Eton Connect Annual Report (2021-22)

WELCOME

Welcome to our Annual Report, which highlights our school partnership activities from the academic year September 2021 to August 2022.

Eton Connect coordinates over 1,000 cross-sector partnerships between schools, charities and other organisations working together for the benefit of children and teachers. Through research, digital resources, summer schools, visits and events, Eton Connect brings together all who are determined to provide extraordinary learning opportunities for young people.

Eton Connect is a new brand that we use to define all our school-to-school partnership work, covering, as you will see from this guide, a very wide range of activities and connections. In all cases, our work is founded on four core principles:

• Sustainability. We are building partnerships for the long-term and trying not to reinvent the wheel

• Reciprocity. Our partnerships enrich us as much as they do our partners and are built around a principle of co-design. The very best partnerships strengthen us and enable us to share our strength

• Impact. We aim to devise programmes that make a material difference to young people, and carefully track the impact that we make

• Targeting disadvantage. We want to build projects and programmes that make a difference where it is most needed, whether within our own school or within our partner schools

As you will see, the coherence and focus of our Eton Connect work grows every year, and the team expands in turn. In the next year, our main priorities are:

1. To build new Eton Connect networks on Teesside, in Dudley and in Oldham to amplify and extend our work in the Thames Valley. We are bidding to open new 16-19 free schools in those areas, though Eton Connect will focus mainly on students aged 13-16 in schools without sixth forms.

2. To develop our EtonX digital platform to offer improved free-to-access content for state schools nationally, building from the 16 future skills courses which are already available.

3. To build on our partnerships with Star Academies, LAE and Holyport College to develop evidencerich models for cross-sector engagement, building particularly from the establishment of a CIRL at Holyport College this year.

4. To develop our relationships with local primary and secondary schools and sixth form colleges, delivering opportunities that connect Eton’s staff and students to local young people and teachers and creating a strong local network for positive change and mutual benefit.

We fervently believe that Eton Connect is a force for good in the education system, and welcome support and contact from anyone involved. Please contact partnerships@etoncollege.org.uk if you would like to know more.

Tom Arbuthnott Deputy Head (Partnerships)

It is a real pleasure to present to you our first Eton Connect Annual Report, detailing some of the extraordinary work done over the past year by Eton’s Partnerships team.

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OUR WORK IN NUMBERS

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KEY EVENTS TIMELINE

NOVEMBER 2021

SEPTEMBER 2021

• Eton Action Fair

• TVLP Student Leadership Conference

• Local Rowing Outreach

• Eton/Holyport/Oxford Physics Research Project

• Inaugural in-person meeting of the Star Academies Eton Partnership Board

• Mock Oxbridge interviews for local state school students

• Researchers in Schools Forum

• Eton LAE Leadership Institute 21-22 begins

• Edward Bush Memorial Rugby Match

JANUARY 2022

• EYLA Visit Day Year 9-11

• CIRL Free Talk for Teachers and Parents (monthly)

• Holyport staff visit to CIRL

OCTOBER 2021

• LAE Visit Day

• TVLP Water Sports Festival at Dorney Lake

• Harvest Deliveries to local community

DECEMBER 2021

• Primary School Science Afternoon

• Christmas deliveries to the local community

FEBRUARY 2022

• LGBTQ+ Staff Training for TVLP

• Eton Action Trustees Dinner and AGM

• Beyond Cop21 Environmental Symposium

• New Masters visit Holyport College

MARCH 2022

• Local state school headteachers’ group visit to Eton

• Primary School Swimming pilot begins

• Eton and Holyport Joint Quiz Night

• ELLI joint tip to London

• Sleep Out in aid of Windsor and Slough homeless charities

MAY 2022

• Eton and Holyport Year 12 Exchange

• IntoUniversity Values Sessions with students from E@E

• Eton Porny Art Project for Platinum Jubilee

• Platinum Jubilee Schools Debate

JULY 2022

• Inaugural Eton Summer University Preparation Course

• Eton Connect Summer School

• Eton Dorney Rowing Course

APRIL 2022

• Collections Formal Learning Programme continues

• TVLP Art Volunteering Day

• Primary School Science Afternoons continue

JUNE 2022

• The Science of Learning Primary School Heads Workshop

• Barbecue for Eton and Holyport Year 9

• Design workshops for Holyport Year 7

• Support of Slough Mencap 70th anniversary volunteers’ party

CORE PARTNERSHIPS

Our core partnerships are with Holyport College, the London Academy of Excellence, the Thames Valley Learning Partnership, Slough and East Berkshire Church of England Multi Academy Trust, IntoUniversity and the Eastside Young Leaders Academy.

