Annual Report 2009-10

Extracts from the Tonbridge School Annual Reports and Accounts 2009/10

Objects, Aims, Objectives and Activities

Charitable Objects

The objects of the School are the advancement of education by the provision and conduct of a School at Tonbridge for boys as boarders, and, if the Governors think fit, as day boys and by ancillary or incidental educational activities and other associated activities for the overall benefit of the community.

Aims and Intended Impact

Within these Objects, the School aims to provide an excellent and broad education to boys between the ages of 13 and 18, to ensure that each boy fulfils his potential and is able make a significant contribution in his chosen field(s) both at School and in the adult world. In addition, we continue to aim to provide educational and other benefits to the wider community using the School’s facilities and resources.

School Ethos, Strategy and Policies

Tonbridge School aims to provide a caring and enlightened environment in which the talents of each individual flourish. We encourage boys to be creative, tolerant and to strive for academic, sporting and cultural excellence. Respect for tradition and an openness to innovation are equally valued. A well-established House system at the heart of the School fosters a strong sense of belonging. Tonbridge seeks to celebrate its distinctive mixture of boarders and day boys; this helps to create a unique broadening and deepening of opportunity. We want boys to enjoy their time here, but also to be made aware of their social and moral responsibilities. Tonbridgians should enter into the adult world with the knowledge and self-belief to fulfil their own potential and, in many cases, to become leaders in their chosen field. Equally, we hope to foster a life-long empathy for the needs and views of others: in the words of the great novelist and Old Tonbridgian, E.M. Forster: ‘Only Connect’.

Our strategy is focused on providing an unsurpassed education of excellence and breadth by:

• Continuing to strive for Academic Excellence, with our boys achieving the highest possible academic standards, routinely exceeding initial expectations when they join the School. Tonbridge takes advantage of its independence, innovating in curricular matters as appropriate; the academic programme is designed to support, engage, stretch and challenge all boys (including the most able), equipping them for later life.
• Offering Co-Curricular Breadth and Depth, with a vibrant and balanced programme encompassing sport, music, art, drama and many other activities to underpin a culture of creativity, innovation and excellence, but also to provide opportunities for service to others, self-reliance and leadership.
• Providing Pastoral Excellence, with the House system at the heart of pastoral care, generating the small group identity that strengthens a sense of security, belonging and well-being, and allowing boys to contribute meaningfully to house as well as School activities. This system also aims to focus on each boy’s progress and ambitions (encouraging all to contribute to the School and House communities) and to foster mutual tolerance and respect through appropriate rewards and sanctions.
• Encouraging a heightened sense of Individual and Collective Social Responsibility so that along with the privileges and advantages of a Tonbridge education, there is also a strong sense of social responsibility across the entire School community (staff as well as boys) based on self-knowledge, carefully fostered spiritual and moral values, and a grounded, outward-looking awareness of others.

Delivering the School’s strategy is dependent on the processes and policies we have in six key areas:

1. Recruiting, retaining and developing the best and most committed teaching and support staff;
2. Maintaining and upgrading the School’s facilities and equipment;
3. Continuing to operate, fund and promote our extensive bursary and scholarships programmes;
4. Deepening partnerships and relationships with the Marsh Academy, other local Schools and the local community;
5. Raising additional funds for development, and managing the School’s cash-flows and investments effectively;
6. Marketing the School to prospective parents, and admitting boys to the School.

Principal Activities and Objectives for the Year

The principal activity of the Charity is the provision of education in Tonbridge to boys aged 13-18. The Charity’s continued success has ensured that the demand for places remains strong and current indicators suggest that the School will continue to operate at full capacity for the foreseeable future.

The School’s objectives are set both to enable it to not only meet its educational aims for boys at the School (recognising that education encompasses academic, co-curricular, pastoral and social elements), but also to provide educational and other benefits to the wider community.

In setting our objectives, and planning our activities, the Governors have given careful consideration to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefits and its supplementary guidance on advancing education and on fee charging.

This year, the School sought to maintain or improve performance across all ten priority and policy areas identified in the School’s strategy. Our achievements in each area are detailed in the following section.

