The Unicorn Trust
Registered charity 1070807 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as THE UNICORN SCHOOL, THE UNICORN SCHOOL FOR THE DYSLEXIC CHILD, The Phoenix College, The Phoenix School
A school that provides full time education for children with specific learning difficulties,small classes and individual daily tuition to enable pupils to return to mainstream as soon as possible
Causes: Education/training · website · Get email alerts
Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts
The accounts state that the charity reported a surplus of £247,605 for the year ended 31st August 2025, driven by increased school fees and donations. However, the charity holds negative free reserves of £1,308,160 due to significant capital investment in a new site, which has caused it to fall below its stated reserves policy target of 20% of annual school fees.
Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.
What the accounts disclose
Largest income source: School fees (83% of income)
“School fees received amounted to £3,863,163 (2024: £3,334,500). Total receipts amounted to £4,638,221”
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Reserves policy: 20% of annual school fees (held: £-1.3m)
“The organisation aims to achieve reserves at a minimum level equivalent to 20% of annual school fees.” — page 8
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Accounts audited by Wenn Townsend. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.
Corporate structure
Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — The Unicorn School (matched by registered charity number).
Leadership, per the charity’s website
- Alison Woodworth-Sturla — Headteacher (source)
- Andrew Strivens — Chair of Governors (source)
Listed on the charity’s own website when we last crawled it; roles may have changed. Pay-band disclosures above are anonymous statutory disclosures and are not attributed to any named individual.
Company officers (Companies House)
Current officers of the charity’s own company per the Companies House register, cross-checked against the Charity Commission trustee list by name. A director not on the trustee list is usually a timing or naming difference between the two registers — check both records before drawing conclusions.
- BISSET, Gillian Mary — director, appointed 28/06/2025on trustee list
- BLACKMORE, Alastair — director, appointed 02/03/2024on trustee list
- DINSEY, Niki — director, appointed 06/02/2023on trustee list
- PIPER, Susan Ann — director, appointed 07/12/2022on trustee list
- LOVE, Fiona — director, appointed 04/01/2022on trustee list
- ARUL, Arj — director, appointed 07/09/2020on trustee list
- WARD, David Antony Turner — director, appointed 01/12/2018on trustee list
- FROSTICK, Marion Claire — director, appointed 01/12/2018on trustee list
- MACDONALD, Natalie-Jane Anne, Dr — director, appointed 01/07/2013not on trustee list
- JARRATT, Alison — secretary, appointed 16/04/2026
Official officers record.
Property (HM Land Registry)
2 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (1 freehold); recorded price paid £2.2m. All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.
Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook · instagram
Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/08/2025)
Reported reserves equal ~5.5 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).
Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (99% 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: 0.2% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.2%) (benchmarks).
- Andrew Strivenschair
- Alastair Blackmore
- Arj Arul
- David Ward
- Fiona Bridget Love
- Gillian Bisset
- Marion Frostick
- NATALIE MACDONALD
- Niki Dinsey
- Susan Ann Piper
Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).
Operates in: Oxfordshire
Income and spending
Common questions
Is The Unicorn Trust financially healthy?
Per its FY2025 accounts: The accounts state that the charity reported a surplus of £247,605 for the year ended 31st August 2025, driven by increased school fees and donations. However, the charity holds negative free reserves of £1,308,160 due to significant capital investment in a new site, which has caused it to fall below its stated reserves policy target of 20% of annual school fees. Its FY2025 accounts were audited by Wenn Townsend.
Who funds The Unicorn Trust?
Funders whose own accounts filings name The Unicorn Trust as a grant recipient include E B M CHARITABLE TRUST, EAST END COMMUNITY FOUNDATION, MR AND MRS J A PYE'S CHARITABLE SETTLEMENT, DORIS FIELD CHARITABLE TRUST, THE MICHAEL AND ANNA WIX CHARITABLE TRUST.
Known funders
Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.
Government & lottery funding
Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).
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 UNICORN SCHOOL LTD.
Side by side with its peers
Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.