About Fundraising and Community Engagement
The River Learning Trust is a Government-funded school academy trust, overseeing 30+ primary and secondary schools, and one alternative provision school in the city of Oxford, across the county of Oxfordshire, and in Swindon.
A recent Oxfordshire Education Commission report revealed that despite the generally good academic outcomes for pupils in Oxfordshire, there are certain demographic groups who achieve poorer outcomes. Disadvantaged pupils, in particular, perform less well than their peers across the rest of England at all key stages, ranking in the bottom quartile nationally. In addition, the disadvantage gap has widened more in Oxfordshire compared to changes in the gap nationally. The city of Oxford is viewed as affluent, yet ten wards are in the 20% most deprived in England. It is the UK’s second most unequal city, with affluence and deprivation side-by-side. Nearly a third of its children are living in poverty, and KS2 attainment gaps are substantial. Although Swindon as an entire borough is more affluent than average, when compared to the rest of England, parts of the city itself are some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the country, and over a quarter of Swindon’s children (26%) are living in poverty.
Many of our schools are located in these areas of great deprivation. Five of our primary schools in Oxford have much higher than average pupil premium figures (which is a measure of deprivation/those who have been eligible for free school meals any time in the last six years) ranging from 46% to 56%, and our primary school in Swindon has a pupil premium of 76%. Three of our secondary schools (two in Oxford, one in Swindon) have pupil premium numbers over 25%. Many of these schools also serve areas such as Greater & Blackbird Leys, Rose Hill, and Barton in Oxford, and Penhill in Swindon: all with an IMD decile (Indices of Deprivation measure multiple dimensions of neighbourhood deprivation at a small area level across England) scoring of 1 or 2 i.e. the most deprived districts in England.
As a key actor in these communities, we feel we have a responsibility to help redress the inequalities across both city and county. We strive to work with our communities, and partner with other organisations, so that every single child can benefit from the best education possible, regardless of their background. We also want to ensure that this work is supported by additional funding and resources where it is needed most, enabling these important initiatives to grow and flourish, having genuine, long-term, positive impact on the communities we serve.
Fundraising:
As demands on schools increase, and budgets and grants need to stretch even further, we have taken the recent decision to establish a more structured fundraising operation across the entire Trust. Whilst all our schools independently raise money for their own needs and priorities, we have created a fundraising resource and support network across the entire Trust, offering tools and best practice advice, and the opportunity for more collaborative working. Alongside this, we are starting to actively raise money and target sponsors for central strategic needs, for which any of our schools can bid.
We are currently focussing on three main priorities:
Cradle-to-Career (Oxford)
Cradle-to-Career Programme - Oxford: tackling multi-generational deprivation
1. Context: The 'Oxford Paradox'; and Our Geographical Focus
Oxford is a global centre for academic excellence and innovation, yet it remains the second most unequal city in England. Whilem Oxfordshire as a whole is the 10th least deprived county in England, there is wide variation, with 10 wards ranked in the 20% most deprived nationally. This deep inequality creates a stark 'Oxford paradox'; that heavily impacts life chances from an early age. For example, only 41.8% of children eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) in Oxfordshire achieve a Good Level of Development (GLD) at the end of Reception, compared to 73.2% of their non-FSM peers and below a national FSM average of 51.5%. 26% of Oxford children live below the poverty line once housing cost are included. Absence from school among FSM pupils in Oxfordshire is considerably higher than the England average and almost tripe the rate of their non-FSM peers. By age 16, the disadvantaged gap is reaching almost 2 years.
And those inequalities go on up to every stage of their lives with life expectancy in more disadvantaged wards five years lower than the county average. These inequalities have deepened since the pandemic, poverty has increased, mental health has deteriorated as well as young people engagement, all in a climate of austerity where a lot of support services have been cut or when they exist, they suffer from a lack of coordination, awareness, and sustainability.
The Oxford C2C Partnership has been formed by a group of schools to work as anchor institutions with other local partners to reduce those inequalities by providing upstream support and coordination in more disadvantaged communities. Research shows that locally coordinated, area-based partnerships are essential to foster equity and social justice, as local practitioners are best placed to use their intelligence to identify and dismantle the specific barriers residents face. Ultimately, we need to address the social determinants of health and education - such as poverty and mental health - because these issues heavily impact a child's readiness to learn, their attendance, and their overall achievement long before they reach the classroom. The aim is that this would ultimately help reduce the disadvantage gap, improve attendance, student’s engagement & mental health and improve their sense of belonging.
