SIP funding sources table
Your school will monitor and report on the implementation of activities and resources relating to government funding initiatives, by identifying funding sources in the SIP funding source table in SPaRO.
2022 planning and reporting
The SIP funding sources table in SPaRO, in the School Improvement Plan (SIP) section, provides a simple view of your school budget allocations to be used to fund SIP activities, and:
- the budget balance is automatically updated when a fund source is selected to resource an activity, either in Implementation and progress monitoring or when evaluating 'Other funded activities' not linked to strategic directions
- your school can easily track budget allocations and planned expenditure on initiatives that are evaluated in your annual report in this table
- the data in the financial information tables, which are automatically populated in your annual report, originate from school finance data (rather than through the funding source table in the SIP)
- schools are expected to expend funds in the calendar year in which they are received to support student needs
- SBAR essential updates explains how funds should be used and the SBAR resource hub includes funding use samples.
2023 planning and reporting
The SIP funding sources table in SPaRO, in the School Improvement Plan (SIP) section, provides a simple view of your school budget allocations to be used to fund SIP activities, and:
- displays the funding 'Allocation' recieved through the SBAR plus any 'Adjustments' received by the school. These are combined to calculate the 'Total' funds available for planning and reporting
- provides a summary of strategic directions and other funded activities to which funds have been allocated.
Schools are expected to expend funds in the calendar year in which they are received to support student needs. SBAR essential updates explains how funds should be used and the SBAR resource hub includes funding use samples.
Needs-based funding is the recurrent resourcing targeted to students and schools based on characteristics of demonstrated educational disadvantage, and is provided to lift student learning outcomes.
Needs-based allocations provided through the SBAR are identified in the Guide for Resourcing your Strategic Improvement Plan, in the SBAR-SIP reference table.
- Action: check that the totals for needs-based funding items match the SBAR allocations.
The annual budget allocations for needs-based and other funding sources will populate the funding source table in SPaRO after your SBAR is published (in Term 4, for the following year) and adjusted (for the current calendar year).
Needs-based funding provided must be carefully considered at rollover to ensure this critical funding continues to deliver support for students experiencing demonstrated disadvantage to improve their learning and wellbeing outcomes.
- Action: add any additional funding sources to monitor, evaluate and report on.
Other additional funding sources may optionally be added to the funding source table. For example, an evidence‑based practice or school improvement project may be funded through a portion of the per capita operational funding, or 6300 School and community sources.
- Action: consider budget adjustments, and monitor budget allocation balances, throughout the year.
If your school receives allocation advice directly from a business area, for example, targeted funding for newly arrived students, or beginning teacher support, you should monitor the balance of your fund allocations to ensure that resources are being strategically used for improvement.
For more information, see the Guide for Resourcing your Strategic Improvement Plan.
Reflective questions on SBAR allocations and total funding
Firstly, consider reflective questions to identify SBAR allocations.
- Can we identify all needs-based funding allocations in our SBAR, including staffing and flexible. To which strategic directions will these be linked in your Strategic Improvement Plan (SIP)?
- Can we identify all flexible funding in our SBAR and consider which will be:
- only used for staffing?
- delivered as a budget adjustment during the year?
- allocated to achieve strategic directions?
- allocated to activities that are evaluated in our annual report?
- Which funding allocations will be used to improve outcomes for specific students or specific student cohorts?
Secondly, consider the total funds available for resourcing.
- What are our total funds available for resourcing? Have we considered our SBAR, opening balances and anticipated budget adjustments?
- Are we expecting variations to enrolment throughout the year which may result in budget adjustments? Have we considered students targeted for funding support who may enrol at any time during the year? Will changing demographics result in a variation to enrolment in the current or following year?
- What are the reasons for any opening balances?
- What budget allocations are we anticipating?
Learn more
- See Ongoing self-assessment, evaluation and annual reflection
- Find out more about School Excellence in Action.