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SPECIAL REPORT | SURVIVING THE RECESSION | 17
but the principle is there and we’re keen to give pupils the opportunity to know about it. We have smart metering links to the geography classroom so pupils (13+) can see live-time utilities consumption as part of the curriculum.” The provision of excellent sports
ABOVE: King's Canterbury solar panels. LEFT: Highfield's biomass system will save the school a tidy sum
facilities at Rutland’s Oakham School is one way it provides parents with value- for-money. One of the sector’s largest, with over 1,060 pupils, it boasts 48 acres of grass, used for nine rugby, six football and five hockey pitches in the autumn and six cricket squares, grass nets and an athletics track in the summer, when the England and Wales Cricket Board stages training courses and fixtures. A natural choice for sporty children,
England cricketer (and ODI team captain) Stuart Broad is one of several England international alumni. Keeping this land green and pleasant
places further north are finding things tougher and there remains a London bubble. One school in the north east, where HMRC and Northern Rock pulled out, saw its pupil numbers fall. Consequently, it went to the state saying, ‘We have a school with a good tradition’ and merged with another school, becoming an academy. If you think in terms of Eton and Harrow as the top tier, Rugby and Arundel as the second, the third tier is still OK, but it would be in the fourth tier where things are more hand-to-mouth. Girls’ schools are struggling more with pupil numbers, with more parents happy to go co-ed.” Boom times may have led to spending
now regreted. “We are increasingly being called to produce a strategic review of a site. A school may have, in the past, built one building for £3million and then another for £2million, but I hear bursars saying if they had a clean slate they would start again! A school may come to me and say they have a 10-year, £15million project and ask if I can provide a review. People are looking further ahead to ensure maximum return on capital employed, surmising if they build a sixth-form block for 120 pupils their income will rise. Sport, IT and science are the main areas of construction, with music and drama less so.” Financing such expansion can be done
innovatively. “Banks remain interested in lending to the sector but with more robust terms and conditions. Schools need to appear more business-like and prove they are going to make a surplus;
banks don’t want to be forced into an asset sale. A 5-10 percent surplus is needed to maintain your estate. Charity mini bonds allow the school to partner with a funder, which can be parents lending at favourable rates. This can see the school paying less than they would when borrowing from a bank and the parent receiving more than they would get from a bank. If, for example, the parent lends £10,000 annually while litle Johnny is at the school for five years, the school has a chance the parent will turn some of these funds into a gift and not ask for full repayment. It’s like peer-to-peer lending.” King’s School, Canterbury, the
country’s oldest, is reducing its utility bills innovatively. Founded in 597 by St Augustine, it boasts not only a Norman staircase and Medieval buildings (the upkeep of which require employment of a stonemason) but a sport and leisure centre with 3,000 public members used by 1,000 swimmers weekly. This centre is self-sufficient in water, thanks to a borehole sunk 60m down around a year ago. The centre’s roof also has solar panels providing electricity pumping the water to the surface as well as for use elsewhere. Mark Taylor, King’s Canterbury
bursar and ISBA chairman, says: “We are not alert to other schools having a similar arrangement to this. We knew we were well-placed to tap into this source and after geting an abstraction licence from the Environment Agency we hired a drilling rig. Payback will be in five years. When you look at the box of tricks on top it’s not that exciting,
had required much artificial fertiliser, but the school’s grounds department sought to manage their fields in a more environmentally sustainable manner. A move was made to brew compost tea, made by suspending quality compost in water for 24 hours to increase bacteria, before carbon and liquid seaweed feed are added. This tea is applied in smaller amounts but more frequently than the artificial fertiliser had been, with a stronger and deeper root system and greater adverse weather resilience two of the ensuing benefits. After the tea started going down a
treat, a professional, tractor-powered composting machine was bought, meaning the school no longer spends £3,000 annually on green waste skips and does not buy in mulching materials. Further environmental sustainability at Oakham includes wind turbines and solar panels. Highfield and Brookham Prep and
Pre-Prep School in Liphook, Hampshire is using biomass to save financially and promote sustainability. Currently, the school requires 1.3million kWh per annum. Paul Harris, estate and facilities manager, says: “Last year we spent around £98,000 on oil which we now will not need, so this will be a direct and instant saving. We are also applying for the renewable heat incentive scheme which should give us approximately £50,000 per annum index-linked for the next 20 years.” Incentive payments are linked to the
amount of renewable heat generated and even small-scale users will generate at least, and often more than, the cost of the wood chip or wood pellet fuel annually
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