The Oxford C2C partnership is initially focusing on a pilot targeting three of the most deprived wards in the
county: Blackbird Leys, Rose Hill, and Littlemore (OX4).
2. The Reach Foundation Framework and the Power of Local Partnerships
The core of our operational approach is guided by the Reach Foundation's 'Cradle to Career' framework. The principle of this well-tested framework is to provide support upstream as early as possible in a young person's life, continuing all the way through to adulthood and employment. The central philosophy of this framework is that schools alone cannot solve every challenge a child faces.
Addressing these complex, interconnected issues require a coordinated effort from the entire community - including schools, nonprofits, local government, businesses, and healthcare providers - to ensure young people have the necessary support at every stage.
3. The Vital Role of Schools: Convenors and Anchor Institutions
Our approach relies heavily on schools acting as the foundational pillars of community support. Schools must collaborate with community partners to address issues 'beyond the school gate&'. Great schools are necessary but not sufficient for children to enjoy lives of opportunity but they are uniquely placed to act as anchor institutions because they are universally trusted, are large employers, and possess significant convening power. Crucially, schools have long-term relationships with children and families spanning nearly two decades, allowing them to weave a continuous web of support at the neighbourhood level. Schools play a vital role in community life, supporting families and acting as gathering points when communities face challenges. The pandemic illustrated this perfectly, as schools became the steady foundation that communities relied upon to deliver meals, monitor wellbeing, and quietly safeguard neighbourhoods.
4. Key principles
One core principle is to build from the bottom up, listening to families to ensure our initiatives are not just 'done to' the community, but co-designed “with them” and use an Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) approach, focusses on existing community strengths rather than deficits. Success in this context is not defined as 'escaping' the place for a lucky few but rather fostering a sense of belonging and enabling residents to be proud and flourish in their own community.
Other principles we are keen to embed in our work are:
- Strategic coherence not only between various partners but also in the development journey of the child to ensure these activities are part of a scaffolded journey building on the curriculum.
- Offer support & activities as a minimum entitlement while leaving to the participating schools the ability to adapt to their own context & maturity and to pupil voice & choice.Try to build aspirations earlier on for local future pathways in areas where Oxford needs workforce
- Ensure that the support & initiatives are not just a one-off tick box exercise but part of a long-term strategy.
We are currently building a dedicated website for this exciting and far-reaching initiative, which will feature much more information on this innovative and holistic programme. It should be going live soon, so please check back regularly!
To support the important work and activities generated by this wide-reaching partnership initiative, you can donate a one-off, or regular gift by CLICKING HERE.
Reading for Pleasure (our primary schools)
Reading for Pleasure
Supporting this strand will allow our schools to go above and beyond the standard curriculum, and invest in library and reading spaces, volunteer readers, partnerships with local charities/bookshops, literacy competitions etc. RLT centrally is launching its Reading for Pleasure initiative, during the National Year of Reading 2026 to place increased focus on ensuring that as many of its pupils as possible, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, are able to leave Year 6 as confident and fluent readers. We hope we will be able to run a series of six programmes over the next year and beyond, from holding annual Children’s Book Awards across our primary schools, to providing an opportunity for our most deprived pupils to build a home library free of charge.
International research shows that reading for pleasure can have many positive benefits in overcoming inequality, resulting in those pupils in the most deprived areas having better social and educational mobility. With this proposed initiative, we hope to increase the ‘love of reading’ in our community to above the UK average; upturn the number of pupils achieving higher levels of reading attainment at KS2 by at least 5%; and offer positive adult role models, which in a recent report by the charity ‘Young Minds’ gives children better mental health and wellbeing, helps mitigate trauma, and boosts positive educational outcomes.
For more information on our Reading for Pleasure initiative CLICK HERE.
To support our Reading for Pleasure programme, reaching 4,157 primary school children across Oxfordshire and Swindon, you can donate a one-off, or regular gift by CLICKING HERE.
General Fund (to support all our schools)
General project funding
We are also keen to build a general fund, which can go towards supporting any small initiative, or project in any of our schools who need additional funding to reach their intended goal. This could be topping up the fundraising efforts of a PTA to enable them to fulfil their objective, buying key equipment, such as Chromebooks for disadvantaged pupils, or providing a small amount of emergency funding for extra equipment, school trips etc.
To make a one-off, or regular donation to support our schools with small funding needs, from creating a vegetable plot, to ensuring everyone in the class can afford to go on a school trip, CLICK HERE.
For general enquiries about supporting, sponsoring, or partnering with the River Learning Trust, please contact: fundraising@riverlearningtrust.org.
