This budget planning checklist and calendar set is designed to help you with staying on top of managing your budget across the school year. The editable budget planning checklist has suggested tasks to attend to when planning your next budget, including for school improvement planning, curriculum budgeting and expenditure, staffing and payroll, pupil premium and SEND. There are also suggestions for when to follow up and monitor each element across the school year. The accompanying calendar provides a month-by-month overview, giving you a quick and easy breakdown of what to explore each month when it comes to monitoring your budget - you could print it out and pin it to your noticeboard as a handy reminder (plus there’s a print-friendly version included too). The budget planning checklist is an editable Word (.docx) document and the calendar is in PDF format.

This handy 18-page editable document (.docx format) is designed to help school finance governors to support and challenge their setting’s headteacher, principal or academy head when planning and setting the school budget. It contains reflective questions to be used in a constructive dialogue in the following areas: Budget planning Budget risk factors, contingency and compliance Income School improvement Contracts and benchmarking Staffing Pupil numbers and class sizes Pupil premium and SEND Deficit and recovery planning (use if applicable to your setting) Budget variation For each question, there’s space to note any discussion outcomes as well as the evidence you’ve gathered to support budget planning decisions. It can be used by both maintained schools and academies where governors or local board members support the academy’s headteacher to plan the budget. Whether you’re a finance link governor, the chair of a governor finance committee or a school leader looking to support your governors, this checklist allows you to work collaboratively and ensure that governors are fulfilling one of the governing body’s core functions of ensuring the sound, proper and effective use of the school’s financial resources.

This handy bundle focuses on exploring your financial management skills in order to effectively manage your school budget. Designed for headteachers, business managers or anyone with responsibility for finance in schools, the three resources in this pack can help you determine your current level of understanding about school budget management and, crucially, what knowledge and skills you need to develop to manage the budget effectively. The pack contains: School Budget Management Skills Audit and Self-Evaluation - This 16-page editable Word document contains a wealth of reflective questions that you can work through to determine your current depth of understanding in all areas of school budget management. School Finance Role Handover Checklist - This checklist can be used as a handover document when taking on a role that includes school budget management and covers a range of tasks you may wish to complete, including getting set up on finance management systems, learning about the current budgetary picture and understanding any financial constraints the school is facing. School Finance Glossary - For those new to school finance management, understanding the associated vocabulary, terminology and acronyms can be one of the biggest hurdles to overcome! Written in an easy-to-digest manner, you can keep this glossary to hand when building your skills in school budget management. For this reason, it’s ideal for new heads, academy headteachers or anyone stepping into school budget management for the first time. The skills audit and handover checklist are editable and in Word .docx format while the school finance glossary is in a PDF format.

While low pupil numbers and high staffing costs have a large impact on the budget, there are ways to make cost savings across other, smaller areas which can add up to large gains. This 13-page toolkit explores maximising income and minimising expenditure across key areas such as procurement, resourcing the curriculum, premises and facilities management, catering and more. Headteachers, principals, academy heads, executive heads or anyone with responsibility and oversight of a school budget will find this pack extremely useful, particularly if cost savings need to be made to create a sustainable budget. This resource is fully editable and is in a Word .docx format.

Often, staffing and supporting the needs of pupils with SEND are closely intertwined but this can have cost implications that are challenging to manage. This 11-page toolkit helps you to explore SEND across your setting while considering the associated staffing costs and potential areas for making savings, including a whole-school understanding of how to use quality first teaching strategies effectively, exploring how individual and group-based interventions can help you make savings without reducing quality and considering if there are ways to support pupils with SEND without solely relying on utilising support staff. Headteachers, principals, academy heads, executive heads or anyone with responsibility and oversight of a school budget will find this pack extremely useful, particularly if cost savings need to be made to create a sustainable budget. The resource is fully editable and is in a Word .docx format.

With increases to staff pay and pensions not always being accounted for in the funding schools receive, spiralling staff costs can heavily impact your budget. This 11-page toolkit helps you explore your staffing structure vs. the impact they have, how to reduce costs associated with CPD and recruitment without affecting the quality of teaching and learning, and potential ways to reduce supply costs. It’ll help you to consider whether you can utilise changes to staffing hours and contracts to benefit both staff members and your setting and there is a section on whether making redundancies is a serious consideration you need explore further. Headteachers, principals, academy heads, executive heads or anyone with responsibility and oversight of a school budget will find this pack extremely useful, particularly if cost savings need to be made to create a sustainable budget. The resource is full editable and is in a Word .docx format.

