ISSUE 2 | NOVEMBER 2013
FUNDRAISINGNEWS
The SpringBoard Bursary Foundation Every now and again the stars align themselves and good things happen. I am the first CEO of the recently founded SpringBoard Bursary Foundation. I arrived at SpringBoard from beautiful mid Devon, where I was the Head Master of Blundell’s School, having previously been a housemaster at Radley College and before that a derivatives trader and analyst for a large American investment bank. A strange but interesting career path, but to quote Alice (as in Wonderland) “if you don’t explore, you will never discover”, I fully believe this outlook on life came from my school days. I benefitted from a bursary which allowed me to attend a boarding school which subsequently transformed my life. It gave me the confidence to explore my enthusiasms and interests; there is a rabbinical saying, “there are two gifts we can give our children, the first is roots and the second is wings”, this is what my boarding school did for me. The SpringBoard Bursary Foundation’s objective is to give life transforming opportunities to pupils from difficult and disadvantaged backgrounds who would best benefit from a boarding experience. There are two unique features to us; the first is that we only work with pupils who have been recommended to us from
mentoring charities and secondly the boarding schools are accredited by us to ensure that they have given real thought to the extra level of pastoral care which may be necessary to ensure pupils from different backgrounds get the best out of their school experience. What have we found so far? Well, thirty pupils began in September at a range of boarding schools; Rugby, upon whom we are based, Oundle, Eton, Marlborough, Lord Wandsworth College, King Edward’s Witley and Wellington Academy among others have been the pioneering schools. The latter is a state boarding school and we will be expanding this area in years to come, because we are about excellent boarding environments and they certainly qualify. So far, of our thirty, three pupils have already been elected to their school councils by their peers, one is the lead in the school play, a good number have taken up interests not formerly developed and all have said they are enjoying the extra level of academic intensity. In addition we surveyed well over a hundred existing bursary pupils about what they found most difficult in moving to a boarding school but also what they find most appealing. The results have informed our training and our accreditation process as well as giving
us real confidence that we are making a profound difference to many lives and communities. Ninety eight per cent said they were delighted with and grateful for the opportunity. The vast majority expressed the view that moving between home and school was not a significant issue. Indeed, they felt that in making this decision they had inspired others in their community to raise their aspirations, thus we can be sure that our effect is wider than the effect on the individual pupil. This is important to us. We already have evidence that school communities are changing as they develop greater understanding of the wider complexities that some face. These schools are richer because of this diversity. We are on track to introduce another fifty pupils to boarding school life by this time next year. I am of course grateful to the stars but more so to the many schools who have taken a deep interest in our work and also the many community leaders, all of them living saints, who have been so enthusiastic in recommending pupils. Ian Davenport SpringBoard Chief Executive