Funding and Per-Pupil Expenditure
School funding directly impacts the resources available to students, from the ratio of teaching staff to the quality of facilities and extra-curricular offerings. The Department for Education publishes financial benchmarking data allowing parents to understand how resources are allocated at the school level.
Financial Year 2024-25
For the 2024-25 academic year, The Bishop of Winchester Academy recorded a total per-pupil expenditure of £6691. This headline figure encompasses all day-to-day running costs, including staff salaries, learning resources, premises maintenance, and administration, divided by the 1162 pupils on roll.
Comparing with the Local Authority
When considering funding, it is helpful to benchmark against the broader local picture. Across the BCP (Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole) local authority, the average per-pupil expenditure for all secondary schools is £7275.27. If we isolate just the non-selective secondary schools (which is the most accurate peer group for a comprehensive academy), the BCP average is £7381.56.
This places The Bishop of Winchester Academy below the BCP non-selective average for per-pupil funding. It is important to note what this does and does not mean. Funding variations are heavily driven by the proportion of pupils eligible for Pupil Premium (linked to Free School Meals, which sits at 23.7% here), special educational needs allocations, and historical funding formulas.
Teaching Staff Investment
Of the total expenditure, £4694 per pupil was specifically allocated to teaching staff. This gives parents an indication of how much of the budget is directed towards frontline classroom instruction rather than back-office functions or premises upkeep. As part of THE BISHOP OF WINCHESTER ACADEMY TRUST, the academy may also benefit from shared central trust services that create economies of scale not immediately visible in the raw per-school data.
Explore the raw data on the DfE Schools Financial Benchmarking tool.