SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT & School Development As most of our readers are aware, our school was founded on philanthropy and today that philanthropy enables us to make
• Funding just about covers our
basic operating costs through efficient financial management.
• We have been on this site for
over a century and many of our learning and teaching spaces are in dire need of attention.
improvements, and to provide opportunities for our students, that are not possible from the school’s current income.
• We have a detailed School
Development Plan but there are no funds available within our budget to update, refurbish or develop our school site.
AGS is passionate about providing an education that truly transforms young people. The challenges facing school funding are not going away and so when we do return to a semblance of how we were, we still need to try to provide the very best facilities we can. The Funding Reality
• AGS remains one of the
lowest funded schools in Buckinghamshire.
• AGS remains in the bottom twenty least-funded state secondary schools in England.
• Despite this, we are one of the top
performing schools in the country.
• For Value Added at A Level, AGS is
the top performing grammar school in Buckinghamshire.
• At the time of writing we
Over the years our fundraising effort has focused on different areas of the School based on priorities at the time. Past donations to the School have enabled us to refurbish our Science Centre, our Sixth Form Centre and our Library, in addition to smaller scale refurbishment and development projects including the Foundation Hall, the Fitness Suite and IT Rooms. Last year we refurbished the entire Maths department with money raised from our Aylesburian Annual Fund and our students benefit every day. This year we have turned our attention to the much-needed refurbishment of our Art, DT and Engineering classrooms which are no
receive £4760 annually from the Department of Education to
longer fit-for-purpose for teaching the modern curriculum. The fundraising objective is £450,000 to complete the entire refurbishment. At the time of writing we have raised £65,000 in gifts and pledges, having already received a substantial donation from a local trust (The John Mason Raven Trust) of £300,000. This means we have £85,000 left to raise to complete the project. The long-term impact of COVID-19 is not yet fully understood for schools but we simply have to keep trying to raise the funds. Our School will be here long after the crisis and our students still need to be educated in facilities that are fit for purpose. With the support of our community, I am sure we can do something important to enthuse our future artists, engineers and architects – it just may take a little longer! Alumni Relations and Events
educate each student in Years 7 –
We now have over 1,545 registered
11. We receive just £4000 for each
Old Aylesburians on our
student in Years 12 & 13.
community database and over
86
The Aylesburian 2019/2020