HOLYPORT COLLEGE

Eton is the sole educational sponsor of Holyport College, which opened in September 2014 as the first boarding school established under the government’s free schools’ scheme. Eton plays a significant role in its governance, providing three governors. Eton has supported Holyport Sixth Form, which opened in September 2018, through professional guidance and mentoring, support with university preparation, and interview guidance. We were delighted that nearly 100% of Holyport applicants in this 2022 cohort achieved places at university, with 75% securing places at Russell Group institutions or equivalent, and two students at Oxbridge.

Eton and Holyport work together very closely within a framework that encourages innovation and partnership. Both schools follow a partnership development plan which seeks to set out a process for continuous evaluation and improvement, especially regarding its reciprocal elements.

In addition to the secondment of staff and sharing of facilities, the partnership involves meaningful collaboration between academic departments. Students attend a broad range of joint society meetings, and the full Eton Societies programme is now open to all Holyport students (with 60+ students attending in a typical week). Year 12 Eton students act as mentors to Holyport Year 8 pupils, the development of a joint Combined Cadet Force remains a significant success and a glance at the 21-22 audit draws attention to a wealth of other partnership activities – social, as well as academic. Facilities, notably the Dorney rowing lake and the Eton sports facilities, are shared between both schools. Financial donations made to Eton’s partnership work with Holyport during the year totalled £65,312 (£7,300 in 20-21). Both institutions aspire to make this partnership the Gold Standard in cross-sector partnerships at a national level, and to be proactive in sharing lessons learned with the rest of the sector (for example, through the creation at Holyport this year of a partner Centre for Innovation and Research in Learning).

The Holyport – Eton relationship is managed by Italian teacher Nick Roberts (Eton College) and Politics teacher Frank Hardee (Holyport College) with assistance from the Eton Connect Coordinator, Eleanor Chownsmith.

STATS 2021-2022

• 80%+ of Holyport students have had at least one interaction with their Eton counterparts

• 60%+ have had 2-5 interactions

• 30% +have had significantly more than five interactions

• At least 30 members of staff at each school are regularly involved in partnership activities

• There are approximately 25 ‘partnership hours’ each week

ACTIVITIES

WEEKLY (SEPTEMBER 2021-JUNE 2022)

• HEMP (Holyport-Eton Mentoring Programme): Year 12 students from Eton mentor Holyport’s ‘Gifted & Talented’ Year 8s in extracurricular sessions devised by the mentors themselves in Ethics, Philosophy, Linguistics and “fun Maths”. Held at Holyport College.

• CCF: Joint CCF activities throughout the year (including camps etc.)

• Societies: Eton’s Society programme welcomes Holyport students. Between September 2021 and March 2022, 262 Holyport students attended a total of 56 Society meetings

• Fives: 200 Holyport pupils in Years 7, 8 and 9 play on a weekly basis

• Rowing on Dorney Lake

• Hockey on Eton’s pitches

• Tennis on Eton’s courts

SEPTEMBER 2021

• Drinks party for Holyport/Eton staff

• Classics Departments visits

• Joint BMAT/UCAT training

• Joint TSA preparation

OCTOBER 2021

• Holyport Prize Giving at Eton

• Joint University entrance test preparation (in academic departments)

• Joint Shakespeare workshop with Ian McKellen

• Joint LGBQT+ training

NOVEMBER 2021

• Meeting to share school trip protocols

• Guest Night at Eton for Holyport staff

• MFL visit to Holyport for new Eton staff

• Design workshops for Holyport Year 7

DECEMBER 2021

• Online mentoring programme (HEMP)

• Joint interview preparation (online)

• Holyport Carol Service at Eton College Chapel

JANUARY 2022

• Y12 Quiz Night at Holyport

• Holyport visit for new Eton staff

• Meeting between estate managers and data managers

• Joint SAT preparation

FEBRUARY 2022

• Y9 Quiz and Dinner

• Joint “Poetry by Heart” recital

• PGCE placement at Holyport for Eton staff member

• “The Speaker”: joint Politics magazine

MARCH 2022

• Joint Hispanic Society fiesta

• Holyport Year 7 presentations at Eton

• Joint Engineering/Design visit to XTRAC

APRIL 2022

• Eton MFL support for Holyport speaking exams

• Eton presence at Holyport Student Leadership handover dinner

• Shared Iftar during Ramadan

• Eton Gap Year advice for Holyport students

MAY 2022

• Y12 academic exchange

• Design Bird Box project for Holyport Year 8s

• Meeting between both schools’ Ukrainian students

• Joint Pride drinks party

• Joint A level Politics revision sessions

JUNE 2022

• Barbecue for Year 7s at Eton

• English department visit to Eton library

• CCF Mess Dinner

• Joint Chess event

• Universities Fair at Holyport

A closer look...

