2014-2015
LOOKING BACK… LOOKING FORWARD BSA annual review and development plan Autumn 2015
INTRODUCTION
A productive year ALL
achieved anything without the hard work of organisations seek to get better each year and the
BSA is no exception. ‘Looking back, Looking forward’ tries to capture what the Boarding Schools’ Association achieved on behalf of its independent and state members, and the boarding schools’ sector, in 2014-2015. It also looks at ‘BSA 2020’, our new five-year development plan which includes a new mission to ‘champion boarding and promote excellence’. This sets out the key things our members would like us
the BSA team, our executive committee, and of course all our member schools. We are grateful to everyone who helped along the way – and also I extend a personal thanks to all who helped me find my feet during my first year in post. The UK boarding sector faces, as ever, many challenges in the year ahead. On behalf of everyone at the BSA we look forward to continuing to represent our member schools in flying the boarding flag.
to achieve in the coming years, particularly during our Golden Jubilee in 2015-2016. The past year was definitely busy and productive for the BSA. We could not have
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Robin Fletcher National Director Boarding Schools’ Association
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member schools
member school delegates attended
12 5
new members
391 99
609 85
boarders
75,000
525 more than
OVERVIEW
BSA year in numbers
BSA conferences
BSA events
member schools undertook CPD
63 BSA day seminars for 1,555 delegates
school visits
OUR SECTOR
Encouraging signs IT is quite a while since the number of boarders at UK
Boarding sector snapshot 2014-2015
schools rose for the second time in two years.
• Total state/independent boarders: 75,922 • ISC only: 70,642 at 485 ISC schools • Av ISC boarding fees: £10,123 per term
Yet that was the great news for the sector last year when the ISC annual census for independent schools reported total boarding numbers at over 70,000, a 1,500 increase on the previous year. This was the first time in a decade the 70,000 figure had been breached. Add in over 5,000 boarders within state boarding and there are now more than 75,000 boarders at UK schools. Overseas boarders continue to make up a large proportion of the total with over 27,000 at independent schools. Of these around 40 per cent are from Hong Kong and China.
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• Age range in ISC schools: o 4,941 junior (under year 7) o 38,372 senior (excluding sixth form) o 30,455 sixth form • ISC boarders and schools by region: o o o o o o o o o
South West – 13,634 (135 schools) Wales – 1,793 (20) South East – 27,964 (374) East midlands – 4,422 (64) West Midlands – 5,062 (94) East Anglia – 6,455 (155) Scotland – 2,379 (33) The North – 6,032 (159) Greater London – 2,478 (216).
CONFERENCES
Bringing people together TO have correspondents from all major newspapers sitting, for the right reasons, in the front row of your annual conference days before a General Election is a communications manager’s dream.
That was the pleasing sight however at last year’s conference for heads in London when correspondents flocked to hear the ‘two Tony’s’ (Tony Little and Sir Antony Seldon) share their thoughts on boarding. They were among an array of top speakers at BSA/SBSA events, including Home Secretary Teresa May, Falklands’ veteran Simon Weston and psychologist Professor Tanya Byron. Five conference were held during the year in Holyport,
Winchester, Bristol, London and
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Stratford-upon-Avon. Attendance ranged from 71 for the
boarding house staff conference to an impressive turnout of 192 matrons and nurses. The theme of the annual heads’ conference at the Plaza Hotel in London, led by BSA chair Wendy Griffiths, was ‘challenge, care and confidence’. The challenge side of this was met by delegates volunteering to abseil down the side of the hotel (in wind and rain) in aid of SpringBoard. The conference peaked with a moving after-dinner speech by Shabana Basij-
Rasikh (right), president and founder of the SOLA girls’ boarding school in Afghanistan (now an honorary BSA member) at the Imperial War Museum on May 6.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 5
Raising the bar higher A key reason BSA exists is to support staff to increase standards across the boarding sector. A record number of training courses and events were held during the year attracting in turn a record number of delegates. BSA held 63 day seminar events for 1,555 staff from 391 schools. The most popular event, with 137 delegates, was held in London in February and focused on how to manage the outbreak of an infectious disease. This was run in conjunction with MOSA. The BSA Certificate in Boarding with Roehampton University involved 306 students from 137 schools. The Leading Boarding Forward Diploma
course, aimed at staff with a role in
senior management, involved 34 delegates from 33 schools. Inset training was once again offered with 32 days over the year, including three funded by the Department for Education for SBSA schools. BSA’s relationship with the DfE remains both close and strong and the department continues to turn to BSA to ensure professional development is appropriately delivered to staff working in state boarding schools.
BSA’s expert boarding guide publications were also in demand during the year with over 150 new orders, generating nearly £10,000 to be reinvested in professional development.