1. Academic: maintaining high academic standards for entry, developing the curriculum, focusing on excellent teaching and learning across all subjects, and benchmarking academic standards against public examinations and independent value-added criteria;
2. Co-curricular: offering a broad co-curricular programme, and encouraging all boys of all abilities to participate in it as widely as possible;
3. Pastoral: maintaining pastoral standards, providing appropriate support structures for boys, and having robust child protection, anti-bullying and health and safety policies and cultures;
4. Social Responsibility: encouraging boys and staff to participate in (and opening up the School’s facilities for) a wide range of activities and events of benefit to individuals in need, the local community, and the environment;
5. Staff: maintaining teaching staff expertise through their continued professional development and appraisal combined with the recruitment of suitably qualified staff;
6. Facilities: investing in academic, sporting, pastoral and other educational facilities;
7. Bursaries and Scholarships: maintaining our extensive means-tested bursary programme to ensure that no talented boy is prevented from benefiting from a Tonbridge education due to his parents’ inability to afford the fees, and offering a wide range of scholarships that recognise the most able on entry;
8. Partnerships: developing our partnership with the Marsh Academy, continuing and expanding relationships with local State Primary and Prep Schools, and using the School’s facilities for the benefit of the local community, including running holiday courses for younger children during the Easter and Summer holiday periods;
9. Fundraising and Financial Management: raising funds for bursary awards and development projects, managing cash and costs effectively, and securing additional income from the School’s facilities when they are not in use;
10. Marketing and Admissions: communicating what the School has to offer via our website, via targeted advertising, through primary and prep Schools, and through a number of events held both at and outside the School.

Review of Achivement and Performance for the year

At the start of the Michaelmas Term 2009, the School had 763 boys in the School, comprising 439 boarders and 324 day boys. The Governors of the School, as Trustees of the Charity, were satisfied with performance and achievements across all of the School’s priority and policy areas.

1.  Academic

The hard work of the boys and the dedication and guidance of the staff resulted in the School achieving some of its best ever academic results:

• The A level exam results were the best ever achieved at the School: overall the pass rate at A level was 100%, and 77% of the Upper Sixth gained three or more A or A* grades at A level, and overall, A and B grades accounted for over 96.1% of all results; in the first year of A* grades, 38% of all grades were A*, and 32 boys achieved 3 or more A* grades;
• 31 boys who left the School in 2010 went to Oxford (16) or Cambridge (15), and the vast majority of the remainder of the year group won places at the university of their choice despite the increased competition this year;
• At GCSE, before remarks, 53.9% of the entries were awarded A*, 87.9% of grades were A* or A, and 100% of the grades were A* to C; the average GCSE and IGCSE holding of a Tonbridge pupil was the equivalent of 3 A* and 7 As;
• Individual successes included 16 boys who gained 4 or more A* grades at A level, a record 44 boys who achieved 9 or more GCSEs at A*, five boys who were awarded 12 A* grades at GCSE, a member of the UK team at the International Physics Olympiad in Croatia, a British team silver medallist at the International Chemistry Olympiad, and the winner of the 2009 Gladstone Prize for an essay on a classical subject.

The School continued to encourage individual and team participation in national events and competitions, and gained some notable successes including:

• 27 Gold certificates in the UKMT Senior Maths Challenge, including 14 boys in the top 1,000 students in the country;
• 15 Tonbridgians qualifying for the Intermediate Maths Olympiad by being placed in the top 500 in their year group in the country; of these, 12 achieved either a merit or a distinction;
• 3 boys shortlisted for the Vellacott History Prize, probably the most prestigious schools’ History prize in the country;
• 5 gold, 11 silver and 21 bronze medals in the Chemistry Olympiad;
• 4 boys awarded a certificate and gold award for their design and construction of a robot hand for moving sheet metal, as part of the Engineering Education Scheme run by the Education Development Trust.