HOLYPORT-ETON MENTORING PROGRAMME

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STATS 2021-2022

• 25 Year 8 students

• 15 Year 12 mentors

• Two staff members

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A team of Eton Year 12 students host a series of academic stretching sessions for Holyport Year 8 students on Tuesday evenings throughout the school year. The sessions are devised by the Eton students themselves to promote discussion and tend to focus on off-timetable disciplines such as ethics (prison, death penalty, the “trolley problem”), philosophy (thought experiments), “fun” maths (probability, the Fibonacci sequence), linguistics (deciphering an invented language, the art of translation) and creative writing (writing a play).

At the end of the year, Eton mentors encourage their mentees to come up with their own material at the end of the course – sometimes but not always drawing on one or more of the year’s sessions – which they present at Eton in front of mentors and parents.

IMPACT

The Holyport students respond exceptionally well to activities they know have been devised by their mentors. Many hitherto shy and retiring students come out of their shell by the end of the course, all become more confident about expressing their views in public, and although it is a daunting prospect for them, they feel a real sense of achievement once they have delivered their end of year presentations.

“HEMP is the most worthwhile activity in a given week. It’s so refreshing to get out of school and spend time with such receptive kids”.

Student, Year 12, Eton College

“Thank you for organising the HEMP sessions! I have enjoyed the challenges and meeting people I hadn’t really had a chance to speak to before”. Holyport student, Year 8

“What strikes me most is that the mentors enjoy these sessions as much as the mentees. I’d like to think it will equip students from both schools with some very important skills”. Teacher, Eton College

“It’s amazing how much our students look forward to these sessions”.

Teacher, Holyport College

HOLYPORT ENRICHMENT AFTERNOONS IN THE DESIGN SCHOOLS

For three afternoons in Michaelmas and three in the Summer term the Year 7 students from Holyport visit the Design Schools. During these sessions the students are assisted by Eton Year 12 students to build a desk tidy made of wood and plastic. They use a wide range of tools and machinery from scroll saws to pillar drills. After the intensive session the students are left with an introduction into the subject and a product that they can be proud of.

STATS 2021-2022

• 30+ members of staff at each school are regularly involved in partnership activities.

STATS 2021-2022

• All Holyport Year 7 students attend two-and-a-half hour afternoon sessions six times a year

• The Holyport students are assisted by Eton’s Year 12 design students

HOLYPORT AND ETON JOINT STAFF ACTIVITY

Holyport regularly host Eton staff completing their PGCE qualifications. The English, Economics, Politics, MFL and Classics departments of both schools share resources and meet regularly to discuss issues such as pedagogy, assessment and university preparation. All new Eton staff visit Holyport as part of their induction and there has also been joint LGBQT+ training as well as co-operation at an administrative level (e.g., devising protocols for school trips). The increasing number of joint staff social activities (staff hockey, annual drinks party, winter guest night) is a testimony to the sense of genuine partnership between the two schools.

IMPACT

One of the most valuable elements of the partnership for both schools has been the opportunity it provides to allow expertise at one institution to be shared with the other to the benefit of both.

Teacher, Eton College

Modern Foreign Languages Teacher, Eton College

“I really appreciated the support I was given whilst doing teaching practice at Holyport”.

“The partnership between Holyport and Eton is genuine and tangible. Many students and staff many times per week are exchanging ideas and experiences and that’s what makes the relationship so special”.

Frank Hardee, Master in Charge of the Eton Relationship, Holyport College

“I cannot tell you how useful it is to discuss language teaching with colleagues in the state sector”.

LONDON ACADEMY OF EXCELLENCE, STRATFORD

Eton is in partnership with London Academy of Excellence (LAE), a selective free school for sixth formers in Stratford, East London, which opened in September 2012. Over the academic year 2021-2022, Eton sponsored LAE’s English Department by providing one master on part-time secondment, Eton also plays a significant role in LAE’s governance, providing a governor and two committee members.

In 2022, LAE students went on to study almost 120 different courses at more than 45 different universities in the UK and United States. A total of 36% of all A Level grades achieved were A*, 72% A* or A, and 90% A*/B. A provisional measure of the value added to students’ education places LAE in the top 1% of schools nationally.

In 2021-2022, Eton provided £55k as a donation to the LAE to support its work. Eton and LAE have collaborated this year on establishing the Eton/LAE Leadership Institute (ELLI) which will create a set of shareable resources over the course of the next year. The LAE end of this initiative received funding from the Department of Education’s cross-sector partnerships fund.

