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Radleian Society Gazette
The Radley Foundation - 2020 update
The Radley Foundation in its current form was established in 2000 to increase substantially the funds available for meanstested scholarships and bursaries, and to assist the College with significant building developments and improvements.
After 20 years, the Foundation is incredibly proud to have raised almost £30 million in donations and future pledges, and we are grateful to the 3,542 donors from across the Radley community. This is an extraordinary testament to the loyalty and generosity of Old Radleians and friends.
As the Foundation celebrates its 20th year, we reflect not only on the funds raised, but the impact of this generosity. It is only with time that we can see the lasting impact of these donations and the work of the last two decades, and we can begin to see momentum build as we track our progress.
While the Foundation was started in 2000, philanthropic support has always been a part of Radley’s fabric with the first ever donation being received from a well-wisher on 4th April 1847. £0 All means-tested bursaries, 2017-2021. The Funded Places programme is now producing impressive results. In the last five years we have more than doubled the number of boys on fully funded places, doubled the number of boys on means-tested bursaries and also doubled the total cost of these awards. The progress that we have made in recent years has only been made possible with the help of philanthropy.
In 2020, the two elements of our campaign were to grow the Silk Fund to provide wider access to the school through part and fully funded places for more social inclusion, and to raise funds for the Chapel extension. The Warden launched the campaign earlier this year, but all plans changed rapidly at the end of March and our primary focus shifted to support the boys through the summer term with Virtual Radley. We are still very much committed to the Silk and Chapel Funds and are relaunching our efforts in 2021.
Thank you to all who have contributed to the success of the Radley Foundation over the last two decades. We look forward to creating even greater impact over the next 20 years.
Elisabeth Anderson
£3000,000
£2,500,000
£2,000,000
£1,500,000
£1,000,000
£500,000
2017 0-24% support 2018 25-49% support
Development Director
2019 50-74% support
2020 75-99% support 2021 100% support
Chairman of the Foundation Trustees
I write to you with great pride as the new Chairman of the Radley Foundation. Notwithstanding these extraordinary times, the Foundation is in great shape after 20 years. Both the trustees and I have the generosity of thousands of donors to thank for the current state of play. Not to forget the wisdom of Richard Morgan who came up with the idea of the Foundation and the execution of the likes of Anthony Robinson to get it off the ground in its early days. Looking to the future, I am hugely enjoying working with the Foundation’s new Development Director, Elisabeth Anderson. It gives me joy to work with someone who has such energy and drive, not to mention her experience in many different fields including two UK school Foundations (Bryanston School and Fettes College). Whilst the Foundation sits as a separate legal entity from the College, it is very much aligned with the vision of the Warden and Council. I live relatively close to the College, as well as working in Oxford, and as a result I get the chance to visit fairly regularly and see for my own eyes the benefit that the Foundation delivers. I see the College as being a highly progressive institution, slightly different to the eye since my time but undoubtedly wedded to the same core values. The Foundation has always been close to my heart. My first major
Foundation Trustees
engagement involved a group of my old Radley mates (Tom Cornell, Nick Walford and Julian Walker) organising a team to raise money for the Foundation through competing in the Kindrochit Challenge in Scotland a number of years ago. I adored my time at Radley but I am only too aware of how lucky I was to be given the opportunity to go to such a place. The Foundation is opening up such fortune to families who could not begin to afford a private school education. I would like to take this opportunity to thank, first and foremost, Thomas Seymour. Thomas has been, simply put, the most fantastic Chairman of the Foundation over a number of years. Whilst I may have size 12/13 feet - his shoes are going to be extremely big to fill! Thomas remains a trustee and I do not doubt that I will be picking his considerable brain as we progress. Whilst on the subject of thanks, I should highlight the work that Henry Cosh did prior to Elisabeth’s arrival. I thought I had energy and enthusiasm – until I met Henry! I last visited the Foundation’s office at the top of Mansion in September - relatively soon after Elisabeth started in the Development Director‘s role – and it was so lovely to feel the buzz amongst the team. I much look forward to working with them all over the coming years.
