Last Word

JOHN LYON

The 2021 School year saw a new beginning for John Lyon, with girls joining the School for the first time in its 145-year history, and a new relationship with Quainton Hall School, which has become John Lyon’s prep school.

While preparations for these changes were underway, and in the shadow of continuing COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions, School life continued with much activity both inside and outside the classroom.

Once again, we saw the cancellation of public examinations at A level and GCSE, replaced instead by centre assessed grades. At A level, the School again recorded a 100% pass rate across all subjects, with 32% of all grades awarded at A* and almost three-quarters (74%) at A*/A. Twenty-eight students achieved straight A*/A grades and five bursary award holders were among the top 25 highest achievers. Students headed to universities across the UK, notably Oxford, Russell Group institutions and the University of London.

At GCSE, 29% of all results were the highest 9 grades, with more than half (52%) awarded a 9 or 8. Six pupils received straight 9 grades (the equivalent of a high A*). A further eight received no grade lower than an 8, also seen as an A* grade. Last year’s record number of Sixth Form Scholarship awards was beaten again, with 19 John Lyon GCSE pupils accepting an award to move into the John Lyon Sixth Form, having achieved the benchmark of at least eight 8 grades.

The School’s 145th anniversary was cause for celebration at different points of the year, opening with a day of activities in May and continuing through Summer Term and into the new Autumn Term. An anniversary logo featuring both John and Joan Lyon was introduced, a new ‘Lyon’ font based on hand-drawn lettering from a century-old School magazine created, and keyrings and pin badges made using an in-house laser cutter on sustainable materials.

John Lyon’s third Talks-on-the-Hill lecture evening was held fully online with an audience of more than 200 and focused on the subject of La Peste. Guest speakers included the Chair of the National Emergency Covid Critical Care Committee, Professor Hugh Montgomery, who looked at the biology and sociology of Covid; expert in the history of plagues Dr Lori Jones, who spoke from her university in Canada; and Chaplain of St John’s College, Cambridge, Reverend Andrew Hammond, who discussed the significance of plague in the Bible.

Events throughout the School year attracted a number of high-profile and interesting guests, including musician Jess Gillam, parliamentarian and journalist Lord Finkelstein, teacher and author Jane Hawking, historian Professor Kate Williams, Olympic champion hockey player Maddie Hinch, former Test batsman Rob Key, mathematician Dr Nira Chamberlain and parliamentarian and businessman Lord Gadhia.

In sport, the School was honoured to be named, for the first time, as one of The Cricketer’s Top 100 Schools, in recognition of our commitment to cricket in the curriculum, facilities, fixture programmes and coaching. It was therefore especially pleasing when our 1st XI retained the Middlesex Schools Cup with dominant displays in the competition’s latter stages including a nine-wicket win in the quarterfinal, a semi-final victory over St Benedict’s Ealing, and a huge 87-run victory over Merchant Taylors’, restricting the opposition to 41 all out.

Golf proved the breakout sport of the past year, with the School’s first-ever competitive matches seeing wins over Merchant Taylors’ and Mill Hill, as well as a very narrow defeat to Harrow.

Drama and music programmes were somewhat curtailed by Covid restrictions, with concerts and performances taking place largely online. Only the Summer Term saw a return to the live stage, although audiences were only able to watch from home. – Katherine Haynes, Head

JOHN LYON’S CHARITY

With the outbreak of COVID-19 in the UK and the subsequent national lockdown, the funding community responded quickly and collectively. London Funders (the membership network for funders and investors in London’s civil society) released a funder statement: ’We Stand with the Sector’, which made clear that the funding community would be as flexible and understanding as possible, working with grantees to ensure they felt supported to be able to respond to their local communities. John Lyon’s Charity was one of the initial five funders that signed up to the London Funders Pledge and all eight Young People’s Foundations (including Harrow) signed up within the first two days.

We responded to the crisis nimbly in a number of ways:

1. We kept our Main Grants open to applications to maintain ‘business as usual’. We felt the last thing the sector needed was a shutdown of core funding. 2. We showed adaptability to our existing grantees to help them deliver differently; whether that was diverting a current

grant to online delivery or flexibility to defer or extend a grant. 3. We granted over £900,000 in emergency funding to the London Community

Response Fund. 4. We provided Covid School Holiday

Activity Funds (£329,000) that followed

Government guidelines to allow much needed socialising through fun play during the summer of 2020.

Charities of all sizes faced unprecedented challenges; operations were forced to move online, some found themselves offering subsistence services to support their beneficiaries, and the future of the non-profit sector hung in the balance. The need for funding was never greater. The boroughs in our Beneficial Area were some of the hardest hit in the country and have been particularly vulnerable to the economic impact of COVID-19.

The experience John Lyon’s Charity gained because of the Grenfell Tower tragedy led to the resurrection of the collaboration we had built at that time. Central to that collaboration was the establishment of a Funder Portal and a single application form, making it much simpler for applicant organisations to access the funding rapidly. With the introduction of the COVID-19 lockdown and the growing crisis, the portal enabled the London Community Response Fund (LCR) collaboration to respond swiftly and efficiently.

In the financial year ending 31 March 2021, we awarded £12.22 million to 114 organisations: a 13.5% increase on the previous year, reflecting our realisation that we needed to step up and offer the sector more. We also created a Home-School Community strategy, which was launched on 1 April 2021 and is due to run for the next six years.

Our pledge is to help every organisation that is worth saving to survive and thrive for the next 5–10 years – to safeguard the best of what we have in the Beneficial Area. Those that are worth saving are recognised already as being vital to the health and diversity of the voluntary sector in the JLC Beneficial Area. We also want to ensure organisations remain open to innovation and have the capacity in which to innovate. We have dug deep into our endowment and, over the next six years, will grant an additional £22 million on top of our regular grant giving. – Lynne Guyton, CEO, John Lyon’s Charity

Join the 450 Society

The 450 Society recognises those supporting the Harrow 450 campaign

It is our ambition to attract 4,500 members by 2025. There are different tiers of membership: involvement is just as important as value.

All members will receive a special Harrow 450 anniversary commemorative lapel pin and have their name displayed on the virtual LCD in the Science Schools when the new building opens.

To find out more or join today visit harrowschool.org.uk/450-Society

HARROW SCHOOL

5 High Street Harrow on the Hill Middlesex HA1 3HP +44 (0)20 8872 8000 harrow@harrowschool.org.uk