Folkestone School for Girls Builds £1.5m Reserve, While Pupils Stay Home

Continuing our theme of examining school finances, we turn to Folkestone School for Girls. Today, we shine a light on the accounts 2015 – 2024 – behind the outcomes.

The Folkestone School for Girls (FSG) is a good school — not an outstanding one. It is rated “Good” by Ofsted, and its financial management is equally solid. The Folkestone School for Girls Academy Trust has posted regular surpluses, maintained long-term stability, and built up over a decade’s worth of reserves. It is, in many respects, a model of financial discipline in a time when many schools are sliding into the red.

But while its financial record is strong, it’s not flawless. Between 2015 and 2024, the Trust reported three deficits:

• £375,000 in 2017

• £328,000 in 2018

• £56,000 in 2023

These were surrounded by years of healthy surpluses — enough to recover quickly. Yet they underscore that even a cautious academy can run short when costs rise or income falters.

As of August 2024, the Academy’s financial statements confirm:

“The Academy’s current level of free reserves (unrestricted funds) is £1,553,084 (2023: £1,372,316) and the Trustees’ strategy to maintain free reserves of at least £500,000 has been achieved as a result of the donation from the predecessor school. It is anticipated that most of the unrestricted funds held that are in excess of the £500,000 reserve amount will be invested in a new Sports Hall over the next few years.”​

This makes the Trust’s position clear: it plans to hold on to the majority of its surplus until it can fund a long-planned capital project — at some point in the future.

But is it good practice to delay spending educational funds for multiple years when student needs — in safeguarding, curriculum delivery, mental health support and attendance — are urgent now?

Over the last decade, income has exceeded spending in most years, including a significant £622,000 surplus in 2021. These annual margins built a financial cushion many schools would envy. The Trust’s decision to use that cushion for a sports hall may seem prudent — but not when other needs remain visibly unmet.

According to the most recent Ofsted Report, the school provides sensitive support to pupils struggling with social, emotional, and mental health needs, particularly through initiatives like bushcraft and mentoring. It praises the school’s tenacity in encouraging better attendance, especially among disadvantaged students. Yet persistent absenteeism stood at 24.4% in 2023–24, and nothing in the accounts suggests this trend has significantly improved.

Surely, some of the £1.05 million in reserves above the minimum threshold could be used to actively bring pupils back into school — funding pastoral staff, specialist outreach, or flexible provision.

Meanwhile, the Trust’s use of its General Annual Grant (GAG) raises further questions. GAG is the core operational funding for academies — intended for classroom teaching, staff salaries, learning resources, wellbeing provision, and student support. It is not designed for capital projects.

Yet in both 2020 and 2021, the Trust diverted £826,000 of GAG each year into capital works. While technically permissible under ESFA rules, this scale of diversion is rare — especially given the Trust already held enough unrestricted reserves to cover capital needs. In effect, the Trust chose to bank unrestricted money and instead redirect core teaching funds into long-term infrastructure, at a time when student needs — particularly post-pandemic — were acute.

According to recent research, one in six school-aged children now has a probable mental health disorder. Many schools have responded by hiring counsellors or creating wellbeing spaces. In the years these accounts cover former students have highlighted, ongoing issues, such as “a teacher got caught watching porn, pretty shit abt support, doesnt care abt mh“, “the MH support let’s it down completely“; and “the way the SDLs handle personal issues of the students such as abuse, mental health and financial support could be handled a lot better,” With £1.05 million in free reserves above its target, Folkestone School for Girls could act address these concerns — but according to the accounts, choose’s to stay the course, banking cash for future bricks-and-mortar upgrades.

The leadership maintains that students have not lost out — results have remained strong, and the financial strategy has kept the school secure. Yet the declining pupil roll — from 1,220 in 2022 to 1,164 in 2024 — and significant trustee turnover in the same period, hint at deeper questions about direction and vision.

No one disputes the value of financial prudence. But when prudence becomes the only strategy, ambition for students may be sacrificed. Building a sports hall is a commendable goal. But ensuring vulnerable pupils are in school, learning, and thriving must come first.

The Trust’s reserves policy of £500,000 as a safeguard is commendable, but it currently holds three times that. In the face of persistent absenteeism, poor support in mental health needs, according to former students, and academic gaps — especially in curriculum areas like maths, where Ofsted has called for improvement — what better time is there to spend than now?

With a new board in place and planning work for the sports hall finally progressing, 2024–25 is a pivotal moment. The school’s finances are sound. Its students deserve the same level of care, investment, and urgency.

Money in the bank doesn’t change lives. But spent wisely, it could bring them back into school — and change their future.

The Shepway Vox Team

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”  – George Orwell