Issue Number 001 AUTUMN TERM
FOUNDATION FOCUS “It is a great pleasure to introduce the first Uppingham Foundation newsletter. This new publication will celebrate recent achievements made possible by our benefactors as well as outlining our ambitions for the future.
Patrick Mulvihill International Development Director
The Foundation is now in its 21st year, and thanks to the support of generations of OUs and parents, it has had a huge impact on life at Uppingham. However, our work going forward is arguably more important than ever. The experiences that we as a nation have had in dealing with Covid-19 have shown that the future is hard to predict and difficult to plan for. To help Uppingham prepare for
this, we have launched the Uppingham Forward Fund, a vital initiative for the future of the School. We hope you will enjoy reading about our work and how it helps to shape the School’s future for the better. If you would like to know more about any of the projects described or the wider activities of the Foundation, please do get in touch.”
THE FOUNDATION 20TH ANNIVERSARY It has been 20 years since the Foundation was launched and in that time, it has played a major role in transforming Uppingham for the 21st century. Initially, under the leadership of chairman Johnny Nettleton (SH 61), our focus was the arts, with notable projects including the Paul David Music School and the Williams Studio Theatre. In 2007, under its new chairman Mark Glatman (L 69), the Foundation embarked on the biggest fundraising appeal in the School’s history when plans for the new ‘Western Quad’ were revealed. Three years later the USSC was opened by Lord Coe and in 2014 the Science Centre, arguably the best of its kind in the UK, was opened by Professor Sir Alec Jeffries. With the addition of the redeveloped Leonardo, the Western Quad was complete, thanks to the incredible in-kind and financial support we received amounting to £20m.
Since 2014, the Foundation’s focus has been on widening access to the School under the chairmanship of Anthony Smith (WB 81) and with Dominic Wallis (F 82) now at the helm, big plans are being prepared to secure the School’s future with the Uppingham Forward Fund. We are incredibly grateful to all of the OUs, parents, staff and trustees who have helped us along the way, including the late Colin Williams (L 55), former Chairman of Trustees, whose vision it was to create the Foundation back in 1999. We are sure he would have been pleased with all that has been achieved.
Former chairmen Johnny Nettleton and Mark Glatman at the Western Quad
Paul David Music School
THE UPPINGHAM FORWARD FUND If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that nothing can be taken for granted. The disruption that Covid-19 has caused is unprecedented and led to us closing our doors for the first time in over 140 years. During lockdown, the School used the latest virtual meeting software to teach our pupils throughout the UK and overseas. Though nothing can truly replicate the physical classroom environment, we were able to offer sectorleading learning solutions that minimised the impact of the enforced closure’. Thankfully, we were able to reconvene in full at the beginning of September, and it has been a pleasure to see corridors and classrooms teeming with pupils once again. However, having weathered the initial storm, we must now turn our attention to the future, and we anticipate challenging times ahead.
Financial difficulties forced the closure of over 40 independent schools in 2020, and while Uppingham thankfully faces no such threat, planning for the future has never been more important. To that end, we have launched the Uppingham Forward Fund, a new philanthropy-led initiative that will safeguard our School in the years to come. The Fund will create a financial reserve that will enable Uppingham to respond swiftly and effectively to unexpected crises, preserving the quality of education we offer even in the most trying times.
It is both the historic mission of the School and our vision for the future to create a balanced pupil community, chosen for character and potential. Reducing the financial barriers that can limit access to Uppingham ensures our pupil-body is made up of a diverse range of individuals from communities throughout the UK. Ultimately, our vision is to make the highest standards of teaching available to as many young people as possible. The bursaries programme can benefit recipients in a number of ways, from covering school fees, in their entirety or in part, or purchasing equipment, instruments or school trips. Ultimately, any monies given will be used to help pupils who have been awarded a bursary get the most from their time at Uppingham.
• Enable investment in technology and resources that future-proof Uppingham against issues we will face in the years ahead. • I ncrease accessibility to Uppingham through the expansion of the bursaries programme. • A dd to and improve our secure, inspiring, innovative campus environment.
For more information on the Forward Fund, please don’t hesitate to contact Vincent Gaten, Deputy Foundation Director, at vg2@uppingham.co.uk
SUPPORTING BURSARIES The bursaries programme supports talented children from less affluent backgrounds to access a world-class Uppingham education.