Will Maydon (1986, B)
Chairman of the Foundation Trustees
Will Maydon (1986, B)
Sam Melluish (1976, B) Guy Heald (1963, C) Thomas Seymour (1965, C) Richard Huntingford (1969, E)
Viki Chapman (Former Parent) David Smellie (Former Parent) Ex officio Gerald Kaye (1971, B) Ex officio
The Foundation in numbers
Since 2000, your support… 3,542 Donors to the Foundation
£30m Raised in gifts and pledges
96 Known legators
1 in 3
Members of the Radley community have donated
8,024 Gifts to the Foundation
45 Funds and projects to support Radley
22
Current and former Trustees of the Radley Foundation …has made a real impact
£2.8m Raised to support developments on campus
14%
of boys at Radley in 2020/21 receive a means-tested bursary
19
Boys are here thanks to a fully funded place £1.5m Raised thanks to Gift Aid
107% Increase in scholarships and bursaries spend since 2015
Building on our foundations
Since the launch of the campaign in January, we have been overwhelmed by the warm response from the Radley community in support of the Chapel and Silk Funds – despite the obvious setbacks of this very strange year. Our immense gratitude goes to the Old Radleians, former parents, current parents, former staff, current staff and friends who have supported the campaign so far.
Campaign donors
Former Staff
Staff Friends
Parents
Old Radleians
Former
Parents
The Silk Fund
Thanks to generous support, the Silk Fund continues to grow to help talented boys, this year supporting seven who would otherwise be unable to afford the full fees. The Silk Fund is an integral part of our broader funded places programme which too continues to grow to fund families in need at a variety of levels and brings us closer to our target of 20% of all fee income to be in the form of fee remission. Year on year boys arrive from different backgrounds, bringing a wealth of experiences and enriching the Radley community. Dennis Silk himself benefitted from a bursary when he was a boy at Christ’s hospital. His subsequent career and care for others encapsulates the values of the fund founded in his honour. Some Senior Prefects from his time as Warden have shared their reflections:
“Dennis was exceptional and he changed our lives - and hundreds of boys after us. And we learnt later that this journey of achievement had begun when a young Dennis, son of an impecunious missionary, was awarded a full bursary at Christ’s Hospital. That is why the Silk Fund is a perfect memorial to his achievements and our gratitude.”
Rupert Middleton (1968)
“Inimitably modest and selfless, Dennis’s express wish was to make the modern Radley education, which he did so much to mould, more accessible through the provision of bursaries.
I can’t think that there is a more fitting way to honour this great life, that touched us all, than the Silk Fund.”
Nigel Burgess (1969)
“I know that he was thrilled by the establishment of the Silk Fund and he would wish it to flourish, so that it can provide the education to others that we were privileged to receive.”
James Dingemans (1977)
“The Silk Fund is a fitting legacy for a hugely influential educator who believed so wholeheartedly in the power of education.”
Mark Durden-Smith (1982)
Dennis’s and the fund’s impact have been far reaching, supporting 34 boys throughout their education – or, in other words, about 170 years’ worth of education since 1991. But the Silk Fund is not simply about what boys achieve when they are here, but also what they go on to do when they leave.
Support of the fund enables boys to make an impact on the wider world as they grow into educated, thoughtful and kind young men. Our Silk scholars have gone on to become doctors, NGO workers, teachers and researchers – a few examples of the wide-reaching
impact the fund truly has.
Thank you to all who have supported the campaign so far...
CHAPEL Progress as of September 2020
Hamish Aird Sub-Warden (1990-2003)
Works on Chapel have progressed well, and we are on target for the building phase completion in March 2021. Chapel is, of course, more than simply a building – it is, for all in the community, a place to come together to find comfort and to reflect. It is at the core to Radley life and we are very much looking forward to coming together again soon.
Richard Morgan Warden (1991-2000)
Architect’s impressions (courtesy of Purcell)
Angus McPhail Warden (2000-2014)
Additional photos of plans can be viewed on the College website: www.bit.ly/RadleyChapelFund
The Radleian Society committee
The Radleian Society Committee represents the Radley community in its make-up, including as it does Old Radleians from a variety of generations, former and current parents, and Radley Common Room. I felt this was a good time to introduce you to these individuals, who represent you and your views through their work. We meet three times a year to discuss our events, communications and careers programmes. Currently, in this virtual world, they continue to guide us and ensure our relevance – I’d like to thank them whole heartedly for their efforts on behalf of all of us.
