Funding cooperative community school

The closure of the Ticknall village school by the Local Education Authority in a South Derbyshire, UK, led to the parents inviting a small group of teachers to keep it open and run it with them as a non-fee-paying, independent, parent cooperative school. It has has been running ever since. A third of the school's funding is provided by the income from a shop run voluntarily by the parents. Another third derives from fund-raising efforts ranging from sponsored parachute drops to curry evenings. The final third is a budgeted shortfall which is estimated each year and divided by the number of students. Only then are parents are asked if they can contribute this amount. They do so anonymously to a solicitor, and the average amount contributed has so far come to roughly the right figure. So Dame Catherine's School has continued, taking pupils of all ages (from four to sixteen), affording parents and teacher a great deal of experience in running tutor-based secondary education.