About the school

St Mary CE Primary School is a diverse and inclusive two form entry primary school with a nursery, situated in Finchley Central, North London.  School values and ethos include to deliver educational excellence and foster a life-long love of learning, help build strong personal and community relationships through Christian values, help children flourish and fulfil their God given potential and to provide a welcoming, safe and inclusive Christian environment. 

Alongside their many classrooms and outdoor space, the school has a main hall and small hall that are available to hire for parties, community meet-ups and a variety of weekly activities.

The challenge

In the past, St Mary’s had a few regular bookers and the odd kids’ party. After the Covid pandemic external lettings stopped.  

After hearing positive feedback from other local schools and an introductory meeting with Sharesy director Felix Atkin, the school decided to see how Sharesy could help alleviate their key pain points:

‍Not enough time: Staff didn’t have time to manage all the admin required - keeping an accurate schedule and processing all the back and forth with bookers.

‍Chasing payments: With all the invoicing and an outdated deposit process, chasing payments could be an onerous task for the admin team. 

‍Finding new bookings: With very little budget and in-house marketing expertise available to the school, the team at St Mary’s team ,  were not able to effectively promote their spaces and maximise their lettings.

The school was making less than £400 per month from lettings before Covid and afterwards, they didn’t make any at all.

The solution

After speaking to Sharesy in November 2022, the School was impressed by how professional and easy everything was and decided to sign up.  They were particularly excited about the letting’s expertise they would receive.

“Sharesy’s mission to enable people to book local venues and put money back into their neighbourhood is important. We’re a local school, serving our community and we’re pleased to be able to serve the community too” 

With Sharesy’s help, St Mary’s CofE Primary School has been able to overcome its lettings challenges and is now highly profitable.

Time saved: St Mary’s listing on sharesy.com has helped to answer questions from potential bookers and the support team is always on hand to discuss any specific queries they may have. The ability for customers to instantly book online this is notified to the school instantly means the school support staff only have to arrange the opening and closing of the school, making the process much easier. , 

No more chasing payments: Before Sharesy, the school office team would have to send invoices, chase bookers for payment and sometimes failed to recoup payment at all. Now one-off bookers pay online on Sharesy’s website and regular bookers are invoiced automatically. The school receives one single payout at the end of the month, along with an itemised breakdown of their bookings, making it easy to track and reconcile their lettings revenue.

New regular and one-off bookers: Sharesy’s sales team, marketing expertise and user-friendly website have helped the school find new bookers. With frequent one-off bookings and some exciting new regulars, such as Stage Academy drama group and a twice weekly rhythmic gymnastics class, St Mary’s CofE Primary School lettings are thriving and helping them serve the local community.

Wonderful team: The school office team have found the team “easy to deal with and always quick to respond”. The flexible, professional service received from the team has reduced admin and “helped bring us long term, recurring lettings.”

Using lettings revenue to improve the school

Since going live on the Sharesy platform, the school has generated over £10,000 in lettings revenue in just a few months. The frequent one-off bookings and new regular bookings means the school  can now include future lettings in the school’s revenue forecast. 

A conservative forecast of £20,000 per year from lettings has enabled the school to look at funding projects that hadn’t been possible previously. Despite heavily restricted budgets during the cost of living crisis, this new income means they are able to complete some much needed building work and purchase new resources for their classrooms.

The office team  offered some advice to others who might be considering working with Sharesy: 

“Sharesy has greatly benefited the school and our community. At first it seemed daunting - setting prices taking pictures and getting the listing all ready - but once you’ve done that, it is wonderful and 100% worth it.”