In October 2022, 30 Year 12 LAE students visited Eton and spent the day in lessons and workshops with Eton staff and students. The return trip to LAE for 30 Eton students was hosted in June. Another 30 Year 12 students from both LAE and Eton, participated in the Eton & LAE Leadership Institute (ELLI) which ran monthly online sessions, a joint day trip to London and a weekend residential at Eton College.

The LAE – Eton relationship was managed by English teacher, Damian Stanford-Harris with assistance from the Eton Connect Coordinator, Eleanor Chownsmith.

STATS 2021-2022

• 30 Year 12 students from LAE (Eton House) spent a day at Eton College

• 80 Year 13 students from LAE were offered mock Oxbridge interview from Eton teachers

• One Eton teacher went on part-time secondment to the English department at LAE

ACTIVITIES

SEPTEMBER 2021

• ELLI Residential

OCTOBER 2021

• LAE Eton House Visit Day

• ELLI new cohort begin

NOVEMBER 2021

• Mock Oxbridge interviews for 80 LAE Year 13 students

MARCH 2022

• Joint ELLI London Visit

A closer look...

LAE ETON HOUSE VISIT DAY

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In September 2022, 30 Year 12 students from Eton House at LAE visited Eton College for a day of exploring the museums, careers education, university preparation, critical history, and lunch with 30 Year 12 Etonians.

STATS

• Annual event for all Year 12 students in Eton House

IMPACT

“Meeting people from Eton was a nice experience to see people from different backgrounds and their different college experiences. The museums were also really interesting to see the history of Eton”.

Year 12 student, LAE

“I enjoyed the trip. It was very fun and interesting interacting with the students and learning about school and I feel very privileged”.

Year 12 student, LAE

ETON & LAE LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE 2022

Coordinated by the Tony Little Centre of Innovation and Research in Learning (CIRL), Year 12 students from LAE and Eton College took part in an innovative year-long programme centred on engaging with leadership through an ethical, academic and practical lens. Throughout the academic year they attended:

• a series of evening talks and dinners at Eton College on the theme of leadership

• a weekend non-residential seminar on leadership in Central London

• a residential weekend leadership conference at Eton College in Summer 2022

IMPACT

“I have found it very positive to work with people I don’t know who have all had varying experiences allowing me to be exposed to differing perspectives”.

Year 12 student, Eton College

“It was really interesting to see different perspectives that arise from different teaching styles”.

Year 12 student, LAE

“It was really interesting to hear different perspectives about leadership that challenged me to think deeply about the topics discussed”.

Year 12 student, Eton College

“It was interesting meeting the people from Eton College. It was a positive experience and the conversations we had during the online sessions were productive”.

Year 12 student, LAE

“Presenting in front of others is not something we do often. It was a great experience, but you could see that Etonians were better. […] It shows what private schools can do. […] But I think we taught them something also”.

Year 12 student, LAE

THAMES VALLEY LEARNING PARTNERSHIP

The Thames Valley Learning Partnership (TVLP), launched in September 2019 and based at Eton, has developed a strong programme of activity, bringing staff and students from eleven schools together to mutual benefit. The TVLP’s collaborative and informative student experiences span a range of subjects, as do the staff networks which are used to share information, resources and best practice, and to guide future events. A TVLP end of year video, and Annual Report for the year ending in August 2022, are both available to view on the TVLP website: https://tvlp.org.uk/2021-2022

The TVLP is managed by the TVLP Coordinator, Clare Matheson.

ACTIVITIES

(those outlined below all involved Eton pupils and/or staff)

THROUGHOUT THE YEAR

• TVLP Career Education Network meetings for staff across TVLP schools

• TVLP Business & Economics Network meetings for staff across TVLP schools

• TVLP Libraries Network meetings for staff across TVLP schools

• Over 70 speakers’ events at Eton College opened up to TVLP schools

o Events include Society talks, which were in addition to the speaker talks organised by the TVLP Coordinator

SEPTEMBER 2021

• TVLP Student Leadership Conference

• TVLP Nature Art Competition launched, in conjunction with RHS Garden Wisley

OCTOBER 2021

• TVLP Water Sports Festival, hosted at Dorney Lake

• TVLP Nature Art Competition results announced. tvlp.org.uk/nature-art

JANUARY 2022

• TVLP student magazine published. Contributions from students across eight schools, including Eton College Tvlp.org.uk/magazine

• Online Finance Simulation Workshop. Led by Amplify Trading, hosted by Eton College and opened up to schools in the TVLP

• Engineering & Design Universities event. Organised and hosted by Eton College and opened up to schools in the TVLP

STATS 2021-2022

• Five student events held at / facilitated by Eton College in 2021-22

o 128 students attending (Water Sports Festival: 20. Dyson Design Day: 32. Engineering & Design Universities Event: 7. TVLP Leadership Skills Course: 19. Online Finance Simulation Workshop: 50.)