This 14-page document explores one of the most challenging areas to combat: falling pupil numbers on roll. It’ll help you explore and respond to elements outside of your control (such as falling birth rates) and those within your control, such as your school’s unique selling points, reputation and visibility. With guidance and reflective questions around boosting pupil numbers, improving marketing strategies and reducing the numbers of pupils leaving your roll, it’ll allow you to identify strategies to mitigate the effects on your budget of having low pupil numbers on roll. Headteachers, principals, academy heads, executive heads or anyone with responsibility and oversight of a school budget will find this pack extremely useful, particularly if cost savings need to be made to create a sustainable budget. The resource is fully editable and is in Word .docx format.

This supportive bundle, designed for headteachers, principals and school business managers, gives you four cost saving toolkits that you can utilise to explore how to maximise income coming into your school as well as reduce unnecessary costs. Each toolkit covers a key pain point in school budget management: low pupils numbers high staffing costs managing SEND and linked budgetary costs planning an effective and efficient school budget. These provide ideas and reflective questions to work through in order to identify cost-saving measures, supporting your thought process when managing and balancing your entire school budget. Headteachers, principals, academy heads, executive heads or anyone with responsibility and oversight of a school budget will find this pack extremely useful, particularly if cost savings need to be made to create a sustainable budget. All documents are fully editable and in Word .docx format.

This full school budget management pack is perfect for any school leader who holds responsibility for the management of school finances, such as the headteacher, principal, academy head, school business manager (SBM) or another person in a similar role. The pack contains three distinct strands to support you: Cost saving toolkits to help you solve common problems when balancing your budget, including how to minimise expenditure and maximise income in different areas, including low pupil numbers, high staffing costs, managing the SEND budget while supporting pupil needs and planning an efficient and effective budget. Financial management skills-based support to help you understand key terminology and concepts linked to budget management and identify where you may need further skill development. This includes a finance management skills self-evaluation, a schools finance glossary and finance role handover checklist. Budget planning support, including ideas for finance governors when it comes to their role in budget planning and a handy budget planning checklist and calendar to help you stay on track throughout the year. This pack is ideal for those who are new to finances and budget management in schools but it can equally be used by experienced school leaders who are seeking further support. All resources are editable and in Word .docx format except for the school finance glossary and school finance calendar, which are in PDF format.

Dealing with complaints - whether from parents, carers or community members - can be one of the most challenging aspects of school leadership. With vexatious complaints against schools and the number of instances of parents complaining on the rise, headteachers and senior leaders need ways of managing complaints and, crucially, preventing complaints from occurring when possible. This checklist is designed to do exactly that and allows school leaders to review their processes in order to prevent complaints from parents but also to manage legitimate complaints carefully. It covers the following key areas: Complaint prevention What to do following the receipt of a school complaint Complaint investigation Complaint resolution Managing persistent, serial and vexatious complaints Use the checklist to evaluate your current position when it comes to school concerns and complaints, such as how effectively you build and manage relationships with parents/carers and your use of communication to maintain a culture of mutual respect in school. This will help you to identify areas to develop to bolster your efforts in maintaining strong relationships and addressing concerns before they develop into a bigger issue, thus helping to prevent complaints from forming. For further leadership resources, take a look at our website.

