THE POETRY SCHOOL

Registered charity 1069314 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

The Poetry School helps poets of all levels write their best poetry by creating and delivering a dynamic, responsive and high quality programme of education that takes place throughout England and online. The Poetry School aims to create an inclusive and supportive critical community of writers and readers and is dedicated to nurturing original new voices in contemporary poetry.

Objects

THE ADVANCEMENT OF EDUCATION OF THE PUBLIC IN THE ART OF POETRY BY PROMOTING AND FURTHERING ITS STUDY AND PRACTICE IN PARTICULAR BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY BY THE PROVISION OF WORKSHOPS, CLASSES AND TUTORIALS AND THE ESTABLISHMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF A POETRY SCHOOL.

Area of benefit: GREATER LONDON

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: Education/training · Arts/culture/heritage/science · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Westminster, London, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that unrestricted reserves fell to £27,361, which is below the trustees' stated policy target of three months' overhead costs. The charity reported a net expenditure of £82,749 for the year, resulting in a significant reduction in total funds from £110,360 to £27,611. The trustees consider adequate resources remain available to fund activities for the foreseeable future.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Kingston Burrowes Audit Ltd. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Social media policy and procedures
• Volunteer management

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Annual return filing dates (Charity Commission record)

Of its last 5 annual returns with a recorded received date, 2 were received after the due date: year ending 31/03/2023 (received 20/08/2024, 202 days after the 31/01/2024 due date); year ending 31/03/2022 (received 31/03/2023, 59 days after the 31/01/2023 due date).

Due and received dates as recorded in the Commission’s annual-return data; the data does not say whether an extension was agreed. Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Funders the charity credits

Named as funders/supporters on the charity’s own website (the charity’s claim, distinct from accounts-verified grants).

• Arts Council England — “The Poetry School is proud to be supported by Arts Council England.” (source page)
• The Paul Hamlyn Foundation — “The Paul Hamlyn Foundation funded Poetry School for a two-year project that sought to enlarge the franchise for poetry reading and writing, …” (source page)
• Kamini and Vindi Banga Family Trust — “We would like to thank the generosity and support of the Kamini and Vindi Banga Family Trust.” (source page)
• British Land — “We would like to thank British Land who enabled the School’s move to Canada Water.” (source page)
• The Dovehouse Trust — “We would also like to thank the following generous trusts and individuals who have supported our work: The Dovehouse Trust” (source page)

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook · instagram

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2024)

Reported reserves equal ~1.9 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 7.2 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (69% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 0.0% of total income — below the median for charities its size (3.2%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Christopher John Brown
• Hannah Etim-Gorst
• Helen Taylor
• Jonathan Paul Sharples

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Throughout England

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with THE POETRY ARCHIVE.

• THE POETRY ARCHIVE income £73k
• THE POETRY SOCIETY income £1.1m
• POETRY LONDON LTD income £130k
• THE WRITERS' SUMMER SCHOOL income £160k
• NATIONAL POETRY CENTRE income £393k
• POETSIN income £209k

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.