Funding

[kevin_lane]

As im sure all NM are aware ICT Support / Services funding is a massive problem for schools as we only get a cut of the pie and a small piece at that,

now im trying to do some investigation around how i can boost my budget with other sources of income, now unfortunately I know most of you are going to say outsource our ICT Services etc. or something along the lines, however that’s all well and good but my only problem is that smt most likely don’t like that idea.

 

However we have slooowly started tapping into photo printing and the odd repair. Not much I know we had a person at my school that has now left she was in the process of applying for a grant to help replenish our outdated laptops etc. in the school, and this person and a wealth of experience in this type of thing and she knew what she was looking for, however i dont and was hoping someone could give me guidance to locate and find an organisation that is willing to part with their money to help me improve our schools problem i.e. we have close to 500 laptops plus networking gear. As there is no way I think the laptops / PCs could go for another 3 year bearing in mind that

 

when the last lot of laptops where brought (pre me) they brought a lot and I have been trying to keep them going for a few extra years than what is worth, and replace them as an when I have had money but as you are aware there is “always something” and the budget goes down the pan further.

 

Thanks for reading

[steveking]

Do you mean you're printing photos for people as a service, and making money off it?

 

I do my school's school photos, and I just send them all away for printing instead of even considering self-printing. I use dscolourlabs as it's cheap, fast (next day - I ordered some today and I expect to get them tomorrow), reliable and on the few times I have a problem it's one phone call and I'm speaking to the person who printed my stuff and it always gets resolved. I probably spend at least £500/year with them, and am a happy client. The only time I use another company is peak imaging for really nice wedding albums (nothing to do with work that)

 

We also have photo mounts made with our school's name printed on them, which we buy from photovalue in Ireland. I think a photo pack (individual photo in mount, form photo in mount, and a plastic/paper bag to hold them) costs us about 50p to produce (+ my time) and we sell them to parents for £10. It makes a few grand a year for school (we do years 7,9 and 11). About 10 years ago we bought a set of studio lights and backdrop but we paid that off with the first set of photos we did. The best bit is selling them to parents and getting all the complements about the quality of the photos.

 

It probably helps that I'm a bit of a photographer on the side, and that I do it jointly with another photographer colleague. I can take them on my own (and often do), but it's so much easier with two of us - one to take the photo and one to check the photos and brief the kids on how to sit (and sort out ties, blazers, etc.). We've got it down to a pretty good routine now, we can take a whole form's individual photos (30 kids) in 20 mins during a form period. It then takes about an hour to edit each form's photos and maybe 15 mins to frame and bag them.

[kevin_lane]

Hi yes our department makes money off this by providing this service and the money goes back into my budget not alot but a trickle

 

But I'm looking for either some sort of a sponsorship or some sort of Web portfolio of a company who provides lumps to non profit school I.E us