Understanding school finance
🏷️ Free of charge for TIOB members, BSA members – From £90
🎧 SLT, Heads of Boarding, Boarding and teaching staff
📍 Online
🎥 Watch live or on catch up
Course Outline:
Whether thinking about promotion or wanting to understand how schools work, understanding school finance is critical, particularly in the current context. This webinar will cover essential elements of school finance.
Training topics will include:
- Principles of management account
- Cashflow and balance sheets
- Budget setting
- Financial pressures (fee debt, rising costs, VAT)
- Benchmarking
- Terminology.
Learning outcomes:
- Develop a clear understanding of school finance
- Gain of whole school financial strategy
- Knowledge of current challenges and pressures.
Speaker:
Andrew Ashton, Bursar of Radley College
Andrew Ashton was Bursar of Radley College from September 2008 to August 2025 when he took on the role of Chief Executive (Prep Schools) for the newly formed Radley Schools Group. He has extensive experience of business, finance and operational management.
After Newcastle Royal Grammar School, Andrew studied chemistry at Oxford and moved into the banking sector, rising to become Director of Strategy, Performance and Client Services at Barclays Africa. He then spent three and a half years as a management consultant before taking up the role of Bursar at Radley College.
Andrew plays a significant role in the local community and is a governor of Shiplake College. Previous appointments have included: Chair of the Organisation, Remuneration and Nominations Committee of the Boarding Schools’ Association, governor and Chair of the Resources Committee at Radley Primary School and a former Chair of the Radley Lakes Trust. Despite growing up in Newcastle, Andrew considers Radley and the surrounding area as his spiritual home. He is married to Jillian, and they have one son, Philip, now studying geography at Durham University. In his occasional spare time, Andrew can be found playing real tennis or exploring the beautiful Oxfordshire countryside, either in running trainers or walking boots.
