Our four funded sessions have been placed inside the school’s own 13-session STEAM club, which parents book and pay for through ParentMail. The school has asked us to take “FREE” off the flyer. Nothing here needs fixing today except the flyer; the arrangement needs a decision.
13
sessions in the club
The school’s own STEAM club, running across the autumn.
4
funded by us
1, 8, 15 and 22 October, inside the club.
9
parents pay for
13 − 4. Before the project starts, and after October half term.
16
children reached
The club roster. Against 100 children promised to the funder.
If you want the programme in pictures first, the explainer is one scroll, big diagrams and few words, and it now carries this problem too. This page is the decision.
This is the whole problem in one line. The four sessions the Royal Docks Trust pays for are free at the point of use, but they are only reachable by a family that has already booked and paid for the club around them. The filter we are funded to remove is sitting in front of the room.
What the school actually said
Bisi, Tuesday 1 September 2026 at 09:45, quoted in full because the whole decision rests on these four sentences (source/email-gallions-paid-club.md):
“Thank you would it be possible to take out the FREE element for this poster. Also can this amendment be made To book please log into ParentMail and to find out more contact: [the school office]
As the club is for 13 sessions in total and pupils need to pay for the sessions after the October half term and the few sessions before the project starts.
We can still open up the workshops to wider audience and these can be FREE.”
Read carefully, she is not charging for our four. The sessions she names as paid are the ones before the project starts and the ones after October half term. What she is describing is our four sitting in the middle of a club that a family joins as a whole. She is also, in the same breath, offering exactly the thing that fixes the reach: the two Saturdays can go wide and stay free.
Promised, and arranged
What each source says, against what a family now meets
On
What we said
What is arranged at Gallions
Cost to the family
“Free of charge”, in the council’s introduction, the offer deck and the application.
Free for our four. The club they sit in is paid, and joining the club is the way in.
Who it reaches
Children facing the participation gaps the application names: lower socio-economic backgrounds, SEND, girls in STEM.
The 16 families who booked and paid. We do not choose them and cannot see who did not book.
How many children
At least 100 children, 200 beneficiaries, all Royal Docks residents.
16 at the club. The two Saturdays are the only route to the rest.
How a family signs up
Ask at the school office.
Log into ParentMail, the school’s paid-club booking system.
The word on the flyer
“Free, for Years 4, 5 and 6”, as the kicker above the programme name.
The school asked for “FREE” to come off. Two revised versions went back the same day.
The funding case is what is exposed here, not the delivery. The four sessions will run and will be good. What we cannot currently say to the Royal Docks Trust is that we removed a barrier, because a family that cannot pay for nine sessions does not reach the four they paid for.
The four options
In the order we would recommend trying them. Only the first two are live for this run; the fourth is a decision about the next one.
1. Ask for the four to stand alone
recommended first ask
Our four Thursdays are opened to any Year 4 to 6 child, free, booked outside ParentMail. The school’s paid club carries on around them.
What it costs and what it needs
Costs us nothing. Same dates, same room, same staffing.
Costs the school something. Two lists to run for four weeks, and possibly income if a family joins the four and not the 13.
Needs Bisi to agree, and she has a term already sold on ParentMail.
Keeps the funding promise intact, which is why it is first.
2. Buy the places
needs money we do not have
We cover the club fee for an agreed number of children who would not otherwise book, chosen by the school.
What it costs and what it needs
The budget is £15,000 and fully allocated, with £834 for materials across all six sessions.
No line to take it from. Nothing in the reduced column was costed, so any move breaks something else.
The fee is not known, so the size of the ask is not known.
The school picks the children, which we may not want to hand over.
3. Accept it, and move the reach onto the Saturdays
the fallback
The four run inside the paid club as arranged. The two Saturdays at UEL go wide, free and open, and carry the participation promise on their own.
What it costs and what it needs
Nothing changes and nothing is late. The dates, the rooms and the flyer stand.
The Saturdays have to be marketed properly, beyond Gallions, and the marketing line is £1,343.
The Royal Docks Trust has to be told how the free programme actually reaches families.
The 16 stay a paying cohort. That is the price of this option.
4. Change or add a school, for the next run
not for this autumn
Britannia Village and Royal Wharf both asked to take part on 1 September, with internal approval already given.
What it costs and what it needs
Too late for October. Dates are booked with UEL, the flyer is out, and the co-design is 23 days away.
Live for the December extension, if the Hugo Burge Foundation lands. Decision due 30 October.
Ask them the club question first. Nothing tells us whether either school runs a paid club too.
They are waiting on a reply, and have been since 1 September.
Two flyers are in circulation
This one needs settling today whichever way the decision goes, because our name is on both.
The same programme, two sheets, 1 September 2026
Version
Sent
What it says about cost
Where it is
v2 and v3
12:04
“FREE” removed, ParentMail booking added, at the school’s request
Emailed to Bisi. Neither file is in inbox/, so we cannot read what went out.
The built sheet
evening
“Free, for Years 4, 5 and 6” as the kicker above the programme name
young-makers-flyer.pdf in this folder, rebuilt from scratch that afternoon.
The sheet in this repository contradicts the school’s explicit instruction. It was rebuilt over the afternoon of 1 September, after the 09:45 request to remove “FREE” and after the revised versions had gone back at 12:04. It is not a mistake in the copy, it is two pieces of work that did not meet. Which sheet reached parents is not recorded anywhere.
What is not affected
Worth being clear about, because most of the programme is untouched and the fix for the reach is already on offer.
The two Saturdays at UEL are free and can go wide. Bisi offered it herself: “We can still open up the workshops to wider audience and these can be FREE.”
Separate flyers for the Saturdays were already offered, by us, on the morning of 1 September, so families do not think they must be in the after-school club to come.
The dates, the rooms and the funding are settled. The award is confirmed at £15,000.
The four sessions themselves are unchanged. Whatever is decided, the same children get the same four hours.
The Saturdays are the only sessions that can carry the 100 children the application promises, with or without this decision. The club holds 16. That was true before any of this came up.
Two more schools have asked
Received 1 September 2026, 11:45, and not yet answered (source/email-expression-of-interest-two-schools.md). One email, on behalf of both.
Britannia Village Primary School
Royal Docks
Internal approval given. Asking for next steps and dates.
Royal Wharf Primary School
Royal Docks
Internal approval given, in the same email.
They are in the Royal Docks area, which is the catchment the funding is written against, and one of the open questions on the record is whether Gallions’ catchment counts as Royal Docks at all. That makes these two relevant to the funding case and not only to the next run.
What this record still needs
What the club costs a family, per session or per term, and whether the school waives it for anyone.
Whether our four are charged for. The school’s wording says the paid sessions are the others, but it does not say ours are free.
How the 16 were chosen, and whether that list already exists.
What v2 and v3 of the flyer say, and which one went to parents. Neither file is in the inbox.
Whether we knew the club was paid when the application was written. Nothing in any source mentions a fee before 1 September.
Whether the Royal Docks Trust award carries a condition about free access or about acknowledgement.
Whether Britannia Village or Royal Wharf run paid clubs too.