your school’s SIMS .net system.

Lower printing costs

Sharp devices can help you optimise your print environment and gain total control of your print fleet, with benefits such as automated reporting on print volumes, costs, users and device performance.

Check out our Managed Print Savings Calculator to find out just how much a traditional printing solution may be costing your school

Contact us to find out more about managed print solutions.

Leasing

For small schools, purchasing hardware is costly, as capital investment of 100% is required. However, leasing contracts provide customers with the flexibility to split repayment over 3-years with the option to pay monthly or quarterly.

As hardware such as laptops, tablets and desktops need to be refreshed every 3-5 years, some contracts even include upgrades or trade in options to ensure your students always have access to the latest technology.

Contact us for more information on leasing options available to your school.

CPD

Are you making the most of the most of existing technology? O.U.R or Optimum Utilization of Resources should be top of mind for school leaders. Why purchase new technology when you are not fully reaping the benefits of an existing one? Scheduling CPD and training is essential to keeping up to date with recent developments, tips and tricks, accessible resources and best practices to make the most of your technologies.

Book your CPD session today! We offer training for Google, O365, Apple and much more.

Total cost of ownership (TCO)

Before purchasing any ICT equipment, it is worth considering the total cost of ownership of any investment. Audio Visual devices are a great way to drive collaboration among students and introduce an innovative way to deliver lessons. When researching audio visuals solutions for your school many school leaders are faced with a choice between Interactive White Boards (IWB) or Interactive Flat Panels (IFP). IWBs carry almost half the price tag for IFPs when solely looking at purchasing price. However, when considering total ownership costs associated, IWBs overtake IFPs. These costs come down to bulb replacement and maintenance, which are unnecessary when purchasing an interactive flat panel.

Why not schedule a call with one of our experts to discuss which purchasing option works best for your school?

Be Creative

As mentioned previously most ICT hardware such as desktops and laptops need to be refreshed every 3-5 years. Sluggish laptops with outdated software can be very frustrating and purchasing new devices may seem like the only option. This is not always the case. With Google’s Chromium, a browser based operating system, old laptops can be reconfigured to operate as a Chromebook. Your data will be safely secured in the cloud freeing up your disk space and by extension improving speed as well as performance!

Schools are entrusted with a very important task – ensuring that students have all the tools they need to successfully transition into their lives beyond the classroom. We at Joskos believe that high quality teaching and innovative learning need not be sacrificed due to budgetary restrictions.