Caroline Monaghan Radleian Society Manager
Sam Melluish (1976, B)
Simon Fickling (1996, E) Viki Chapman (Former Parent)
Max Blanshard (2004, B) Will Bailey (1968, D)
Jo Rooth (1985, E)
Richard Greed (Radley Common Room) Patrick McMeekin (1999, B) Struan Ridgwell (1984, B) Simon Shaw (1978, A)
Henry Morris (1996, E)
George Coles (2003, G)
ORs @ Radley Careers advice
One may have thought that the Covid pandemic would have put paid to the increasing number of ORs returning to the College to offer their insight and expertise to the boys. But with lockdown keeping people at home and the school conducting lessons virtually, ORs and members of Council stepped up to the plate. In April, a series of lunchtime lectures and Q&A sessions entitled “A Career In...” was launched. Aimed at that year’s 6.2 and 6.1s, each talk covered an industry in which the speaker was an expert, with a view to giving the boys an opportunity to uncover details about prospective careers. At such an unsettling time, being able to tap into this wealth of knowledge was invaluable for the Sixth Form as they looked to make decisions about their future career paths. The talks covered Law, Diplomacy, Medicine, Energy, Property & Real Estate, The Hedge Fund Industry, Media & Marketing, Cross sector working: Banking to Biotech, Communications & Media, Asset Management, and The Armed Forces. The series was introduced by a talk given by Sir Charlie Mayfield (1980 and former Radley parent) entitled: “What does the crisis mean for the economy and jobs and what could you do about it?”
Zoom Talks and Livestreams
The whole community has come together throughout the lockdown period and into the 2020/21 year, as ORs, Parents (both past and current) and Council members have lent their expertise to help enrich the boys’ knowledge. Current Radley parent, Scott Pendergast, is Director of Strategic Planning and Partnerships at the World Health Organisation (WHO) and took the time to give a virtual lecture to the boys in April, right in the eye of the storm of the international COVID-19 crisis. In the Drama department, Henry Hereford (1989) took time in November to help Ned Blackburn (6.2) with his audition pieces for Drama School. And the boys got an insight into the world of two elite sports from OR England internationals. In May, rugby player Will Stuart (2009) and fellow pros, Ollie Thornley and Ben Earl ran a Q&A session, detailing their lives and journeys from school to professional rugby and much more. This was followed in June by polo professional Malcolm Borwick (1990) giving a livestreamed interview on his ‘Life in Polo’.
The 1950s Archive virtual event had over 50 ORs join the call, with impromptu singing of numbers from old Dons’ Plays!
2020 Events 25 Year reunion
The Old Radleian leavers of 1995 returned to the College in February to celebrate their 25 Year Reunion with a number of current and former dons.
Hall, Chapel and JCR all featured, along with Social tours, as these ORs reconnected with their school friends and remembered their school days.
ORs and past dons in Hall at the 25 Year Reunion in February.
Virtual events
With the resumption of our event programme in September, the Radleian Society has played host to a number of well-attended virtual social events, aiming to help keep the community connected and entertained during the various levels of lockdown. Old Radleians range in age from 19 to 90+ and all have been catered for, with current dons catching up with our most recent school leavers during their lockdown at universities in our ‘Friendly Faces of Radley’ Zoom calls. For our more senior ORs, archivist Clare Sargent has been hosting online sessions that looked at Radley in the 1940s and 1950s. These have been very well received with ORs sharing stories of their time here:
Many thanks for putting together that peep into the archives of the 1940s. It brought back an odd mixture of memories.
Reference was made to the don, Richard Waye. There were usually slight sniggers and smirks in Chapel whenever we sang ‘Help us on our way’. In keeping with the international focus of this issue of The Old Radleian, we have also arranged for ORs and parents in the Far East and in the USA to join the Warden for ‘virtual tea’. Here they’ve been able to catch up with all the latest College news and strengthen the bonds of the Radley community. And finally, to help everyone get ready for Christmas, Robert Cochrane (1986) led an online Wine Tasting event (with real, not virtual, wine). Over 60 people joined in the tasting, with over 300 bottles uncorked on the night! Our virtual events will continue into 2021, so watch this space!
