Is there any relationship between the reserves a school holds and the outcomes for its pupils? One thesis might be that schools that spend more of their revenue budgets, and don’t add to their reserves each year, do better for their pupils than those schools more concerned with ‘saving for a rainy day’ or adding to their reserves for some other reason. Of course, this thesis only really works with a funding model that funds schools appropriately. Nevertheless, it is question worth asking.

This post looks at the evidence around the relationship between the quoted reserves of the primary schools across three multi-academy trusts (MATs) of differing sizes. The schools are in a range of different locations, and have a range of pupil numbers, but are all located within the boundaries of a single local authority.

KS2 achievement Percentage %	No of KS2 Pupils	24/25 reserves per KS2 pupil
42	30	£        24,333
69	16	£        16,313
64	22	£        16,273
36	25	£        14,480
27	11	£        12,364
91	11	£        12,249
47	15	£        10,600
34	29	£        10,172
69	13	£        10,077
50	16	£          9,375
50	16	£          8,688
33	27	£          7,667
56	45	£          7,267
56	48	£          6,896
69	16	£          6,813
69	39	£          6,692
93	15	£          5,933
58	31	£          5,484
83	18	£          5,287
82	11	£          5,091
72	18	£          5,000
65	31	£          4,258
50	22	£          4,182
55	31	£          4,129
48	21	£          4,098
73	59	£          3,847
50	28	£          3,536
73	15	£          3,467
75	28	£          3,214
48	27	£          3,111
70	61	£          2,738
67	58	£          2,535
91	23	£          2,531
56	57	£          2,509
83	23	£          2,087
59	44	£          1,864
71	31	£          1,677
57	70	£          1,614
92	12	£          1,362
52	60	£              950
76	29	£              862
72	60	£              700
56	18	£              611
45	29	-£         1,655
86	14	-£         1,714
79	19	-£         2,474
58	31	-£         3,084
86	7	-£         3,295
89	38	-£         4,756
53	15	-£         8,667
48	25	-£       11,040

The range of reserves, as taken from the reserves in the accounts filed at Companies House by the MAT, vary per KS2 pupil from a high of £24,333 per pupil, to £611 for schools with those schools with reserves. Eight schools are shown as having deficits

Leaving aside, at this point for schools with deficits, it is worth comparing the other schools in the table with the average outcome for all pupils in the local authority of 62%.

The schools in the table, are of different sizes. In the schools in the table the range of KS2 pupils extends from schools with just 11 KS2 pupils, to one with 70 KS2 pupils. Where a school has a stable intake, the KS2 reserves per pupil is easy to spread across the schools, although some schools still start pupils, at age 5, many at age 4 and a few even younger and with a nursery class, and this may make a difference to reserves.

In this era of falling rolls, allied to parental choice, some school’s KS2 numbers would overestimate the school population if grossed up across all year groups. For that reason, I have just used the KS2 pupil number for this exercise.

Six of the top 10 schools with the highest reserves per pupil had achievements below the local authority level of 62%. This compares with four of the ten schools with the lowest reserves (not with a deficit).

It is interesting to note that one MAT has 12 schools in the top 15 schools with the largest reserves per KS2 pupil, and 15 in the top 20 schools. Of the other two MATS, one has three schools in the top 20 schools by reserves per KS2 pupil, and the other just two schools.

I suspect that both these MATs more actively work with their schools than the other MAT in terms of making use of their cashflow. All the schools in this latter MAT in the top 20 by reserves are also well above average for performance levels. The position is more mixed for the other smaller MAT, but I suspect its policy is evolving as it has acquired more schools.

How much does parental choice, and falling rolls play a part in determining reserves? Certainly, primary schools that have no spare places across all year groups will do better with a funding model that is weighted towards pupil numbers than schools unable to make full classes even by mixing year groups together. In another post, I will look at school size and reserves.

It would be interesting to conduct this exercise across all schools in a local authority. However, pooling of reserves by some MATs, and a lack of visibility for the reserves of maintained and voluntary schools makes that task effectively impossible.

No doubt the DfE could ask the question about why there is so much difference in reserves per pupil between schools, and could ask if some schools could achieve more for their pupils if they kept less in their reserves? School governors, MAT trustees and the teacher associations, as well as local politicians, might also like to ask this question.