• Over 70 speaker events held at Eton College and open to TVLP schools

• Three Career Education staff networking events, open to colleagues across all eight TVLP schools

MARCH 2022

• TVLP Orwell Youth Prize writing workshop

• TVLP Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Mini Garden Design Competition launched

• TVLP Leadership Skills Course, led by the Tony Little Centre

APRIL 2022

• TVLP willow sculptures created, for display at Thames Hospice in Maidenhead

MAY 2022

• Two TVLP Queen’s Platinum Jubilee mini gardens created at The Goswells in Windsor tvlp.org.uk/jubilee-competition

• Dyson Design Day, hosted and organised by Eton College Design Schools and opened up to schools in the TVLP

A closer look...

TVLP LEADERSHIP SKILLS COURSE

Coordinated by the Tony Little Centre of Innovation and Research in Learning (CIRL). Students from the TVLP took part in an online programme over three sessions, learning about leadership and key skills.

IMPACT

Comments from students included:

STATS 2021-2022

• 19 students took part

• 100% of student feedback forms stated they would recommend this course

“[I learnt] how an effective team can be created, especially the idea of having a psychological safety net and common goal where everyone benefits individually. I also had the chance to do some personal reflection.”

Student, TVLP school

“I have learnt many characteristics that I will build upon within myself to become a better leader”. Student, TVLP school

DYSON DESIGN CHALLENGE

Each year Dyson engineers visit the Design Schools to lead a workshop on concept generation and prototyping. This year the brief was ‘to design something with air’. The students were put into mixed groups and had to formulate an idea, build a prototype, and then present the final design to the other groups. This exciting full-day workshop enabled the students to mix together and come up with creative and sometimes wacky ‘blue sky thinking’ concepts. The concepts ranged from a product for drying umbrellas all the way to an air powered vehicle. This workshop has been running for many years now and it is always a success with the students and teachers who attend.

IMPACT

“I really enjoyed it, and it gave me the experience of working in a real workplace environment, as well as working with a team, using improvisation to work in the set time given. I would really enjoy a similar event in the future. It was definitely worth it”.

Student, St Joseph’s Catholic High School

STATS 2021-2022

• 30 students from five TVLP schools for a day in the Summer term

SLOUGH AND EAST BERKSHIRE CHURCH OF ENGLAND MULTI ACADEMY TRUST

The Slough and East Berkshire Church of England Multi Academy Trust (SEBMAT) has been established to form a group of schools which can support each other to ensure the best possible outcomes for young people in Slough and the nearby areas.

Slough and Eton Business & Enterprise College, Colnbrook Primary and Eton Porny School were the first three schools under the Trust, joined in 2018-19 by Lynch Hill Primary School and Lynch Hill Enterprise Academy. The Deputy Head (Partnerships) serves as a Member of the Trust and the Director of Local Partnerships as a Director.

There are seven masters on governing boards in four of the SEBMAT schools with two serving as either chair or co-chair of governors. Outside of SEBMAT, 18 members of staff are on the governing boards of state schools in a variety of roles.

THE FIVE SEBMAT SCHOOLS DURING 2021-2022 WERE:

• Slough and Eton Business & Enterprise College

• Colnbrook Primary

• Eton Porny First School

• Lynch Hill Primary School

• Lynch Hill Enterprise Academy

INTOUNIVERSITY

Through local learning centres in underprivileged postcodes, IntoUniversity provides additional support for young people to attain their aspirations. Since 2002, when their first centre opened in North Kensington, IntoUniversity has opened – and now operates – 31 learning centres nationally.

In 2021, Eton College formed a partnership with IntoUniversity centres in Clacton-on-Sea, Coventry and North Liverpool to support over 3,000 children. IntoUniversity aims for the Eton partnership to be a visible and important element of all three centres’ identities. Alongside our direct partnership with the three centres, Eton College provides free use of relevant EtonX courses to all IntoUniversity students aged over 14 years. The EtonX courses help students discover their personal strengths, identify their future goals and practise skills such as resilience, creativity, assertiveness and critical thinking.

In 2021, Eton pupils and staff participated in IntoUniversity’s Tour d’Oxford 2022, a 60km cycle to raise funds for the organisation. The Eton team raised over £1,500. In addition to fundraising, Eton’s Environment @ Eton pupils spent two terms planning a lesson on biodiversity and teamwork, which they delivered to groups of primary school students over Zoom at IntoUniversity centres in Clacton, Liverpool, and Coventry.

In August 2022, Eton College hosted one of IntoUniversity’s three-day Extending Horizons Summer Schools from 3-5 August 2022. The 36 students attended the course from centres in Norwich, Clacton-on-Sea and Coventry and Eton supplied two Eton Course Mentors to assist. The students visited Eton’s museums, had an Eton Mess making competition, went on an Eton Fun Facts Tour and had a day visit to the University of Reading.