MEMBERSHIP
The boarding family OF the three main national associations for boarding schools across the world, BSA has by far the largest membership. This reflects the size, scale and diversity of the boarding
sector in the UK and the importance of an organisation and voice to represent such a disparate membership. In 2014-2015 BSA had 525 members, of which 438 were UK independent school full members, 38 were state boarding schools and 50 associate members in 18 countries overseas. During the year, 12 new members joined the association, including new associate member schools in Nigeria, China and Switzerland.
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Full members UK boarding schools either belong to one
of the constituent associations of the ISC, or are state boarding schools. The largest association represented is IAPS with 148 members, followed by HMC (145), GSA (66), Overseas (51), ISA (47), SoH (46), individuals, associates and other associations (22). Five UK members stopped or closed boarding, but new provision also started including Holyport College, which was opened by the Queen last November (right).
Around 80 per cent of member schools took advantage of being a member to use other BSA services, such as training, at a discounted rate, although over 100 schools simply renewed their membership.
COMMUNICATIONS
Spreading the word BY maintaining regular contact with the media the sector increases its chance of spreading a positive message about boarding. To raise its effectiveness in this vital area, in March 2015 Aileen Kane, previously marketing and communications manager at Queen Anne’s School, Caversham (a BSA member school), became our first Head of Communications. Aileen’s appointment helped galvanise and co-ordinate a wide range of activity. This included new and confident BSA branding (unveiled at our conference for heads in May), a new conference app service, increased social media, and a new weekly newsletter emailed to over 3,000 staff at member schools.
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On top of this a new Communications Forum was
established (now with more than 550 members), allowing BSA and marketing managers at member schools to communicate between each other at the touch of a button. A more systematic approach to media relations saw a range of boarding stories appear in major national newspapers through the year including The Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail and Independent. This work to build media contacts bore fruit particularly in gaining coverage for the SBSA annual conference and
the annual heads’ conference. And the BSA’s guidance to schools on Ebola was reported by media channels across the world.
SBSA
Developing state boarding A drive to promote the transformative value of boarding for vulnerable children was a key focus for the BSA’s state boarding members during the year. Schools’ minister Lord Nash attended the conference to champion of his aim to see more vulnerable children benefit from boarding at the SBSA’s annual conference at Holyport College in November, the UK’s newest state boarding school. SBSA Chair Paul Spencer Ellis and National Director Robin Fletcher attended further meetings with Lord Nash and his team at the DfE in London to find more effective ways of promoting boarding to local councils. A working party is currently looking at how to strengthen communication of this area to
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to councils and SBSA/BSA will be involved in this.
Highlight of the SBSA conference was a black-tie dinner hosted in the King’s Scholars dining room at Eton College, hosted by outgoing Headmaster Tony Little. The conference was also addressed by Home Secretary Teresa May, the local MP for the Holyport area. In summer 2015, Steyning Grammar School hosted the SBSA AGM (see right). This was attended by more than 20 state boarding schools and speakers included Ian Davenport, Chief Executive of the SpringBoard charity. It
was also the final appearance of former SBSA chair Roy Page, now retired head of RGS High Wycombe.
INTERNATIONAL
Hands across the water AN increasing activity for BSA is building its links with the international boarding family. BSA attended the TABS boarding conference in Washington DC in December and maintained strong working relations with the directors of both TABS and ABSA in Australia. During the year, over 50 schools from nearly 20 countries overseas renewed their subscriptions as associate members of BSA. And the BSA training team delivered training for schools in Switzerland (see Aiglon College, right), South Africa and Turkey. In summer 2015, BSA was approached by representatives from the King Abdullah Economic City in Saudi Arabia to advise on
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on establishing a new boys’ boarding school within an
existing schools site. As part of a detailed consultancy project, Deputy National Director and Director of Training Alex Thompson flew out to Saudi Arabia in June to visit the site and give expert input on designing and running the school. Overseas boarding schools represent a significant membership and revenue opportunity for BSA. To help develop this all future overseas work will be offered under the banner of BSA International.
As part of this work, an ongoing project is currently exploring the enrolment of more than 80 South African schools as associate members, subject to them meeting appropriate quality standards for boarding.
GOVERNANCE
Giving expertise and time A courageous leap by BSA chair Wendy Griffiths over the side of a London hotel in May aptly illustrates the lengths, or heights, some go to make the BSA really count. During the year, heads and other senior figures from schools and education associations worked hard to ensure the BSA fulfilled its role for members. In June, former chair Ray McGovern retired from the BSA Executive, and chair elect John Newton left at Christmas for Australia. Leo Winkley and Mike Farmer both became vice chairs. Richard Foster also stood down as IAPS representative and Giles Bowring from Giggleswick replaced Margaret McKenna as ISBA representative.