2.  Co-Curricular

The School once again offered a wide range of co-curricular activities including 18 competitive sports, 34 clubs and societies, several musical and dramatic groups, and the popular Combined Cadet Force. Wide participation in all co-curricular activities was encouraged at both House and School levels. Achievements and successes included:

• Regular choral, orchestral and band concerts, including a memorable whole School performance of Howards Goodall’s specially commissioned arrangement of Psalm 122, ‘I Am Glad’, over two nights which raised over £7,000 for Antokia, a small African children’s charity;
• Broad participation and strong progression in music, with 70 passes in music examinations in 12 instruments plus singing from Grade One to Diploma, including 25 passes at grade 8 (with 10 distinctions) and six Diplomas from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music;
• A number of impressive dramatic productions, including a modern and highly ambitious adaptation of, “King Lear”;
• Strong performances from, and participation in, the School’s rugby teams, including the U18 Sevens team winning the Rosslyn Park National Schools Sevens, and the U16 team reaching the semi-finals in the same competition;
• The 1st XI Hockey team being runners up in the Kent Schools’ Hockey Association County tournament and the U16 XI being Kent Champions;
• The 1st XI Cricket team being one of the strongest schoolboy sides in the country, and retaining the Cowdrey Cup, with the U14 XI being Kent champions and the U15 team through to the last 16 of the National competition;
• The Rackets team winning the Mark Faber Cup for the best overall School performance at the Public School Rackets Championship;
• The Fencing Club enjoying its best season for many years, with the 1st Foil team being undefeated, 3 gold, 4 silver and 9 bronze medals won in the county championships, and 5 boys qualifying for the National championships;
• The School Golf team winning the Smarden Bell Inter-Schools Golf Competition;
• The School swimming team enjoying an unbeaten season at both senior and junior level in school matches in the Lent term;
• The Clay Target Shooting Team competing at the UK Cadet Target Championships, coming 2nd overall;
• A range of creative and popular exhibitions, including the GCSE/AS/A Level Art show (“Final Cut”), an exhibition by The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, and, “Hodge Podge”, by teachers from the Vere Hodge Arts Centre;
• The CCF 150 day that took place at the School in March, with a spectacular parade and drill display marking the beginnings of the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the Combined Cadet Force at Tonbridge. This was a public open event, held in conjunction with the CCF units in neighbouring schools (Skinners’, Judd and Sevenoaks), and welcomed crowds of over 1,000: the afternoon commenced with the formal ceremony, with the Troops inspected by Major General Mike Tennant and accompanied by the band of the Parachute Regiment;
• A number of boys being selected for national teams/groups or awards, including county, regional, England Rugby, county and England Hockey, county and England Cricket, county Athletics, county Golf, county Swimming, British Junior Skiing, the National Schools Symphony Orchestra, the National Youth Orchestra, UK Physics Olympiad, and Duke of Edinburgh Gold and Silver Awards.

3.  Pastoral

In March 2008, the School was subject to a routine inspection of its boarding provision by OFSTED, and was found to be offering outstanding quality of care (the highest award available). The feedback from the inspectors praised the attitudes of both staff and boys and the standard of pastoral care, saying, “Boarders are thriving in this environment and parents are assured that their sons are being well looked after”. Following this, the School has continued to strengthen its pastoral care, including:

• Developing the roles of Housemasters and House pastoral teams through regular review and professional development to ensure consistency of outcomes and continuity of care;
• Providing appropriate support structures for boys, including a caring and efficient medical service, a School Counsellor (who also supports the whole School community), House and School councils (giving boys a clear “voice”), and a Welfare Group, that shares information on those pupils requiring specific support and helps Housemasters to write welfare plans for those with particular difficulties;
• Having robust child protection, anti-bullying and health and safety policies and cultures, and responding appropriately (through SMT and Governor monitoring) to all external legislation and guidelines, including the National Minimum Boarding Standards, the Every Child Matters agenda, and Safer Recruitment procedures;
• Maintaining and upgrading the physical condition of the Houses to a standard that competes with the best of other similar schools;
• Continuing to improve contact with parents, including the introduction of the Parents’ Portal that gives parents greater access to information about their sons and the way the School operates.