Eton’s partnership with IntoUniversity is managed by the Deputy Head (Partnerships), Tom Arbuhtnott and the Eton Connect Coordinator, Eleanor Chownsmith.

ACTIVITIES

MARCH 2022

• Eton students’ training and volunteer session with IntoUniversity

MAY 2022

• Eton staff and students raised over £1,500 cycling IntoUniversity’s Tour d’Oxford

• IntoUniversity Values Sessions with E@E

AUGUST 2022

• Extending Horizons Summer School

A closer look...

INTOUNIVERSITY VALUES SESSIONS WITH E@E

A group of Eton students and teachers held a virtual session for children from IntoUniversity centres in Clacton, Liverpool, and Coventry to learn the importance of teamwork in creating environmental solutions. After coordinating with IntoUniversity staff on materials for use in these virtual sessions, Eton students prepared a fact file on plant and animal biomes. In small groups led by several Eton students and a master, the pupils worked together to design and make presentations on biodiversity.

IMPACT

Feedback from the IntoUniversity centres indicated that the pupils had found the sessions enjoyable and helpful in improving their presentation and teamwork skills. The pupils found that the Eton volunteers were very energetic, creative, encouraging and supportive.

“The volunteers were great, really energetic and made our students feel comfortable to share with them. They also came with a lot of knowledge for the young people and the students really enjoyed the activity”.

Coventry Team

“The students really enjoyed the session, particularly showing the volunteers their work towards the end of the session. The resources produced by the volunteers were of very high quality and the session allowed the students to learn about biodiversity in a creative way”.

Liverpool Team

“The session was really enjoyable for the students and it was a good opportunity to encourage their presentation skills. It was a great session - the volunteers really understood how to encourage and support the young people”.

Clacton-on-Sea Team

EASTSIDE YOUNG LEADERS ACADEMY

Eastside Young Leaders Academy (EYLA) is a London-based educational charity established in 2002, which works to develop and promote the leadership potential of young people. As part of its mission EYLA supports and encourages its young people to apply for places at independent schools and universities. Eton College is proud that two EYLA alumni are now Etonians and hope their future successes will inspire other young people from both EYLA and Eton College.

Eton College formed an official partnership with EYLA in 2020. The partnership aims to not only encourage more EYLA applications to Eton, but to work directly and jointly on projects which support the charitable goals of both partners.

In 2021, Eton and EYLA organised virtual joint sessions for students to learn about campaigning, which led to a joint project focussed around developing campaigns to encourage COVID-19 vaccine take-up across all ethnic communities. In 2022, Eton hosted day visits from two groups of 15 Young Leaders (aged 10 and 16). Eton was also glad to host four of EYLA’s Young Leaders for a week at the Eton Connect Summer School in 2021 and 2022.

Eton’s partnership with EYLA is managed by the Deputy Head (Partnerships), Tom Arbuhtnott, and the Eton Connect Coordinator, Eleanor Chownsmith.

ACTIVITIES

OCTOBER 2021 – DECEMBER 2021

• Campaigning Workshops (x4)

JANUARY 2022

• EYLA Visit Day Year 9-11

MARCH 2022

• EYLA Visit Day Year 5 -6

JULY 2022

• Year 10 EYLA pupils join the Eton Connect Summer School

STATS 2021-2022

• 44 pupils from EYLA engaged with Eton Connect activities

• 2 EYLA alumni now study at Eton College

• 4 EYLA pupils attended the Year 10 Eton Connect Summer School

A closer look...

ETON AND EYLA CAMPAIGNING WORKSHOPS

Over four online workshops, eight Eton students worked alongside eight pupils from Eastside Young Leaders Academy (EYLA) to produce a campaign encouraging more people to take the COVID-19 vaccine. The students from Eton and Eastside worked together to identify arguments both for and against taking the new COVID-19 jab, how these can influence community support or rejection, and how a campaign could best work to increase vaccine take-up, especially in black and minority ethnic communities. At the last workshop, the mixed groups each presented their campaign plans to an NHS nurse and Head of Social Action at Eton College.

IMPACT

“Our young leaders have grown in confidence, capacity for critical thinking and it seems their use of language and vocabulary!”

Ray Lewis, Founder and CEO, Eastside Young Leaders’ Academy

“This was an unforgettable trip! Etonians are very friendly, kind and humorous. They made me feel welcome and comfortable”.

