Effective school estate management

Seminar brief: Over the last few years good estate management in schools has been pushed up the DfE agenda and the parameters change on a regular basis. Jonny will be asking how highly estate management features on the budget and operational priorities in your setting, how you strategically plan for the unforeseen circumstances that inevitably arise in all schools and whether you maximise the school calendar or time available for projects. Jonny will cover the different techniques and approaches he has found successful by sharing experiences from working in MATs and Maintained Schools.

In this seminar Jonny Coates will explore: 

• Developing a strategic approach to estate management and a clear vision.
• Creating a financial plan to enable decision making processes and protect assets.
• How systems and process can help you achieve greatness.

Take home points:

• Understanding your estate by reviewing its condition and prioritising the works needed.
• Understanding how making a big deal out of the small things is fundamental to an effective school estates strategy.
• Building a culture of excellence in estate management 

This session is for: School leaders (CEO, COO, CFO, SBM, trustee, governor)

Speaker name/title: Jonny Coates, chief operating officer, Eden Learning Trust

About the speaker:  Jonny is chief operating officer of the Eden Learning Trust MAT in Durham and comes from a financial services background but has been working in the education sector since 2010.

Jonny stumbled upon the SBM role whilst helping someone else to apply to be a school business manager but got bitten by the bug and has never looked back. To date, he has completed CSBM, IOSH Managing Safely, L7 CIPFA Financial and Operational Leadership and Management qualification.

Since 2010 and before working within a MAT, he has worked in two maintained primaries and two maintained secondaries. Jonny was appointed as a Trustee of ISBL in 2021 and is vice chair of Durham SBM Group and an elected member of Durham Schools Forum and serves as a co-opted governor at two maintained primary schools in Gateshead.