Radley Connect - leveraging the radley network
The Radleian Society recently ran a survey for those who left Radley 7 years ago, to find out what they experienced in their careers after they left Radley. One of the most dominant themes was that boys wished they had used the Radley network earlier on for advice. As one Old Radleian put it: ‘If you can start internships in your first year of university you have a big advantage, so I would have liked more contact with the alumni network earlier on’.
The challenges the boys are facing when entering the world of work today are greater than ever before, not just because of the pandemic, but also because of the way the workplace has transformed. Individuals are much more likely to change jobs or careers regularly and a positive attitude to adopting new skills in order to grasp opportunities.
To find out more about what Radleians are encountering after Radley, we interviewed Sebastian Aldous (2012, E) What was it like for you when you first left Radley? When I left Radley I went to Durham university to study Ancient History, and I didn’t actually find Durham that different to Radley when I got there. The most significant thing was the change of pace. Radley is such a full-on environment, and I found that at university I actually had a lot more time on my hands! This meant I was able to think about starting my own business and work out the skills I needed to do this, and because Radley had taught us how to keep ‘on top of things’, I have been able to build my business and do my degree at the same time.
Had you always wanted to start your own business? Yes, I always wanted to start my own business, and a lot of this came from the things I tried at Radley – including attempting to sell a lot of stuff from China from my Shell room! Some of my ideas were better than others, I started the photography society, and I remember the school really supporting me to do this, with people like Mr Holden being a great mentor along the way. They let me use a room and set up the cameras and computers to process the photographs. Thinking back it was great that when I wanted to ‘just start something’, the school embraced it and helped, we were lucky.
When did you first start thinking about setting up your business after you left Radley? I had always enjoyed working with technology, and as I had more time on my hands, I spent my first term at university learning how to code. I spoke to my brother about the idea of a helping students to talk to employers online, but doing it in a more personal way than the big recruitment agencies, and together we started to work out how we could actually make this into a business. Describe your start-up and how things have gone so far. My business, Varsity Careers Hub (VCH), is a software enabled recruitment firm, a platform that connects highly qualified job seekers with top companies. There are lots of larger recruitment firms out there, but they don’t do what we do, which is much more efficient because it is so targeted. Through our software, companies can find exactly the profile of individual they need and approach them in a very personal way, eliminating a lot of legwork. Students can also use the software to find and easily approach the right kind of company for them. We have a highly qualified ‘human’ recruitment service that works alongside the platform, which companies can also use to find people. Currently we have over 20,000 students and more than 150 employers using VCH, and we have recently scaled up our team to 6 people with two more planned hires for January; our revenues are growing quickly and we are going in for another SEIS funding round in early January so we are currently looking for investors for that.
How has the Radley network helped you so far? I hadn’t really had any connection with Radley since I left, so I decided to get in touch with the Radleian Society office to find out the best way to access the Radley network - I wanted to be quite targeted in my approaches and make sure the relationships were right. They looked through their platforms, Radley Connect and LinkedIn, and identified several people for me to connect with who had the right experience. They asked them on my behalf if they were happy to talk to me, and I had some excellent conversations with various people, some of which are still ongoing.
One OR, who had himself set up his own business, gave me some excellent advice around getting ‘my books in order’ right from the beginning. He said I needed to make sure I set my business up in the right way, get the accounting, admin, and legalities right before we start to grow. He also introduced me to someone in a similar space who gave me advice on my software and how to improve and test it. This was invaluable at this stage as I had zero experience.
The Radleian Society also put me in touch with Tom Cornell (1987), who is very well advanced in his career. I remember being nervous about talking to someone with so much experience on the phone, but I am so glad I did. We continued to talk every couple of weeks and he then introduced us to several big companies, who were traditionally quite hard to get hold of, to help us develop meaningful partnerships early on. He advised us on our big decisions, assisted us in commercially evaluating our business and has been a brilliant sounding board throughout the last year – he is now a fully fledged investor/advisor and is helping us to raise investment so we can expand.