4.  Social Responsibility

The School continued to encourage boys and staff to participate in (and opened up the School’s facilities for) a wide range of activities and events of benefit to individuals in need, the local community and the environment. Through these interactions and opportunities to serve, our pupils gain educationally through meaningful interaction with others, and the community benefits. These activities included:

• Putting on and publicising an extensive Arts Programme involving visiting artists, local groups and schools in 85 events throughout the year, covering music, art, drama, dance and literature, all of which were open to the public and priced to be accessible, 21 of which were free;
• Providing direct support to the community through the Community Service Group, involving weekly activities with 90 boys each week going into local primary Schools to listen to reading, help with classroom and sports activities for up to 2 hours, or doing community based projects in the town (helping with Charity shops, visiting the elderly and people with special needs for one-to-one support);
• Putting on specific free events for the members of the local community, including the annual free concert for over 200 senior citizens, and the “Tonbridge has Talent” charity show which was broadcast live over the Internet;
• Participating in numerous charity fundraising events including Pink Day (raising over £1,000 for breast cancer charities), The Really Good School Dinner (raising over £500 for children in Africa), Yellow Day (raising over £650 for the Children’s Liver Disease Foundation), the Bridge Trust Sleep Out (involving approximately 50 boys and staff and 20 members of the local community), and Green Day (raising over £700 for Green and Conservation based charities);
• Using the Green Committee (comprising boys, teaching and support staff) to promote environmental awareness and take specific actions, including a House Energy Competition, individual monitoring of printing usage, an increase in recycling and the reduction of external printing and postage;
• Offering boys the opportunities to broaden their perspectives by participating in educational and sporting trips, including trips to Kosovo (community reconstruction), Spain (sub-aqua, language and culture), China (language and culture), Sweden (world youth football tournament), South Africa (rugby and community involvement), Munich and Salamanca (languages), Yorkshire (creative writing), Vietnam (trekking), Sicily (classics), Strasbourg (languages), Washington and New York (politics), Cornwall (Art), Cornwall (revision and biology), and the battlefields of the First World War;
• Conducting exchange programmes with Schools in India, Australia and New Zealand.

5.  Staff

The School continued to implement and monitor its policies and processes aimed at recruiting, retaining and developing the best and most committed teaching and support staff. For example, the School successfully recruited 17 new full-time and part-time teachers to start in Michaelmas 2010, increasing the number of academic staff at the School and replacing teachers due to retire or move on to other (often senior) roles in other schools and organisations. Important policies and processes at the School include:

• Advertising vacant roles widely, and following well-established selection processes to identify the best candidate for each post; 7 new teachers joined the School in the year, all settled in well and made a strong contributions to the academic, co-curricular and pastoral life of the School;
• Offering a range of professional development opportunities for teaching staff, and providing relevant training for support staff;
• Running the well-established induction and appraisal systems for teachers, and designing an improved review process for support staff;
• Maintaining policies to help attract and retain staff and to ensure they can work effectively, including offering fee remission for staff children, providing housing where necessary for proper performance, and offering good levels of pay and benefits (including private health insurance and pension schemes).

6.  Facilities

To achieve the School’s aims, its facilities need to provide the best possible learning environment for the boys and teaching facilities for the staff, support excellent pastoral care, make the School feel welcoming, safe and easy to get around. The School’s facilities are on an extensive campus close to the centre of Tonbridge with many important historic and impressive buildings, 11 of which are Grade II listed, including significant academic buildings, 7 boarding houses and 5 day houses, a new Sports and Media Centre, over 150 acres of grounds and 89 units of owned and rented residential accommodation of various types. The School spent £4.1m on the maintenance, improvement and development of its facilities in 2009/10, including:

• £1.2m on general repairs and improvements, and on the inspection programmes necessary to ensure our facilities operate safely;
• £1.3m on the second phase of the three-year programme to refurbish the Boarding accommodation in Manor House;
• £0.4m on significant academic, boarding and day house repairs and improvements;
• £0.6m on the replacement and upgrade of Rowan’s Astro, in partnership with Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council;
• £0.6m on the upkeep of its excellent and extensive grounds and gardens.

In addition, the School spent £263k on IT improvement and maintenance to enable better teaching and support. The School maintained an effective process to identify and prioritise facilities repairs, improvements and developments, and continued the process of implementing a planned preventative maintenance programme.

