DIRECTOR’S FINANCIAL REVIEW FOR 2025

Dear Parents,

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude for your continued support of our school. Since our inception in 2012 as a Christian Private School, our vision and mission have remained steadfast, and it is through your trust and partnership that we continue to strive for excellence in all aspects of school life. 

As a private school, we rely on the funding provided by parents through school fees to cover all our running costs—teacher and staff salaries, maintenance of buildings and grounds, office equipment, utilities, such as electricity and water and the upkeep of our facilities, including the swimming pool and sports fields. Your financial contribution enables us to provide high-quality education and proper facilities for your child.

The school incurs increasing costs each year due to natural growth and rising living expenses. This necessitates an annual fee adjustment to ensure we can continue providing excellent education and facilities. The increase allows us to attract and retain quality teachers, maintain our infrastructure, and invest in resources that promote student success. We remain mindful of the impact this has on family budgets and always strive to keep increases as low as possible while ensuring the sustainability of the school. However, due to the current economic climate in South Africa and the rise in costs, the current increase is necessary to maintain the same standards that we have always upheld. When considering ourfees, we encourage you to compare our facilities, curriculum, and services with other private schools of similar standing. This will provide a more accurate understanding of the value you receive for your investment at Buckridge.

Each year, our budget is carefully planned, with the largest portion allocated to maintaining and improving infrastructure, facilities, and resources. Recent upgrades include new roofs for some buildings, additional classrooms with furniture, more toilets, and a new classroom block with bathrooms for Grade 10–11 learners (2026). The safety and wellbeing of our students remain our top priority. We’ve enhanced pathways, play areas, and security systems and cameras, installed more wall fans for the summer months, sunk a borehole for clean water, and upgraded our Wi-Fi to support digital learning and robotics. We have invested in more equipment necessary for the skills development of learners through our clubs; such as sewing machines, Marimba’s and music instruments, woodwork machinery, chess boards, baking and cooking utensils and sporting equipment. Looking ahead, completing the all-purpose hall, improving sports fields, and developing hostel facilities remain key goals as we prepare for the FET phase.

I'm thrilled to acknowledge the incredible enthusiasm and support from parents, teachers and learners during our fundraising drive this year. The sale of raffle tickets and the success of our Arts Festival were truly outstanding, and we couldn't have achieved this without your involvement. I’m particularly grateful to those parents who not only participated but also encouraged us to push forward with our efforts. Your positivity and support mean the world to us, and we're excited to build on this momentum next year.

With your continued backing, we're confident that we can reach even more of our goals and further enrich our students’ learning experience at Buckridge.

Finally, I kindly request that you continue to uphold our school, students, staff and community in prayer. As we seek to serve the Lord in all we do, pray that we may raise up learners who will be beacons of light and love in our society, shining brightly for our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amanda de Lange

DIRECTOR- BUCKRIDGE PRIVATE SCHOOL