What advice would you give to others who are starting out in their careers? Make sure you use the Radley network as early on as possible to test out your ideas and get advice in a safe environment. Try and do it in quite a targeted way, so you are not spamming people them, and make sure you have thought through your ideas before you approach them so you aren’t wasting their time. If I’m honest, if I had done it earlier I would have saved myself about a year’s worth of work!
If you would like to find out more about VCH or are interested in participating in the funding round then please reach out to RFL who can put you in touch.
Radley for Life - Business networking events Marketing and Networking Working in TV & Film
The RFL Business Networking events for 2020 have, through necessity, been quite different from each other.
In March, George Prest (1988), founder of the Blood Global agency, and a partner in You & Mr Jones, chaired a vibrant and in-depth discussion on the Future of Marketing with a panel of experts in the field – Emma Cookson (pictured below), Tim Sparke (1988), Remi Pedro and Simon Peck (1985).
In October our second Business Networking event was, by necessity, held virtually. In it, Neil Munz-Jones (1978), author of The Reluctant Networker, took the 30+ ORs and Parents through how to approach Networking.
Two-thirds of people are reluctant networkers as opposed to natural networkers, and this was borne out in a poll of the attendees, but Neil started off by debunking some networking myths including: “it’s all about going to events to work the room” and “it’s just a politically correct way of using people you know to get what you want”.
He then went on to share his Top 10 tips for Networking. The take home for those in attendance is that there is not one ‘right way’ to network, and everyone needs to find a style that works for them.
You can watch the video of this virtual session here: www.radley.org.uk/radleian-society/business-network Ahead of our next Business Networking event on the Creative Industries, due to be held in January, we talk to our lead for this event, acclaimed television producer and creator of Netflix’s hit, Sex Education, Jamie Campbell (1990).
What made you choose to go into a career in TV? It was pure chance. I went to film school after university, with the intention of becoming a film director. I had a lucky break, making a documentary which Channel 4 ended up broadcasting in 2001. Documentaries were a very exciting medium at that time – and so I decided to focus on that, always keeping an eye out for the opportunity to make TV drama, too.
How did you start your journey? In a literal sense, I started my journey by making some films using Max Horsey’s camera and editing equipment, when I was in the lower sixth at Radley.
What do you think helped you to progress your career the most? Probably that break I got in the year 2001, with Channel 4 broadcasting the documentary I had made.
What has been your greatest high and your greatest low so far in your career? My greatest low was a drama series being greenlit but then being cancelled, in 2016. The greatest high was Reed Hastings (the boss of Netflix) announcing that Sex Education had been watched by at least 40 million people in the first month after its launch.
What advice would you give others who wish to join the world of TV? Work out as early on as you can the role you’re most excited by, and be as innovative and tenacious as you can in moving towards that role.
How do you think being at Radley impacted on your career, the positives and the negatives? The structure frustrated me in some ways – but also helped me to be quite focussed. Ironically, I also found that challenging the system was – when I was at Radley – not considered a bad thing at all.
Who was the person that inspired you most while you were there? Other boys, particularly those who were good directors, writers and actors. So that, for me, was Tom Crowther, Will Mufti, Harry Wallop, Tom Benyon, Mike Grist, Nick Hiscocks. Jim Hare, who taught drama, was also very influential for me.
Max Horsey, in his very quiet way, was immensely encouraging of the films I made with Tom Crowther and Rik Barker.
COLLEGE UPDATE Bursar, Andrew Ashton, and Academic Director, Stephen Rathbone, reflect on the 2019/20 academic year and how Radley has adapted to the vastly-changing world.
