CHARITABLE STATUS
Lighting fires
“Life is like riding a bicycle
– in order to keep your
The public benefit requirement
balance, you must keep
moving.”
Albert Einstein
“The biggest problem in
neighbouring state schools? One solution is to use the
the world could have been
internet or video-conferencing to share teaching and
solved when it was small.”
learning with state schools further afield. Another, as
suggested by the Charity Commission, is to “work with
Witter Bynner
schools overseas that provide education to children
from families that cannot afford to pay for children’s
“The three great essentials to
education”. Sums which buy little in this country can
transform schools and educational resources in the
achieve anything worthwhile
developing world and can be raised imaginatively and
enjoyably by pupils. are, first, hard work; second,
Conclusions stick-to-itiveness; third,
Partnerships with state schools and providing fee
assistance for those in need have been at the core of
common sense.”
some independent schools’ purposes for many years. Thomas Edison
The Charity Commission now seems to be
determined to ensure that all fee-paying schools with
charitable status follow this path. In these challenging
“If we wait for the moment
economic times it will not be easy. It is indeed possible
when everything, absolutely
to engage in many worthwhile partnership activities at
marginal cost – but the Charity Commission appears to
everything, is ready we
be intending to judge the value of such ventures by the
resources expended rather than educational worth. shall never begin.”
The Department for Children, Schools and Families
Ivan Turgenev
may have something to say about this. Schools do not
have the option of just giving up their charitable status
and continuing to exist; this is not legally possible. One
“A good teacher is like a
must take comfort from the Charity Commission’s
own statement: “No charity will be expected to make candle – it consumes itself
changes overnight and we will take reasonable account
of how much time and resources might be needed by a
to light the way for others.”
charity that needs to make changes in order to meet the
Unknown
requirement.”
We might also reflect that the Charity Commission’s
own resources are extremely limited and it has to police
“Wheresoever you go, go
many thousands of charities of all kinds. SecEd
with all your heart.”
• Marion Gibbs is headmistress of James Allen’s Girls’ Confucius
School in south London.
Further information
Send your favourite inspirational
The Charity Commission: www.charity-commission.
quotes to editor@sec-ed.co.uk
gov.uk
of pounds. This is not a realistic prospect for the vast have worked together ever since on a huge range of
majority of independent schools. projects, large and small, involving over 1,000 pupils
A small prep boarding school in the midst of the and hundreds of teachers, encompassing English,
countryside may well have no endowment, its current mathematics, science, modern languages, drama,
parents may be struggling to pay the fees and there may be music, art, sports, technology, humanities, teaching
few poor families who would wish to send their children styles, pupil learning enquiries, and pupil voice.
to board in a remote location among those from different Arising from this, our head of classics has also
backgrounds. One hopes that the Charity Commission been teaching Latin to GCSE in an after-school class
will apply the principle of proportionality alluded to at our partner state school for the past two years. We
earlier; however, its guidance also states: “Trustees might are engaged in many more projects, far too numerous
therefore decide to increase general fee levels in order to to mention here.
offer subsidies to those unable to pay the full cost. While However, the exemplar report on Alltown School
this option is certainly available to trustees, it may not be Foundation Charity causes disquiet in two respects.
desirable or feasible for every fee-charging charity.” First, it indicates a requirement to state a precise
One or two high profile public schools have figure for the amount spent on such activities. How
announced a levy on parents to subsidise bursaries, many schools have ever quantified all of the things
but this seems more likely to be the exception than the that they do with state partners? If we have a visiting Let Moss Bros Hire, the UK’s leading formalwear hire specialist with the most stylish
norm. In the current financial climate, fees increases are theatre company or lecturer or hold a conference we
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and their pupils to join us at no cost. Should we now
Links with state schools
be dividing up the costs per head and recording them
JAGS was sharing its facilities and undertaking joint – and not just the presenter’s fees but perhaps the
projects with local state schools long before I became refreshments, too? How petty-minded is that?
headmistress 15 years ago. We can tick most of the Second, and more importantly, the Charity
S p e c i a L S t U d e n t o f f e r
boxes listed in the Charity Commission’s December Commission exemplar implies that the independent
2008 guidance. Six local state schools regularly use our school is the “lady bountiful”. We have spent years
£ 2 6 . 0 0 t w o p i e c e t U x
swimming pool free of charge and our sports fields and trying to dispel the view that state-independent school
ecology areas are also shared. partnerships are unequal. We firmly believe that we
Since 1993, we have run a Saturday School for the all have something to offer one another and we are as
Performing Arts which now has 450 pupils aged three likely to be invited to attend a twilight training session
to 18 from some 80 local schools. Since 1997, we have at a state school as to invite them to join us.
Your local Moss Bros Hire store can visit your school for a free,
housed, and staffed with 48 pupil mentors, a Saturday Totting up monetary benefits in the way suggested
no fuss fitting service for your students.
literacy scheme for year 3 pupils from 11 local state by the Charity Commission can only serve to return
primary schools. us to an era of “crumbs from the rich man’s table” – a Call 07774 965 587 or visit mossbroshire.co.uk
In 2003, I co-founded the Southwark Schools’ concept totally alien to those of us who have worked so
Learning Partnership with Dr Irene Bishop, head of hard within partnerships for so many years.
the state-maintained St Saviour’s and St Olave’s CE Back to the more isolated, rural independent school
School, and our state and independent school partners – how can they form partnerships when they have no
MBH HSP ad.indd 1 27/03/2009 14:20:23
SecEd • May 14 2009 9
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