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
The economic reality of multi-generation deprivation directly correlates with a lack of ‘social capital’ and restricted access to the enrichment activities and opportunities vital for life-long success. This effectively excludes disadvantaged youth from the cultural and professional life of their own city. Responding to the 2025 National Curriculum and Assessment Review, which emphasises the need for schools to have the ‘time and space’ for locally tailored enrichment, we are working with other key civic society actors, our schools, and local community groups to eliminate these hurdles.
By providing a universal, funded entitlement to the wealth of experiences Oxford has to offer, alongside other programmes including: creating opportunities for local youth to benefit from Oxford’s economic growth; and facilitating stronger connections between families and schools, we aim to bridge the ‘experience gap’ that has historically constrained the life chances of our most vulnerable pupils. Our hope is that, in time, Oxford becomes a place where every young person, regardless of background, possesses the social capital and confidence to flourish in a city where they truly belong.
For more information on this innovative and holistic programme, please go to the Cradle-to-Career [link to separate website] website.
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; by launching its 'Reading for Pleasure’ initiative. 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.