7.  Bursaries and Scholarships

The School continued to provide a wide range of scholarships and means-tested bursaries to recognise the most able on entry, and to ensure that the School attracted and retained the boys who could benefit most from what the School has to offer, regardless of their parents’ ability to pay. In 2009/10, a total of £2,487k (including external support) of bursary and scholarship funding was provided to boys at the School, and £45k to boys due to join the School. Of the funding provided to boys in the School, £1,294k (52%) was provided to boys whose parents were means-tested, £744k (30%) was provided to other boys who won academic and other scholarships, and £449k (18%) was provided in other awards (including sibling discounts and staff remission). As in previous years, scholarships were awarded following entry examinations and tests in the year immediately preceding entry, and the standard scholarship award was 10%.

Most means-tested awards were made to boys successful in entry examinations in the year preceding entry, and all awards were made following a detailed financial assessment that considered parental income, disposable income and assets. A small number of means-tested awards were made to boys already at the School whose parents were facing unexpected financial difficulties (Hardship awards). In addition, to make the School more accessible to boys in state primary schools, the School’s Junior Foundation Programme once again gave pupils the opportunity to apply in Year 6 (their last year in primary school) for entry in Year 9, made allowances for the educational background of applicants, and awarded means-tested funding for successful applicants (if required) for time at Tonbridge, as well as for Years 7 and 8 at another school. In 2009/10, 78 boys at the School and 6 boys not yet at the School received a total of £1,339k in means-tested funding, 6.7% of Gross Fee Income. Of the 78 boys at the School, 13 boys received 100% funding, 32 boys over 70% funding, and the average boy receiving means-tested support received 64% of funding towards fees. Parents receiving means-tested support were, once again, asked to provide an update of their financial circumstances annually.

As in previous years, the School provided all bursary support judged necessary, and did not prevent a single boy from joining or staying at the School due to his parents’ inability to pay the fees.

Despite the challenging economic climate and the demands placed on the School’s finances, the Governors of the School as Trustees of the Charity remained committed to the extensive bursary programme that ensured that no talented boy was prevented from benefiting from a Tonbridge education due to his parents’ inability to afford the fees. Our bursary and scholarship programmes continued to be promoted widely: on the School’s internet site, in local schools and feeder prep schools, and in relevant publications.

8.  Partnerships

The School’s partnerships programme once again had three main components: developing our partnership with the Marsh Academy, continuing and expanding relationships with local schools, and using the School’s facilities for the benefit of the local community.

Tonbridge School has been working in partnership with The Marsh Academy since June 2006. The Marsh Academy is in the heart of the Romney Marshes and is the only secondary school in the area. Whilst the two schools may be very different places they share the same goal, which is to develop their pupils to the best of their potential. In 2009/10, the features of the partnership included providing:

• Two Governors to the Academy to support and guide the leadership team;
• Academic staff to deliver targeted support in the main subject areas, concentrating on those pupils aspiring to the higher grades at GCSE. The input was especially strong in English and Mathematics with a programme of structured revision sessions, with many of the sessions involving more than one member of Tonbridge staff;
• Many hours of on-site consultancy and support, including help with careers, fundraising and development, and external communication;
• Fundraising support to enable the Academy to raise £3.5 million to build a new inclusion centre from the Colyer-Fergusson Trust.

Tonbridge School continued to work closely with other schools, offering staff time and expertise and facilities to provide educational benefits to children outside the School. In addition to the benefits provided by the Community Service Group described above, in 2009/10 the School (at times through the Independent School/State School Partnership):

• Provided teaching expertise to local schools, including regular practical science lessons for primary schools, and modern languages revision sessions;
• Opened up the School for a whole day to provide 30 free activities in the Arts, Sciences, Maths, Modern Languages, Sport, and CCF for 700 local primary school children, including free transport, 50 members of the teaching staff, 200 boys, and the use of many of our facilities including the Sports Centre, laboratories, theatre, music, art, and sports pitches;
• Held a 24 hour “race for life” relay around the athletics track for Cancer Research UK, raising over £30,000;
• Included pupils from other schools in drama productions and Oxbridge preparation classes;
• Established Tonbridge Professional Development (TPD) to provide publicly available professional development, with courses including Community Action, Creative Writing, PHSE, Independent Learning and Mindfulness;
• Provided the School’s sports facilities free of charge for the Cage Green Centre for Autism (weekly), the primary Schools’ Kwik Cricket Tournament (involving 20+ Schools), the Prep Schools’ Hockey Tournament, the Prep Schools’ Swimming Gala, and the Prep Schools’ Climbing Competition.

