myschool finance explained

NSW Department of Education & Training

NSW Public Schools – Leading the Way www.det.nsw.edu.au

My School Financial Data Explained

Sample Primary School2010



My School – Financial Information

• On December 3 ACARA will publish on the My School website the capital and operating income of every school in Australia

• This will include the financial information for the calendar year of 2009

• Operating income is for day-to-day expenses like salaries and maintenance

• Capital income is for building works and the purchasing of major equipment



• From 2010, all costs involved in running a school will be included on the My School website. It will be expressed as a $ value per student

• All sources of income are added together and this total (called operating costs) is divided by the number of students in the school



i.e. Total Income from all sources Total number of students

Example

Demonstration Primary School (enrolment 300 students) receives:

$3 million from the State Government $0.5 million from the Federal Government $0.1 million from parent contributions, canteen, other

charges etc.

= $3.6 m/300 students = $12,000 per student per year



State Government

recurrent funding 81%



Terms Explained



State Government Recurrent Funding

• It’s funding provided to support NSW Government schools. It includes:

– Teacher and School Assistant salaries

(usually the largest component - >75% at SAMPLE Primary School)

– building/grounds maintenance

– utilities i.e. electricity, gas, water etc

– school cleaning

– out of school centralised support e.g. curriculum consultants, State and Regional Office activities etc (school share apportioned by student enrolments &/or floor area).



Australian Government Recurrent Funding

It’s funding provided to the State Government to support the education of all students enrolled in public schools as well as funding for targeted National Partnerships and general recurrent funding based on student numbers

Some of this funding is given directly to the schools for:o Literacy programso Numeracy programso Low Socio Economic School supporto The rest is used to help fund day-to-day to operating expenses like

salaries and support from regional and central offices



Fees, charges and parent contributions

This figure reflects the contributions and support received from parents and the local school community. It includes all money receipted by the school, such as:o Subject feeso Voluntary contributionso Excursionso Hire of Facilitieso Canteen rent/profitso Other extra-curricular activities etc



Other Private Sources

Any income shown under note 6 in your OASIS system will be counted as “Other Private Sources” for the purposes My School for example:

o Donations from community organisationso Funds that the school holds in trust to pass on to another organisation –

and example might be bushfire relief fundraising and 40 Hour Famine



MY School

capital expenditure



Capital expenditure includes funding given to the school from the Australian Government and the NSW Government

This also includes any money that the school has used from their operating funding for capital projects

Capital projects include buildings, COLAs, playground upgrades, school minor works like putting a new roof on the school, or refurbishing the canteen, or building a school security fence



The cost per student shown on the My School website can vary greatly between schools

This variance is caused by a number of factors, including:

i. The size of the school – schools with lower student numbers will have a higher cost per student.

ii. The complexity of the student population (if the school has a support unit, if the school has an intensive English centre, if the school is in a remote area).

iii. The special needs of individual students in the school (for instance a school may have a student with very high support needs).

iv. If the school is part of a targeted initiatives like SIP, PAS or one of the National Partnership Programs



This graph shows the correlation between the size of the school and the cost per student. Generally as the number of students enrolled in the school rises, the cost per student will fall

Small schools, high cost per

student

Large schools, lower cost per

student



My School

financial data explained



Example of differences School A School B

Total Income 2009

(Recurrent Funding)

$336,000

$4,588,800

Number of students enrolled

8

600

Cost per Student

$42,000

$7,648

Location

Rural;

Remote

Metropolitan

Priority Program (PAS funding – low

SES)

NO

NO

Support Class

NO

YES

Special Purpose Funding e.g. Norta

Norta indigenous program.

NO

NO

N.B :- the average cost per student in a NSW Government Primary school is $12,468