BSA Executive 2014-2015 Officers Chair – Wendy Griffiths, GSA (bottom right) VC (Chair Elect) – Mike Farmer (bottom left) VC – Ray McGovern (2014-2015) Hon Treasurer – Trefor Llewellyn (top left) Members HMC – Leo Winkley (VC from 2015)
ISA – Stefan Anderson SoH – Steve Fairclough IAPS – Richard Foster ISBA – Giles Bowring (Margaret McKenna 2014-2015) AGBIS – Jonathan Cook SBSA – Paul Spencer Ellis (top right).
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PEOPLE
Strengthening the team WE strengthened the BSA during the year and welcomed some new faces. Emma Blakeman (top left) joined as Administration Assistant in February 2015 and was later promoted to Projects Co-ordinator. Amy Wilson (nĂŠe Clear) (top middle) was promoted to Events and Commercial Manager from June 2015, reporting to Aileen Kane. Robin Fletcher (top right) joined as National Director in September 2014. Aileen Kane (middle left) joined in March 2015 as Head of Communications, with responsibility for all communications and conferences and event delivery.
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Liz McDonald (middle right), Training Administrator
became full time in June 2015. Neena Patel (bottom left), Office Manager and PA, continued in her role and took on direct responsibility for making finance payments. Mark Robinson (bottom middle), Assistant Director of Training, joined full time in March with responsibility for overseas training. Alex Thomson OBE (bottom right), Director of Training, also become Deputy National Director from March 2015,
with special responsibility for member development. The BSA also said goodbye during 2014-2015 to Dick Davison, freelance editor of our Boarding School magazine who retired after many years dedicated service.
FRESH IDEAS
Promoting and recognising A pair of initiatives launched by BSA during the year have helped to promote boarding and recognise the hard work of those work in the sector. The Boarding Orchard was launched in autumn 2014 and aims to be the largest orchard by geography in the UK. With each planting symbolising sustainability and the ‘tree of knowledge’, 46 member schools in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Switzerland joined the Boarding Orchard during the year – along with a boarding school in Texas! In total 82 trees were planted in events involving 222 pupils and 122 staff and the initiative gained good local media coverage for members.
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The Stephen Winkley Boarding Achievement Award
was also launched during the year to recognise the efforts of a member of staff from a member school. The award is named after the late Stephen Winkley, former BSA Chair and former headmaster of Uppingham and Rossall. Nearly 20 schools from across the boarding sector entered the inaugural award which was won by Ed Coetzer from Lord Wansworth College. Ed (top left) received a compass and a framed
certificate at the BSA’s gala dinner at the Imperial War Museum in London in May from Leo Winkley, BSA Vice Chair, who is head of St Peter’s School, York and son of Stephen Winkley.
BSA 2020 is the BSA’s five-year development plan. The plan sets a new mission for BSA to ‘Champion Boarding’ and ‘Promote Excellence’ through a new strategy to ‘Inform and Influence’ and ‘Improve and Innovate’. The mission and strategy will be delivered through development plans for Training, Membership, Communications and Governance/Administration. Key activities in each of these areas for 2015-2016 are shown in the final two columns.
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Improve & Innovate
3. DELIVERY 15/16
Promote excellence
Inform & Influence
2. STRATEGY
Champion boarding
1. MISSION
DEVELOPMENT PLAN
BSA 2020 Development Plan
Training
Communications
- Introduce new certificate course - Deliver training for more member schools - Develop Masters in Boarding degree
- Launch National Boarding Week Launch Boarders for Barnardos - Relaunch website and magazine - Conduct parent research survey
Membership
Governance/ admin
- Enrol at least six new members - Improve member benefits - Engage more member schools with BSA services
- Launch Governance Review - Introduce KPIs and Risk Mapping - Complete health and safety audit
JUBILEES
Celebrating milestones IT is extremely fortunate that 2015-2016 marks the golden jubilee for the BSA and the silver jubilee of the SBSA. This presents a fantastic opportunity to ‘bang the drum’ for the independent and state boarding sectors and a
Autumn term 2015
• Launch of BSA Boarding Fellowship • Launch of Boarders for Barnardo’s scheme • SBSA Silver Jubilee annual conference • Tony Little to speak at TABS conference • Jubilee plaques issued to members schools
range of initiatives (see right) are planned. To mark our jubilees, Tony Little (right), former Headmaster of Eton, Oakham and Chigwell, has kindly agreed to be our first Honorary President.
Spring term • BSA Golden Jubilee magazine • Boarding Bake Off competition launched
Tony will be speaking on behalf of BSA and boarding during the year, including at HMC’s annual conference and at the annual TABS boarding conference in Boston, USA in December. He will also be giving interviews and comments to the media.
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Summer Term • BSA Golden Jubilee conference for heads • National Boarding Week (from June 20) • Big Boarding Sing (Sunday 26 June).