THE FORWARD FUND WILL :
Our programme is solely funded by generous donations from OUs and parents, so we are proud to be supporting 15 talented pupils from very financially disadvantaged backgrounds this academic year. If you would like to know more about the support we offer to bursary recipients, please contact Vincent Gaten at vg2@uppingham.co.uk.
“Uppingham exposed me to a range of experiences and pushed me to try new things. Most importantly, I wouldn’t have had the confidence or opportunity to take a gap year and lay the foundations for my future career in global health.” Jassica Enum (L 16).
UPPINGHAM CALLING
At the beginning of September, recent leavers spoke to several hundred OUs, giving them an update on life at Uppingham and sharing news as part of the Uppingham Telephone Campaign 2020. Working alongside Regular Giving Manager, Helen Bradford, the small group of OUs also introduced the Uppingham Forward Fund. This is a new fundraising initiative that you can read more about in this issue of Foundation Focus. To date, the initiative has raised more than £90,000, with donations still coming in. Helen commented: “The last time we
embarked on a similar initiative was in 2016. This time around, circumstances are very different, so we are thrilled with the level of support received. The success of the Campaign has shown us that OUs still feel a strong affinity to their School, and that they still see Uppingham as a worthy recipient for their philanthropy. Everyone here is incredibly grateful for the support each of our donors chose to offer, and for the hard work of our group of diligent young OU fundraisers.”
One of our callers said:
“I enjoyed a variety of engaging conversations with OUs, covering a range of topics. I learnt so much more about the School which made raising money to support the work of the Foundation even more rewarding.”
LOOK OUT FOR UPDATES ON FUNDS RAISED ONLINE
DONOR PROFILE: THE REEVES FAMILY In each edition of Foundation Focus we will feature a donor who has had a significant impact on the School. In our first issue, we recognise the Reeves family. Christopher Reeves (L 1917) first made a gift to Uppingham in the 1960s, donating £60,000 to pay for the entire extension of the School Chapel. The donation was made following an opportune conversation between headmaster
Martin Lloyd and Christopher Reeves at an OU dinner. This led to a philanthropic partnership that has lasted over 60 years. The Charitable Trust was founded to continue Christopher Reeves’ philanthropic work and the current custodians are his grandchildren, Andrew Reeves (L 86), Lucy Rand (L 95) and Emma Royall (Fd 93).
The Reeves family continue to support the School to this day, most recently donating £250,000 towards the bursaries programme. Andrew, Lucy and Emma are committed to supporting Uppingham to widen access to transformative educational opportunities, and we look forward to working with them for many years to come.
INVESTING IN SPORT
In recent years donors have funded floodlights on the Sunley astroturf pitches, ten all-weather cricket nets, a hi-tech performance analysis camera for rugby, and the development of a performance suite in the Sports Centre, in addition to supporting Sports Scholarships.
This investment in sport through the Foundation has directly impacted on the success of the School’s teams, with the 1st XV achieving their best season since 1998, beating Oakham, Oundle and Bedford. Not to be outdone, the girls’ 1st XI hockey team also beat Oundle and Oakham and ended the year as one of the top teams in the country, rounding off an exciting year for sport at Uppingham.
Looking ahead, plans are being developed for further investment into cricket and rugby and we look forward to sharing more details of this in future editions of the Foundation Focus. More details of the project will be released in the New Year.
HELPING FUTURE GENERATIONS In the next issue we will look at how legacies have impacted life at Uppingham School over the years. Legacies help improve our facilities and offer bursaries to pupils each year and we are so grateful to those OUs who leave the School a gift in their will. Donations can be allocated to an area or department of the
School that an OU was particularly passionate about, ranging from the arts to academia. If you would like to learn how to make a difference to future generations, please contact Amy Hayward-Paine, on 01572 820617, or ahp@uppingham.co.uk.
Foundation Office, Uppingham School, High Street West, Uppingham, Rutland LE15 9QE Phone: +44(0) 1572 822216
www.uppingham.co.uk/community/ous/philanthropy Registered Charity number 1147280. Registered Office: High Street West, Uppingham, Rutland LE15 9QD.