Jonathan, Year 5, EYLA (March visit)

EYLA VISIT DAYS TO ETON COLLEGE

Two groups of 15 EYLA pupils visited Eton in January (Years 10-11) and March (Years 5-6). The EYLA pupils knew a lot about Eton already and, during their tour of the Foundation Buildings and Eton’s museums, showed great interest in both the history and current life of the school. The older EYLA pupils played Tchoukball and took part in a printing workshop. The younger group played Eton Fives and donned lab coats to run chemistry experiments in the Science Schools. Both groups spent time with current Eton students over break time and lunch. The EYLA pupils asked the Eton students many thought-provoking questions, with topics including Eton’s educational mission and life at Eton. The Eton students were just as curious to learn about the life experiences of the EYLA pupils.

IMPACT

“Those of us who were fortunate to meet members of EYLA and spend time with our peers remarked afterwards that it had been a fantastic opportunity. Indeed, several of us had worked with our EYLA counterparts on various projects in the past, and it was great to see them again. One of the real strengths of our collaboration with EYLA is that it is more than just a one-off activity. Through our many intersections over the academic year, it is already apparent that friendships are being made that will last long into the future”.

Leiden, Year 12, Eton College (January visit)

“I really enjoyed the three science experiments and the museum of Eton life and meeting Jeremy. I loved the Victorian writing history lesson and enjoyed the Latin session - it was a fun text to practise! The Etonians were nice and welcoming, and I enjoyed asking them lots of questions. And I loved the fives game a lot. I loved the food, and the Ice cream was amazing”.

Kamsi, Year 5, EYLA (March visit)

LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS

Through our local partnership programme we aim to connect with all local state schools through research, digital resources, summer schools, visits and events. This work covers a wide range of activities for primary to sixth form age children and their teachers.

MOCK OXBRIDGE INTERVIEWS

Since 2017, the Partnerships team have coordinated nearly 600 individual subject specific mock Oxbridge interviews for local and partner school Year 13 students. Previously, interviews were hosted at Eton College, however due to COVID-19 restrictions in 2020, the interviews are now held online through Zoom. The online format best reflects official Oxbridge interviews which are currently conducted virtually.

In 2021, online interviews were given to 116 students from eight different schools applying for 33 different degree courses at either Oxford or Cambridge. These subject-specific interviews were held by 21 Eton teachers and 21 external interviewers made up of Eton College alumni, parents, and partner school staff. The mock interviews took place in the evenings alongside five free webinars for students and teachers on Oxbridge application preparation. The webinars were delivered in collaboration with Dr Joe Organ, Schools Liaison Officer, Brasenose College Oxford.

ACTIVITIES

NOVEMBER 2021

• Individual Online Mock Oxbridge Interviews (daily Monday-Friday)

• Group Oxbridge Webinars (weekly)

• Welcome Talk

• Interviewer Training for Staff

• Oxbridge Student Q&A

• Critical Thinking Workshop

• Academic Tutorial Taster

IMPACT

In 2022, conditional offers were made to 30% of participating students who also attended an official Oxbridge interview.

INTERVIEWERS:

“It is always rewarding

STATS 2021-2022

• 116 students interviewed

• 8 local state schools took part

• 33 different degree courses covered

• 21 Eton teachers and 21 external interviewers

• 30% of students who attended an official Oxbridge interview received a conditional offer

Alumni, Eton College

“I enjoyed seeing a candidate from a different school with similar passion for the subject”.

Teacher, Eton College

“It’s very good that Eton is doing this and as a school parent I’m glad to be able to do what I can to help”.

Parent, Eton College

to be helping a young person with something that they are challenged by”.

INTERVIEWEES

“He was very good at asking hard questions and gave me good advice on resources I could access to improve in my weaker areas”.

Year 12 student, Slough and Eton CofE Business & Enterprise College

“Really engaging and explained concepts in detail - enjoyed the questions which were asked as they were creative”.

Year 12 student, Windsor Girls’ School

“Good replication of an Oxbridge interview - very academic”.

Year 12 student, LAE

SOCIETY MEETINGS

STATS 2021-2022

• Over 70 different societies at the College

• Around 50 state school pupils attend each week

Eton hosts over 70 different societies at the College which cover a vast range of interests and topics. Society meetings typically run at 8.30pm each evening and cover academics, career pathways, sports, philosophy, arts, music, social and environmental action and much more. As well as student-led discussion meetings, societies also invite guest speakers who are current experts in their field. Although many talks were still held online during 2021-2022, as COVID-19 restrictions were lifted over the year, around 50 students from Holyport College, the TVLP and other local schools attended societies in person each week. Society meetings are also shared with TVLP and local schools, whose students attend on an ad hoc basis.