The School continued to share its facilities with the local community. In addition to the Arts Programme described above, in 2009/10 the School:

• Provided affordable, educational Summer and Easter courses for children aged 4-14, with 1,803 places taken up for activities including numerous sports, arts, dance, crafts, revision and cookery;
• Hosted the two-monthly meetings, and Annual General Meeting, of the Board of Trustees of the Tonbridge Citizens’ Advice Bureau (CAB), where two members of staff and one Governor acted as Trustees;
• Maintained free of charge premises in Manor Grove occupied by Tonbridge VSU;
• Provided the School’s sports facilities free of charge to many community groups (including the Tonbridge Lions Triathlon, the local police for football, Macmillan Cancer for their “swimathon”), and at a very low rate for regular use by Tonbridge Athletics Club, Paddock Wood AC, the Hockey Junior Regional Performance Centre, the Indoor Cricket League and over a dozen local football teams (as part of the Community Use Agreement with Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council).

9.  Fundraising and Financial Management

The Charity’s principal fundraising activity is carried out by its subsidiary TSF with the support of the School’s Development Office. Fundraising efforts were focussed on the continued development of the Foundation Awards Scheme (where individual fundraising strategies were developed to support the House-based award schemes); a successful targeted appeal to raise £500k to fund the development of a New Rackets Court at the School; donor stewardship and the expansion of the legacies programme. In particular, during the year under review TSF contributed £121k towards the Tonbridge School Centre for Sports and Media, and specific Media activities, £51k in respect of scholarship funding for Foundation Scholars and £47k supporting Cricket development at the School.

The Governors were satisfied with Net Incoming Resources of £2.0m (£1.1m in 2008/09), and the Increase in Cash for the Year of £670k given the extensive improvement programme underway, the challenging financial climate and the continued requirement to invest in the School’s staff and equipment, to provide the quality of education aimed for. The Governors are continuing in their strategy of deploying all Net Incoming Resources towards our charitable objects – the advancement of education.

The parents of our boys have the assurance that all the income of the School, as a Charity, must be applied for educational purposes. As an educational Charity we receive tax exemption on our educational activities and on our investment income, and we are also entitled to an 80% reduction on our business rates on the property we occupy for our charitable purposes. The financial benefits we receive from these tax exemptions are all applied for educational purposes and help us to maintain the bursary and partnership programmes described above.

10.  Marketing and Admissions

At the start of the Michaelmas Term 2009, the School had 763 boys in the School, comprising 439 boarders and 324 day boys, and the fees for each of the three terms in the year were £9,662 for boarders and £7,179 for day boys. The School continued to market itself using the School’s internet site, through local schools and feeder prep schools, by encouraging visits (including open days) and in relevant publications, whilst recognising the primary importance of providing an excellent education to current boys, and maintaining its reputation to ensure that parents promote the School through “word of mouth”.

The School has two main intakes: at the age of 13 (Year 9) we usually have places for 144 boys, and at the age of 16 (Year 12) we have up to an additional 20 available; the School can also take up to 6 boarding boys at the beginning of Year 10. Given the number and strength of applications for Year 9 in 2010, the School expanded to take another class. The School has an examination-based entry system, with clear standards for entry; details of the admission processes and examination are posted on the Schools’ website. While the School only admits boys and is academically selective (to ensure that potential pupils can cope with the pace of learning and benefit fully from the education the School provides), a boy’s economic status, ethnicity, race, religion or disability do not form part of the School’s selection process. A dedicated small team of Admissions staff, led by the Director of Admissions, maintains strong contact with parents though the admissions process to ensure it works as smoothly as possible for all concerned.

The School started Michaelmas Term 2010 larger than ever with 786 boys in the School, comprising 449 boarders and 337 day boys, and the fees for each of the three terms in the year set at £9,971 for boarders and £7,445 for day boys. The Governors set the fee increase for 2010/11 at a low level mindful of the continuing impact of the economic climate on current and prospective parents.

Overall the Governors of the School as Trustees of the Charity were satisfied that the achievements detailed above clearly demonstrate that the School is advancing education, providing benefits to the community, and ensuring that no boy who could benefit from the education provided at the School has been prevented from doing so by his parents’ inability to pay the fees charged.