It is quite remarkable how different the world feels from a year ago. In October 2019 the College’s concerns were around Brexit, political risks for the sector, pensions funding and the outcome of the coming General Election. However good any organisation’s risk register is (and “threat of a pandemic” has featured on the College’s register since before the SARS pandemic of 2009) nobody could have anticipated the impact of Covid-19, nor the whole new vocabulary arising out of it with words like furlough becoming common parlance. So much has changed. But the fundamentals have not. A year ago, our desire was to grow our endowment and provide more funded places to candidates who could not otherwise afford to come to Radley. Our financial strategy revolves around doing this and around mitigating risks of financial shocks to the school. A year on, these needs are as great as ever. As the Covid crisis unfolded, our instinct was to look after and support our staff, to deliver as near a full education for our boys as was possible (not just academically, but in all aspects co-curricular and also pastorally), and to support our parents, many of whom were in turn facing uncertainties of their own. Indeed, some parents suffered terrible hardship, and a number are still only beginning to experience the long-term impact on their employment, their financial planning and their wealth. Luckily, through prior-year planning, the College has built up funds to support unexpected hardship and there have been more calls on one such fund, the General Bursary Fund, than at any time in the last two decades.
Boys taking part in Covid-safe CCF training, with masks being a new addition to the uniform for some. Thus, Summer Term 2020 was different for everybody from any other term experienced in recent history. The College could not open its doors to its boys, and, as a result of lockdown, over 250 operational staff were placed on furlough, all on full pay. Boys still received an education, through Virtual Radley (see pages 20-23 for a flavour). In view of a Virtual Radley, we discounted fees in the Summer term by 30%. Despite furlough grants, and a number of cost savings, the College lost around £1m during this period, but we entered the 2020/21 year with confidence. L Social opened in September, demand for places at Radley has been as strong as ever, and the term started with 736 boys – almost all back on campus, but with a small number from overseas still receiving a virtual education. Our Chapel extension project is progressing well, after a short delay, and we expect the newly enlarged Chapel to open before Easter 2021, and the new organ to be installed in Summer 2021. We are also enormously grateful to those parents who gave back their fee discount to support the College, enabling us to supplement our funding of hardship payments and other causes. We continue to manage the College in a Covid-safe way, and we are of course reviewing this on a regular basis. We have wanted to insulate parents from the financial impact of the changes we have had to make. School fees were frozen for 2020/21 and the costs of our various safety measures have been borne out of reserves. Given the College’s land sale in 2019, more money is being invested in our endowment funds and more is now available for bursaries. Our decision to invest money through Oxford University Endowment Management, whose whole investment philosophy is around the long-term preservation of capital, while delivering growing annual returns, has been timely in light of the impact of Covid on the markets, and, to date, this has helped shield us from the worst of the impact of the pandemic on asset values. While Covid has led to an inevitable impact on short term financial performance for the College, it has served to remind us how important it is to have financial resilience, and to be able to take, with confidence, long term decisions around the best interests of the College. Young people are resilient, and as staff and parents we have much to learn
One of the marquees used to provide additional meeting, teaching and dining space for Michaelmas Term in Chapel Quad. Behind it, the work on the Chapel extension continues.
Social bubbles gather in front of the cricket pavilion as the Chaplain leads the College in prayer on the first Sunday of Michaelmas Term. from the way our boys rose to the challenges of Covid. I am delighted at how resilient Radley staff have been, and how committed they have been in ensuring we rise to the challenges we continue to face, and deliver the best possible outcomes for our boys and for the College’s long-term prosperity to benefit future generations. I was asked at a staff briefing in October, “Has Covid delivered any benefits for the College?”. It was a great question. None of us would have wished what has happened, and, as I write, it still feels as if we all have a long way to go. But we do indeed have much to take with us from the lessons forced on us by Covid. We are more technologically enabled and more confident in the use of technology. We have seen first-hand the importance of cash and reserves – indeed relearnt the lessons I feel every generation must learn, that you value what you have, you protect it, and nurture it for the future. Finally, we have a greater sense of community, and the importance of supporting each other – not just on campus, but in our local communities around Radley, Abingdon and Oxford – and there are some great initiatives taking place which should stand the College in good stead. To choose just one, it is the College’s involvement in supporting the expansion of Radley Primary School, in which we have brokered agreement between the county education provider and Radley Parish Council for a joint project to deliver an improved school hall for the enlarged Primary School. Something that will benefit the community of Radley Village, including many of our staff, for generations to come.
Andrew Ashton Bursar
