Partners: IDPE Bursaries and partnerships

BURSARIES AND PARTNERSHIPS

THE PATH TO SOCIAL MOBILITY?

With the pandemic leading to a widening gap in educational attainment between children from disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers, Louise Bennett explores how the independent sector can play a role in addressing educational inequality through developing successful partnership and bursary programmes.

Bursaries enable pupils, regardless of their fi nancial background, to access an independent education. This enriches the life of the bursary recipient and the entire school community. Partnerships are now an integral part of school life, enhancing learning opportunities for young people and adding value both to schools and their communities.

With more schools delivering transformational bursary programmes and the surge in partnerships and community engagement, IDPE is once more partnering with HMC and AGBIS to deli er the fi fth chool ursaries and Partnerships Conference on Tuesday 8 March. Ahead of the conference, we explore some of the key takeaways and best practice shared at the last conference in 2020.

Defi ne your end goal

Having a simple, authentic story for your school that you can clearly defi ne and share with your community is essential. You need to explain why you are developing a bursary or partnerships programme and what is your vision.

A great example is Latymer Upper School’s long-running and generous bursary programme which clearly re ects its alues and commitment to social mobility. Get your whole school community on board

Share your vision with your whole school community. It’s just as important that your staff and pupils understand the value of bursaries and partnerships as it is your alumni and parents. Giving Days are a fantastic way to share your vision and encourage engagement across your entire school.

It takes time

Developing a bursary or partnerships programme won’t happen overnight, it requires a long-term investment, staff, resources and funding, to bring about real change. We know from our regular benchmarking of schools’ development that sustained investment over time produces fundraising success; the longer your development programme has been established, the better the ROI. So start small and be realistic. What is achievable given the size and resource of your school?

Celebrate impact

s fi rst e er i ing eek as held in November 2021 and provided the opportunity to celebrate the impact of philanthropy in schools. Bursaries and partnerships transform lives. Share the impact of your bursaries and partnership programmes with your school community, particularly with your donors who are supporting you to achieve this change. ●

School Vision

Latymer Upper School

‘Our ethos of social inclusivity is as strong today as it was in 1624 when Edward Latymer, a prosperous lawyer, left part of his wealth for the clothing and education of “eight poore boyes” from Hammersmith.

Through the Inspiring Minds fundraising campaign, we have been able to increase the number of bursaries, even during the pandemic. At the start of this academic year, one in fi ve of our pupils are here on a signifi cant bursary (average award offers are for more than 80% fee remission). That’s double what it was 10 years ago and we remain on course to make that one in four pupils by 2024, the 400th anniversary of the Latymer Foundation. When we reach that target that will make us one of the most socially inclusive independent schools in the country.’

LOUISE BENNETT

is CEO of IDPE.