This CPD training bundle will support staff in how to differentiate between a pupil’s initial behaviour and further escalation by focusing on identifying the root causes of behaviour in order to tackle it effectively and prevent future escalation. Ideal for behaviour leads, SLT or anyone looking to strengthen staff behaviour management skills, this PowerPoint training session, designed to last for up to an hour, allows for collaboration, discussion and action-planning, and is perfect for INSET days, staff meetings or training sessions dedicated to improving behaviour management. Included in this CPD training bundle is a 32-slide PowerPoint for a ready-to-roll CPD session on differentiating between an initial, primary behaviour and an escalation behaviour. This is a perfect way to train staff in an effective behaviour management technique that focuses on identifying and addressing the root cause of the behaviour, rather than fire-fighting once escalation behaviour has occurred. For further behaviour CPD training, visit our website

If you need to use alterative provision (AP) to support any of your pupils, you’ll also need to check that the AP is a suitable setting, not only because of Ofsted requirements of using an AP but also to ensure the continued safeguarding and quality of education for your pupil(s). This checklist is designed to support school leaders to consider how the potential alternative provision approaches the following key areas: Safeguarding Health and Safety Curriculum and Quality of Education Behaviour and Attendance Pupil Support and Transition Communication and Information Sharing Ofsted Requirements You may find it beneficial to work through this checklist with the headteacher of the alternative provision (AP) so that you can agree to any arrangements and adjustments to support your pupil. It also offers guidance around where you may find the information you need to evaluate whether the AP is suitable. Further leadership resources can be found on our website

Support staff in how to avoid using group sanctions and collective punishment with this CPD training bundle which focuses on how staff can choose alternative and fairer methods of behaviour management instead. Ideal for behaviour leads, SLT or anyone looking to strengthen staff behaviour management skills, this PowerPoint training session, designed to last for up to an hour, allows for collaboration, discussion and action-planning, and is perfect for INSET days, staff meetings or training sessions dedicated to improving behaviour management. This CPD pack includes a 30-slide PowerPoint designed to last between 30 minutes to 1 hour, this time-saving and ready-to-roll CPD session on avoiding the use of group sanctions is a perfect way to train staff in the different ways they can manage challenging behaviour without collectively punishing or sanctioning pupils who weren’t part of the disruptive behaviour. The session begins with the Mapping section, which outlines how collective group sanctions can erode trust between staff and pupils, damage peer relationship and build resentment (and therefore future potential behaviour issues) among pupils who are unfairly sanctioned for other pupils’ misbehaviour. This is followed by the Routes Forward section, which gives staff practical examples of addressing group behaviour management situations without using collective sanctions through identifying specific behaviours and pupils, using clear and consistent expectations, reinforcing positive behaviour and addressing the root causes of misbehaviour. Presenter training notes are built into the PowerPoint to support you when delivering it to staff. With examples, behaviour management scenarios and thoughtful questions, the training PowerPoint allows for collaboration and sharing between staff members so you can be sure everyone’s on the same page when it comes to knowing the strategies to use to avoid group sanctions. The accompanying Training Action Plan allows staff to identify their start point and mirrors how the training session is laid out, allowing them to create their own bespoke action plan with strategies that address any gaps in their current behaviour management. In addition to this, the ten Behaviour Management Scenarios can be selected from to use in the training session itself or be delivered as a follow-up, allowing staff to show their understanding of the content and apply solutions to real-life scenarios where staff should avoid group sanctions and utilise alternative methods of behaviour management. Further CPD courses can be found on our website

This handy bundle will support you, a member of your team or one of your governors or trustees to check your school’s website to ensure compliance with the statutory information that schools must publish online. Created from the DfE guidance documents of what schools must or should publish online for both maintained schools and academies, the 10-page editable checklist gives you the exact items that need to published depending on your type of school. This means you can work through the list and check your school’s website for compliance, noting down any actions that need to be taken or any out-of-date information. The accompanying guidance gives you helpful hints and advice on how best to conduct the check as well as information on the importance of having an up-to-date website as Ofsted will check this before they visit your setting. You can find further resources on our website

