12 minute read
In conversation with Ali Henderson CEO
- IN CONVERSATION WITH-
ALI HENDERSON
Zoe MacDougall talks to Ali Henderson about the role that independent schools can and are playing in helping to bridge the educational divide through harnessing the power of bursary opportunities for those young people who need them most.
How would you describe the Royal National Children’s SpringBoard Foundation’s history and current mission statement?
Our mission is to provide young people facing the most challenging of circumstances access to fully funded bursaries at boarding and independent day schools. We target those opportunities for young people who either currently, or have been, looked after in the care system; are vulnerable and on the ‘edge of care due to diffi cult home lives; or are from areas with high levels of social deprivation.
We were launched originally in 2012 to scale up the model of the Arnold Foundation of Rugby School, which worked with young people from a community organisation in East London, all of whom had been identifi ed as young leaders but ho faced really precarious situations in their home environment, often related to drugs, county lines and knife crime. Through this partnership at community level, young people were provided with the opportunity to attend Rugby School.
We took this model of collaborative partnerships to scale – offering schools across the UK the infrastructure to help identify, prepare and support some of the UK’s most marginalised and vulnerable children to gain bursary places and thrive within those schools. Our way of working ensures that we remain in close contact with all ‘SpringBoarders’ beyond their bursary placements, to enable them to secure the fulfi lling future careers that we know they desire and deserve. In 2017, we merged with RNCF to become the UK’s largest bursary charity,
Ali HENDERSON
Ali Henderson is CEO of Royal National
Children’s SpringBoard Foundation (RNCSF).
She has over 15 years’ experience of leading programmes and policies to address social inequality, having worked across central and local government in policy and programme management. Ali worked for Oxfam in a strategic policy role prior to joining RNCSF to lead policy role prior to joining RNCSF to lead their approach to impact and learning. She was their approach to impact and learning. She was appointed as CEO of RNCSF in March 2020. appointed as CEO of RNCSF in March 2020.
which has allowed us to support hundreds of young people to attend schools on fully funded bursaries each year.
o do you fi nd e young eo le o ll enefi o ro a ur ary
We work in partnership with local organisations that know those families facing the most precarious situations. We’ve got those partnerships in about 30 locations across the UK now. Each one is a place that’s facing a cocktail of complex challenges – whether due to high rates of child poverty, knife and drug crime or, equally, where there are entrenched issues such a generational unemployment and lack of available good state schools. Those community partner organisations work with families where there may be intervention from social services, police involvement or housing issues. We also work directly with social care professionals who can refer pupils ho ha e signifi cant care experience or are formally ‘looked-after’.
We’re deliberately targeting our efforts on young people who would otherwise face a very different life path. Each year, we take on 120 or 130 young people.
o do you re are young eo le ro ery d eren o al ul ural and e ono a ground or l e a oard ng ool
The preparation process is hugely important and it can last for up to 18 months. Our programmes work carefully as part of a very deliberate and well-scaffolded programme, to ensure that young people feel ready for the opportunity and will settle and thrive. We match the young people to a partner school that we think best suits them, according to their academic profi le, co-curricular interests and pastoral needs. Prior to attending school, all of our young people undertake our Preparation for Boarding Programme. Many of our young people have got care experience, so we talk to them about how they might describe that, for example. As part of the preparation process, we often talk about issues of diversity and inclusion – to help SpringBoarders consider how they might react when faced with discrimination, particularly around ethnicity and socio-economic circumstances.
We connect our new students to a buddy, who is ideally a SpringBoarder from the school that they are about to attend and a couple of years ahead and organise Zoom conversations between them about what to expect. And then, when they arrive, that buddy remains a presence for them. We encourage taster visits, so ordinarily the young people will attend their intended school overnight at least once in the summer term prior to a September start. And we do sessions with parents, too, to prepare them for what to expect. Then, when they’re attending the schools, they remain connected to the community organisation who worked with us to place them. When they return home in the holidays, these community organisations will touch base with them. When they’re at school, colleagues in our partnership organisations call them and visit them.
It’s not always easy for the young people to make these transitions. But we are immensely proud of our retention rate of 96%. Which is to say that very few SpringBoarders fail to continue through to the end of their intended school journey.
Photo credits: Royal National Children’s SpringBoard Foundation
o doe a ool fi nd e und ng o ena le e o u or a r ng oarder o a end e r ool
About 40% of our schools will fund the entirety of the bursary, made up of 100% school fees plus 10% for extras. These schools may fundraise for their bursaries from within their own development operations or they set aside funding for a place from within their operating surplus o it s a fi nancial commitment on the part of the school. For the remaining 60% of our schools, we provide a small grant for the school to use to match our funding with that from other donors and build up a funding package that enables the school to unlock a bursary place. But the funding model is one very small part of what we do. Our primary role is to help schools to identify, prepare and support bursary holders from within their existing bursary schemes.
When you become an accredited RNCSF school, how does that status impact the rest of the school community?
Participating schools really see that SpringBoarders can play a vital part in building an interesting, vibrant pupil community that represents the diversity of contemporary society. These young people bring a real hunger and appetite for learning, and a real enthusiasm for the opportunities on offer, and this can help their peers to appreciate the fortunate position that they themselves are in. Every year, we have SpringBoarders who become Head Boy, Head Girl, Head of House and often that’s within just a year of being in the school. That truly tells us how quickly they adapt and settle, and also shows how they really are young leaders. They have faced very different circumstances and as a result they are resilient, confi dent, extraordinary young people
What reactions do you see from existing parents as schools introduce SpringBoarders into the student body?
