Who actually decides what teachers buy?
You’ve convinced a teacher that your product is exactly what they need. Brilliant. But does that mean the school is going to buy it? Not necessarily.
One thing education suppliers sometimes overlook is how many people can be involved in a school purchasing decision. A teacher might identify the need, a subject leader recommend a solution, the School Business Manager check the budget and the Headteacher approve the purchase.
And if the school belongs to a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT), there could be another layer of approval.
So, who should you actually be targeting?
The person who wants it isn’t always the person who buys it
Let’s say you’re selling a maths intervention programme. A teacher sees your email and thinks it could help their pupils. They mention it to the Head of Maths, who raises it with the senior leadership team.
Somebody then needs to establish whether there’s a budget and who can authorise the purchase. What looked like a straightforward sale suddenly involves several people.
It’s useful to distinguish between three groups:
Users
The people who will use your product.
Influencers
The people who recommend it and help build support.
Purchasers and approvers
The people who manage budgets, procurement and spending decisions.
Sometimes these roles overlap. Often they don’t. That’s why targeting only the person with purchasing authority can mean missing the people who influence the decision.
Our guide to education job roles and decision makers explores this in more detail.
How much budget do school departments actually have?
This is where things become interesting for suppliers. Schools vary enormously in size, and so do the budgets available for teaching resources, equipment, subscriptions and departmental purchases.
A small primary school may have relatively modest amounts allocated to individual curriculum areas, with purchasing managed centrally. A large secondary school, on the other hand, might have separate budgets for English, Maths, Science, PE and other departments.
To illustrate how much these budgets could differ, we’ve put together some example annual ranges.
Primary school departmental budgets
| Department / Area | Small (150 pupils) | Medium (300 pupils) | Large (600 pupils) |
|---|---|---|---|
| English / Literacy | £1,000–£2,500 | £2,000–£5,000 | £4,000–£9,000 |
| Maths | £800–£2,000 | £1,500–£4,000 | £3,000–£7,000 |
| Science | £500–£1,500 | £1,000–£3,000 | £2,000–£5,000 |
| PE | £500–£1,500 | £1,000–£3,000 | £2,000–£6,000 |
| Art / DT | £500–£1,500 | £1,000–£3,000 | £2,000–£5,000 |
| Library / Reading | £500–£1,500 | £1,000–£3,000 | £2,000–£6,000 |
| CPD / Training | £1,000–£3,000 | £2,000–£5,000 | £4,000–£10,000 |
Primary schools don’t necessarily allocate separate budgets to each subject. In many cases, the Headteacher or School Business Manager manages spending centrally, with subject leaders recommending purchases.
Secondary school departmental budgets
| Department | Small (600 pupils) | Medium (1,000 pupils) | Large (1,500 pupils) |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | £3,000–£7,000 | £5,000–£12,000 | £8,000–£18,000 |
| Maths | £2,000–£5,000 | £4,000–£9,000 | £6,000–£14,000 |
| Science | £8,000–£18,000 | £15,000–£30,000 | £25,000–£45,000 |
| PE | £2,000–£6,000 | £4,000–£10,000 | £7,000–£15,000 |
| Art / Design Technology | £5,000–£12,000 | £9,000–£20,000 | £15,000–£30,000 |
| Humanities | £2,000–£5,000 | £4,000–£9,000 | £6,000–£14,000 |
| Modern Foreign Languages | £1,500–£4,000 | £3,000–£7,000 | £5,000–£11,000 |
| Music / Performing Arts | £2,000–£6,000 | £4,000–£10,000 | £7,000–£16,000 |
| Careers / PSHE | £1,000–£3,000 | £2,000–£5,000 | £3,000–£8,000 |
These are illustrative annual resource-budget estimates, not verified national averages or findings from a survey of schools. They exclude staffing costs, major capital expenditure and centrally managed contracts. Actual allocations vary significantly, and some schools do not maintain separate departmental budgets.
Science and Design Technology, for example, can require more spending on equipment and consumables than some other subjects. But here’s the important point.
Having a departmental budget doesn’t necessarily mean having authority to spend it.
A Head of Science might manage a substantial resources budget but still need approval for a new £5,000 software subscription. Likewise, a primary subject leader might recommend a £500 resource but have no independent purchasing authority.
For suppliers, understanding both the available budget and the approval process matters.
When do governors get involved?
Another consideration is the role of the governing board. In maintained schools, governors oversee financial management and may delegate spending decisions to the Headteacher or committees.
In academy trusts, the trust board is ultimately accountable for the trust’s finances and approves the arrangements setting out who can authorise expenditure.
There isn’t a universal spending threshold above which every purchase must go to governors or trustees. Each school or trust operates under its own financial delegation arrangements.
Consider three hypothetical purchases:
£500
Classroom resources
A subject leader may be able to approve this from an existing budget.
£3,000
Intervention programme
Approval might involve the Headteacher or School Business Manager.
£20,000
Whole-school platform
This could involve senior leadership, finance, IT and potentially additional MAT approval.
These are examples, not fixed thresholds. If you’re selling a high-value product or multi-year contract, find out early whether further approval is required. You could have the Headteacher completely on board, only to discover the purchase needs to go through another stage.
What changes when you’re selling to a MAT?
Potentially quite a lot. Some Multi-Academy Trusts manage purchasing centrally. Others give individual academies considerable freedom, particularly for classroom resources and smaller purchases. Many operate somewhere between the two.
An academy might choose its own teaching resources but be required to use trust-wide IT systems, HR services or approved suppliers. A Headteacher could support your product but need agreement from the MAT’s central team.
And if you’re selling something that could be used across several academies, approaching a central curriculum, operations or finance leader might make more sense than contacting every school individually.
It depends on the product, its cost and the trust’s purchasing arrangements. We’ve covered MAT structures in more detail in our guide to MATs and academies.
One product, several different priorities
Imagine you’re selling a school management platform. A teacher wants something that’s easy to use. A Headteacher might be interested in reducing workload. The School Business Manager wants to understand the costs.
At MAT level, the IT team may be concerned about integration and data security, while the CFO is looking at the overall financial commitment. They’re all considering the same product, but they’re asking different questions.
That’s why sending exactly the same message to every job role isn’t always the best approach.
Through our education email marketing services, we help suppliers reach relevant education audiences. But targeting is only part of it. Your message needs to reflect what matters to the person receiving it.
And don’t overlook teachers or subject leaders simply because they don’t control the budget. They may be the people who get your product considered in the first place.
Sometimes you need to speak to more than one person
One of the best ways to understand purchasing decisions is to talk directly to the people involved. That’s also why we’ve incorporated Live Sessions into Buzz Education’s offering.
Through our Reach Sessions and Focus Sessions, education suppliers can have structured conversations with relevant teachers and education professionals, helping them understand what schools need, who influences decisions and what might prevent a purchase.
It’s a useful addition to targeted email marketing. Email campaigns can introduce your product to thousands of relevant contacts, while Live Sessions provide opportunities for more detailed conversations, feedback and relationship building. The two work together rather than replacing one another.
So, who should you be targeting?
There’s no single answer. If you’re selling a classroom resource, teachers and subject leaders might be your best starting point. For a whole-school service, senior leaders and budget holders are likely to be involved. And for trust-wide contracts, you’ll probably need to engage with MAT central teams.
Before your next campaign, ask yourself who identifies the need, who influences the choice and who can approve the expenditure.
Because reaching the person who signs off a purchase is important. But reaching the people who help make that decision happen can be just as valuable.
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