This comprehensive audit will support you to assess your setting’s current position against the DfE’s Digital and Technology Standards for Schools and Colleges. Split into 11 sections that mirror the digital and technology standards and containing over 50 pages, this editable Word document walks you through what schools should have in place when it comes to ensuring they’ve got a safe, robust and sustainable digital infrastructure. The audit can be used flexibly by working through sections at different points and with different stakeholders. For example, you may wish to work with your ICT service provider or in-house IT staff on the more technical parts of the audit, such as the sections on broadband internet, cloud solutions, networks and servers. This will allow you to find out where you currently meet these standards so you can then focus on improving your IT and digital provision in other areas. Part of the standards require schools to have a member of SLT who is the digital technology lead - if your setting does not have one yet, you may wish to start with the sections of digital leadership and governance before moving on to other aspects of the audit, such as laptops, desktops and tablets, and digital accessibility. You may also wish to work with your DSL when looking at safeguarding requirements and keeping children safe by using the sections on cyber security, and filtering and monitoring, which is also available from Honeyguide as an individual audit here: Filtering and Monitoring Audit and Action Plan. School leaders may also find this audit helpful when looking to procure new IT equipment, infrastructure or services to ensure that any upgrades meet and exceed the digital and technology standards. This allows you to ensure you’re making robust and carefully researched purchasing decisions. Ensuring your school has safe and secure IT systems can be challenging, especially when it comes to the technical elements. This audit will support you by breaking down all of the complex digital and technological requirements into manageable chunks so that you focus on finding our your current position and any further improvements you need to make. You can find further resources on our website.

Struggling to get release time to monitor History or having to complete subject monitoring in your PPA? This Ten-Minute Subject Monitoring in History Pack provides a solution to the challenges of having a high level of accountability as a primary subject leader but not having the time to complete the monitoring activities necessary - often because of factors beyond your control, such as the school budget, booking supply or getting cover. Ten-minute subject monitoring works by identifying different time slots where you can be away from your teaching commitments in order to conduct a precise and focused subject monitoring activity on one element, such as a book look focusing on one strand of the History curriculum or a single 10-minute lesson drop-in. So rather than trying to find a full afternoon’s cover to conduct a term or half-term’s worth of monitoring, you can spread monitoring across a term by choosing slots where teaching and learning in your own classroom won’t be impacted. Aimed at primary History subject leads (or those line managing a History subject leader), this pack walks you through the entire process and is full of ideas on how to find and utilise ten-minute time slots for subject monitoring, as well as what you should be looking for in your monitoring when it comes to substantive knowledge and concepts, disciplinary knowledge and concepts, plus the chronological knowledge and historical terms and phenomena pupils need to grasp. Further subject leader resources can be found on our website.

A key responsibility for headteachers and principals in schools is to support the wellbeing of your staff team, but what about you and your own wellbeing? You don’t need us to tell you that the pressures of school leadership can often feel overwhelming but our Headteacher Wellbeing Audit and Action Plan is here to help. Designed with the unique challenges of headship in mind, this tool helps you take stock of what or who is currently supporting you in a professional capacity and where there could be room for development to improve your wellbeing in school. It’s perfect for heads, executive heads, school principals or anyone leading a school to use as a self-reflection tool, as well as being useful for trust leaders, CEOs, governors, trustees or anyone line managing a headteacher to utilise as part of a full support package. For further supportive resources for school leaders, visit our website.

Support staff in managing classroom noise levels with this CPD training bundle focusing on identifying the root causes of rising noise levels in classrooms and strategies to tackle this. Ideal for behaviour leads, SLT or anyone looking to strengthen staff behaviour management skills, this PowerPoint training session, designed to last for up to an hour, allows for collaboration, discussion and action-planning, and is perfect for INSET days, staff meetings on training sessions dedicated to improving behaviour management. A 31-slide PowerPoint designed to last between 30 minutes to 1 hour, this time-saving and ready-to-roll CPD session on managing classroom noise levels is a perfect way to train staff in the different ways they can identify the causes of rising classroom noise levels to prevent it, and how they can monitor and respond to noise when it does occur. Further behaviour CPD resources can be found on our website.

Looking to identify the skills and development points of an EYFS practitioner in your setting? Or perhaps you’re a preschool worker, nursery assistant or a teaching assistant in a Reception class who wants to explore role-specific strengths and weaknesses as part of your ongoing development or when looking for a new role. No matter the situation, this handy pack contains exactly what you need to uncover strengths and plan for professional development & growth. Further EYFS leadership resources can be found on our website.

Looking to identify the skills and development points of your school’s outdoor learning lead? Or perhaps you’re a outdoor learning practitioner or Forest School lead who wants to explore your role-specific strengths and weaknesses as part of ongoing development or when looking for a new role. No matter the situation, this handy pack contains exactly what you need to uncover strengths and plan for professional development and growth. Further resources can be found on our website.