Parents, in general, want their child to be educated in a ay that builds di ersity of thought, that exposes them to a range of opinions and that helps them to understand the vibrancy of modern Britain. Therefore, many see a SpringBoard kite mark at their school as a really important sign that the school is deeply committed to bringing these objectives to life.
a are e enefi o ar a ng schools of being involved in bursary provision as part of a national organ a on o do ey fi nd ou more about what you do?
We are really proud of the number of partnerships and relationships which we have developed over the years to provide schools with the assurance that, by offering
... a real belief in widening access
a bursary place to a SpringBoarder, they are targeting opportunities on those who most deserve them. This is hard for individual schools to do alone, and we talk often to schools about the benefi ts of being part of the collective effort and the economies of scale that can be gained in working through us at a national scale. By virtue of having 120–130 young people on bursaries each year, we are also ensuring that individual bursary award holders are connected to a broader community of others sharing similar experiences, hich is incredibly important to their wellbeing and is hard for one school to recreate independently. We also provide the bespoke alumni offering to help ensure that schools can feel confi dent that their bursary award holders can continue to access the support they need to aim high and thrive in their lives beyond school. chools can fi nd out more about orking ith us from our website: royalspringboard.org.uk/about-us
Do you have any thoughts about how schools may be able to continue to support full bursaries when the political tone towards the independent schools sector may mean an increase in fees for all families?
n the future, it may become increasingly diffi cult for some independent schools to survive and thrive in what could be a challenging economic environment. Schools will need to make hard choices about the opportunity costs of setting aside a place for a SpringBoarder as opposed to a fee-paying family. I feel optimistic that schools are deeply committed to building diverse and interesting pupil communities and playing their part in widening access. It may get harder, but it will still be equally important to do so. The political environment requires schools to demonstrate that they are playing their part in ensuring that they are accessible to the most marginalised young people, to those facing the most complex and challenging circumstances. So, our argument is that if you have bursary funds to set aside, then set those aside for SpringBoarders, because politically you can then be clear that the sector is playing its part in bridging the educational divide. ●
ZOE MACDOUGALL is an educational commentator with extensive teaching experience in both the independent and maintained sectors. Zoe also contributes to
timewithmytween.blog
WELLBEING:
WHY AREN’T WE DECLARING AN EMERGENCY?
A whole-school approach to PSHE, mental health and wellbeing puts the emphasis on prevention as well as cure, say Jigsaw Education Group specialists.
IIf the past year and a half has taught us anything it’s that we are not doing enough to support the educators of today to empower the adults of tomorrow.
Global changes have only increased our awareness of an already long list of issues facing schools today and it’s our responsibility to provide the education that enables a multicultural, healthy and connected world.
Young people around the world have been locked out of classrooms, sequestered in their homes and robbed of the everyday joy of playing with friends — all consequences of the pandemic. A wellrounded person is someone who cares about themselves and is aware of their wider community and how to integrate with others.
If you learn about health and wellbeing issues early, the values and responsibilities that are embeded allow for a more global, open-minded approach to the world you live in.
“Young people around the world have been locked out of classrooms, sequestered in their homes and robbed of the everyday joy of playing with friends.”
The question is, why has this not been declared an emergency? For educators and students, learning about their and others’ emotions from a young age allows for a much stronger interest in their own actions. We live in a much more diverse world now and our actions should aim to have a positive effect on the communities in which we live.
UNICEF’s 2021 report The State of the World’s Children says: “Around the orld, mental disorders are a signifi cant and often ignored cause of suffering that interfere with children’s and young people’s health and education and their ability to reach their full potential. “
Within our PSHE framework, the themes and units encourage young people to engage in topics about self-identity, families and friends, relationships, societal change and learn about the importance of dealing with mental health and wellbeing. In turn, this helps increase interest in what is happening around the world. Overall, it inspires young people to act and behave more responsibly when around others.
While it is important to dedicate time to learners to understand these themes in more detail, we also need to recognise that the schools’ actions will also affect how the school and its young people interact and contribute to the wider community. Integrating the curriculum across the school allows for small steps to be taken in boosting mindfulness and wellbeingwhich then have the potential to impact more far-reaching actions.
Personal, Social, Health, and Economic education (PSHE) is now a mandatory subject for schools who follow the UK curriculum. By following the curriculum provided by Jigsaw you are not only inspiring children to become more globalised citizens but ensuring schools follow statutory requirements from the DfE and Ofsted.
“PSHE, and in particular its elements of relationships education, sex education, and health education, are of critical importance in every school, and to every pupil,” says schools inspector Roary Pownall, Ofsted’s subject lead for PSHE Education, RSHE and Citizenship.
“Creating a mindfulness approach across the whole school community can have a major impact on the world.”
As such we are so proud to be able to provide school groups, leaders, teachers, and young people with a curriculum that motivates learners to be more mindful, understanding and socially aware of the local or global communities they live in.
Health and wellbeing have become an increasingly important part of education over the past few years and have now been heightened even more. At Jigsaw we hope that schools around the world contribute to developing the lives of young people through a curriculum that enables learners to in uence change
Creating a mindfulness approach across the whole school community can have a major impact on the world. If we support our learners, families and parents around the issues of SEL, mental health and wellbeing we will be creating a new generation of young people who are going to move on to achieve truly great success. From here, who knows what lies in the future. ●
For more information about Jigsaw please visit our website www.jigsawpshe.com
