Alumni newsletter - November 2021

East Anglia Independent Secondary School of the Decade To find out more please visit stephenperse.com Richard Girvan, Principal

Welcome I am writing to you, our Alumni community, to introduce myself and to reflect on what has been an extraordinary start to my time as Principal of the Stephen Perse Foundation. I joined the Foundation in August 2020 directly from my role as Surmaster at St Paul’s School in London.

Whilst it has undoubtedly been challenging to join the Foundation during the global pandemic, I feel very fortunate to work with

the most outstanding team of staff here at the Foundation. The Foundation is blessed with a superb team of academic and support staff, among them subject experts, authors and examiners across the academic spectrum. However, it is the quality of the pastoral care that I have observed among my new colleagues that has most impressed, and has been most crucial in supporting our pupils of all ages through a most extraordinary time.

East Anglia Independent Secondary School of the Decade At the end of last year we were thrilled to have been recognised by The Sunday Times annual Parent Power awards as East Anglia Independent Secondary School of the Decade. This award was in recognition of the vision of my predecessor Tricia Kelleher. Ten years ago, Tricia believed children should be taught with an embedded digital curriculum as well as books.

This foresight ensured our students and staff were superbly well placed in March

2020 when all schools across the country closed overnight and learning shifted to online provision. All students across the Foundation moved seamlessly to remote learning. The Sunday Times award recognised our distinctively innovative approach, validating our forward-thinking digital strategy and our ability to deliver highly effective remote teaching.

renewed vision for the future. Part of that journey is the creation of a new department - The Charitable Foundation Office.

As you will be aware, the Foundation is a charity and last year we appointed Heidi Hall as our Charitable Foundation Director to lead on developing our charitable and philanthropic work. This is also an area of

passion and particular interest for me as Principal and together we look to further develop the sense of community, and its positive impact on society, in particular in offering life changing bursaries for students to attend our schools.

Reconnecting During this time, it has however been very difficult to continue our engagement with you, our alumni. We are hopeful as we now emerge from this difficult period to begin to reconnect with you and rebuild our community. I am keen to welcome you back to visit us here at the Foundation and to be able to share with you our

Issue 001 - November 2021

Alumnet We will soon be launching our new digital platform Alumnet, which we believe is a first step to reconnecting with our alumni. This platform has been purpose built for us and we are hopeful as it develops over time, it will allow alumni not only to keep in touch and hear our latest news, but enable you to offer opportunities to our current students, work experience, internships, take part in

inspirational discussions, take the opportunity to be a guest speaker, to share your personal stories, even to network amongst fellow alumni and colleagues.

Ultimately, it allows you to be as engaged as little or as much as you would like.

We would be delighted to hear from you if you would like to contribute to the launch of this with any photographs,

stories, memorabilia or any information you feel we should include. We are particularly interested in photographs and those who would be happy to champion an era or specialist subjects, such as music, drama, art or sport. Please do get in touch with Leanne Sanders (lrs@stephenperse.com), who is our newly appointed Development Manager who will oversee all Alumni engagement.

Spread the word We would also like to ask for your help in spreading the word about reconnecting with us to any of your contemporaries. We are aware that our database may not have the most up to date contact details, so please do share this update with anyone you feel would like to hear from us and remain connected.

Independent Schools Inspectorate The Stephen Perse were recently inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate by a team of ten inspectors across all our schools. The Educational Quality inspection covered two key areas; firstly the achievement of our students, including academic development and secondly the personal development of students.

I am delighted to report that the key findings in both of these

areas were ‘excellent’ the highest judgement possible. To have received the highest judgement of ‘excellent’ in both areas is hugely affirming for all of us at the Foundation and I hope that it is suitably reassuring for you that we are continuing to offer the highest quality of education to those children in our schools.

Tackling Inequality The global pandemic has highlighted even further the inequalities that exist not just in the wider world but also across our city and region and it is more important than ever that we drive forward our charitable ambitions to help address these inequalities. We are committed to continue to build on the principles and values of our Founder, Dr Stephen Perse who believed that an outstanding

education should be a right rather than a privilege. Foremost among many things that brought me to the Foundation, was the manifest commitment of the modern Foundation’s Governing Body to those founding principles and values.

You may know that we already have a programme of bursaries and financial assistance allowing talented young people

to access a Stephen Perse education irrespective of family income, indeed some of you may have benefitted from financial assistance when you attended the School.

If you were a recipient of a bursary during your time we would really welcome hearing from you and if you would be willing to share your personal journey with us.

Partnership with North Cambridge Academy In 2019 we also launched an exciting new initiative, which is now growing, offering a number of 100% bursaries annually to sixth form students from North Cambridge Academy. Students benefit from two transformational years of education and opportunity at a key stage, providing measurable outcomes in their results and future pathways. It is clear that providing such opportunities at a crucial stage in a young person’s education has the potential to be truly life changing.

New Sixth Form building on Bateman Street, Cambridge

The Big Give Christmas Challenge 2021 This year, for the first time, we will be taking part in The Big Give Christmas Challenge 2021- which takes place from midday on 30 November to 7 December and will raise funds to support this very important bursary scheme. We aim to raise £20,000 during the week to support more life changing sixth form bursaries and donations will be generously matched by our supporters during the campaign meaning all donations will have double the impact for those students in need. You can watch a short film here about the difference this project makes by hearing directly from students who joined us from North Cambridge Academy.

I look forward to having the opportunity of meeting many of you face to face over the months ahead as we start to hold more events on site.

Please do get in touch with our new Development Manager and help spread the word about reconnecting.

Best wishes Richard Girvan, Principal

The Stephen Perse Foundation (a Company Limited by Guarantee, registered in England and Wales, Company No:06113565, Registered Office: The Stephen Perse Foundation, Union Road, Cambridge CB2 1HF) comprises the Stephen Perse Salisbury Villas, the Stephen Perse Madingley School, the Stephen Perse Rosedale House, Dame Bradbury’s School, the Stephen Perse Senior School, the Stephen Perse Sixth Form and SPF International and is a registered charity for the advancement of education (Charity No. 1120608).

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