Charity Accounts Intelreading the accounts so you don’t have to

Forest School, London

Registered charity 312677 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as FOREST SCHOOL, FOREST SCHOOL, ESSEX

The Charity provides education to boys and girls from the age of 4 to 18 years.

Causes: Education/training · Amateur Sport · website · Get email alerts

Latest income
£39.0m
Latest spending
£37.1m
Registered
1964
Accounts read
FY2025

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the Group made a surplus of £1,884,705 for the year ended 31 August 2025, resulting in total unrestricted reserves of £18,580,433. The Governors consider there are no material uncertainties over the School’s financial viability and confirm the accounts are prepared on a going concern basis. The School maintains a bank loan facility and has met its financial covenants with an EBITDA to Debt Service ratio of 6.27 to 1.

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

What the accounts disclose

Highest-paid employee band: £300,001 - £310,000 — above the 90th percentile for charities its size (median £130k)
“In the band £300,001 - £310,000 1” — page 29
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Reserves policy: maintain an EBITDA to Debt Service ratio of at least 1.50 to 1 (held: £18.6m)
“A key feature of the policy is to ensure compliance with the bank’s covenants applicable to the outstanding loan. One of the financial covenants requires that the School maintains an EBITDA to Debt Service ratio of at least 1.50 to 1.” — page 13
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Trading subsidiary: Sylvestrian Enterprises Limited
“Sylvestrian Enterprises Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Forest School, London, and is independently funded.” — page 6
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Accounts audited by HaysMac LLP. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

In the news

Recent coverage mentioning this charity by name (automated match; headlines belong to their publishers).

Corporate structure

SYLVESTRIAN ENTERPRISES LIMITED — per its own Companies House accounts
  • Turnover: £1.4m
  • Profit before tax: £266k
  • Donated/gift-aided to the charity: £266k
  • 486,430
“Gift aid payment to parent charity”

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.

Official officers record.

Property (HM Land Registry)

7 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (7 freehold). All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): instagram (5,449 followers)

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/08/2025)

Total income
£39.0m
Total spending
£37.1m
Cost of raising funds
£1.4m
Reserves (reported)
£18.6m
Employees
267

Reported reserves equal ~6.0 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 4.6 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (94% 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: 3.6% of total income — below the median for charities its size (3.8%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

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

Operates in: Waltham Forest

Income and spending

Financial year endIncomeSpending
31/08/2025£39.0m£37.1m
31/08/2024£34.4m£34.0m
31/08/2023£31.5m£31.0m
31/08/2022£28.4m£27.8m
31/08/2021£25.9m£25.4m

Common questions

Is Forest School, London financially healthy?

Per its FY2025 accounts: The accounts state that the Group made a surplus of £1,884,705 for the year ended 31 August 2025, resulting in total unrestricted reserves of £18,580,433. The Governors consider there are no material uncertainties over the School’s financial viability and confirm the accounts are prepared on a going concern basis. The School maintains a bank loan facility and has met its financial covenants with an EBITDA to Debt Service ratio of 6.27 to 1. Its FY2025 accounts were audited by HaysMac LLP.

What does the highest-paid employee of Forest School, London earn?

Per its FY2025 accounts, the highest-paid employee was in the £300,001 - £310,000 band.

Who funds Forest School, London?

Funders whose own accounts filings name Forest School, London as a grant recipient include THE CROSS TRUST, THE ALAN BRENTNALL CHARITABLE TRUST, Wokingham United Charities, RICHARD REEVE'S FOUNDATION, THE SYLVIA AND COLIN SHEPHERD CHARITABLE TRUST.

Known funders

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

FunderYearAmountPurpose (as stated by the funder)
THE CROSS TRUSTFY2024£50k
THE CROSS TRUSTFY2025£29k
THE CROSS TRUSTFY2023£21k
THE CROSS TRUSTFY2022£10k
THE ALAN BRENTNALL CHARITABLE TRUSTFY2023£10k
Wokingham United CharitiesFY2024£6k
RICHARD REEVE'S FOUNDATIONFY2024£4kOther
THE SYLVIA AND COLIN SHEPHERD CHARITABLE TRUSTFY2024£1k
THE HARROGATE ROUND TABLE CHARITABLE TRUST FUNDFY2025£300
THE HARROGATE ROUND TABLE CHARITABLE TRUST FUNDFY2023£0
Wokingham United CharitiesFY2025£0Relief in Need
THE HARROGATE ROUND TABLE CHARITABLE TRUST FUNDFY2024£0

Government & lottery funding

Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).

FunderDateAmountPurpose
Sport England08/03/2012£9kForest Community Trampolining Programme

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.

FunderSimilar charities fundedAmount to them
SHREWSBURY SCHOOL FOUNDATION1£2.2m
THE DORIS GREGORY TRUST1£386k
THE PALOMA FOUNDATION1£300k
GOD MY SILENT PARTNER FOUNDATION1£79k
THE A M CHARITABLE TRUST1£20k

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with THE NORTH LONDON COLLEGIATE SCHOOL.

Side by side with its peers

CharityIncomeTop pay bandStaff >£60kReserves vs policyFundraising costGoing concern
Forest School, London£39.0m£300,001 - £310,000—above—no doubt
THE NORTH LONDON COLLEGIATE SCHOOL FY2025£36.6m——above—no doubt
UK CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS LTD FY2024£1.0m—0unclear—no doubt
THE CHILDREN'S HOUSE SCHOOL FY2025£2.4m£80,000 - £89,9992above—no doubt
THE UNICORN SCHOOL LTD FY2025£2.9m——unclear37.2%no doubt
GLEBE HOUSE SCHOOL TRUST LTD FY2025£2.5m——below—material uncertainty

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