ACTIVITIES

SOME OF THE MOST POPULAR SOCIETIES

• Medical

• VocSoc (Careers)

• Environment Society

• Feminism

• Geographical

• Keynes (Economic)

• Model United Nations

• Political

• Psychology

• Rock (Music)

IMPACT

“The opportunities available to Holyport students are incredibly valued. Attending Eton societies has resulted in broadened horizons, work experience and positive relationships between the boys at Eton and our students”. Year 13 student, Holyport College

“I attended work experience at Isabel Hitching’s Crown Office Chambers after attending a Law Society lecture at Eton”. Year 13 student, Holyport College

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

Within Eton’s English Department, many partnership opportunities have been created with local schools.

This includes joint societies, events and competitions.

IMPACT

“The Huxley Society is a literary reading group. Between September 21 and August 22 we had Charles Cumming OE, author of Box 88 in; Chloe Aridjis, author Sea Monsters; Jasper Gibson OE, author of The Octopus Man, all of which were attended by Holyport students. Several students from Holyport and their teacher were able to attend the society dinner with Charles Cumming before the talk. When also met to discuss the books, over drinks and snacks in a more relaxed setting in Eton. We are now expanding the society to incorporate Windsor Girls’ and Windsor Boys’ School who we are hoping will appoint respective secretaries in the New Year.

We also take part in writing workshops with Holyport. We invited the two authors, Chloe Aridjis and Jasper Gibson, to take part in writing workshops in Summer 2022, in which a third of the students were from Holyport. This academic year, 2022, Holyport invited Eton students to partake in a poetry slam workshop with the poetry slam world champion, Harry Baker. Our partnership work flows both ways.

The most popular English based society is Journalism Society which continues to draw weekly listeners from partnership schools. We always have a strong attendance from Holyport and quite often a few students from

Windsor Boys’ and Windsor Girls’ School. Our most popular speakers have been Ruth Sherlock and Paul Wood, two war correspondents who drew an audience of 115, 20 of which were from partnership schools; Michael Binyon OBE of which about a fifth were from partnership schools, and Angelos Frangopoulos who drew a partnership schools’ audience of about a fifth, too.

We were also able to share joint judging of The Poetry by Heart competition for the last two years with LAE. LAE’s students were successful enough so as to be invited to the national final, held in the Globe Theatre. Specialist teachers from English were able to meet with the LAE online, hear their pieces, judge their competition

ACTIVITIES

• Joint reading group between Eton and Holyport College

• Joint writing workshops between Eton and Holyport College

• Journalism Society attended by local students

• Joint poetry competition between Eton and LAE

and met subsequently with the winners from the internal LAW competition to hone technique and give advice for the live final”.

David Gibbons, Head of English, Eton College

STUDENT VISIT DAYS

This year, the Partnerships team coordinated five state school student visits to Eton College, with at least one per term. Each visit hosted between 10-20 students from primary to sixthform age. Usually running from 10am-3pm, students are led by the Eton Connect Coordinator through a variety of activities aimed at addressing a theme chosen by the school e.g., student leadership or aspiration building.

STATS 2021-2022

• 58 students visited

• 15 Eton staff coordinated workshops

• 35 Eton students hosted visitors for lunch

Students visit many parts of the College over the day. They may have a museum visit, a fives session, a critical thinking workshop and a print lesson in the art department, for example. In this format, departments have only to prepare a 40-minute session and everything else is coordinated by the Partnerships team. Both break and lunchtime are spent with Eton students of the same year group. The aim is that students experience a full and varied day, meeting lots of different staff members and students at Eton.

ACTIVITIES

MARCH 2022

• Broomfield School Visit

• John Madejski Academy Visit

JUNE 2022

• Fulham Cross Academy Visit

• Beacon Hill Academy Visit

• Upton Court Grammar School Visit

IMPACT

“I would like to thank Eton for giving our school the opportunity to visit and providing us with enjoyable, thought-provoking and insightful workshops. I am truly grateful. The visit was well-managed and well-structured. I do not believe th at there are any areas that could have been improved on”.

Student, Fulham Cross Academy

“Key memories from the visit are the history behind the school and the building. Most significantly the chapel and the library, they were amazing! The interesting collection within the NHM. The lesson was full of riddles that challenged our thoughts”.

Student, Beacon Hill Academy

“The students were all so friendly and nice, we talked about our school lives and it was very nice to hear how it was for them to be attending Eton”.

Student, Fulham Cross Academy

PRIMARY SCIENCE AFTERNOONS

STATS 2021-2022

• 149 students

• Five local primary schools

Eton College’s Science Department hosted four science workshops (1.15-3pm) with five local state primary schools, giving 149 students a chance to try experiments in each of the three sciences. In biology they investigated owl pellets to discover what the owl had been eating. In physics, after a demonstration involving marshmallows they investigated buoyancy, while in chemistry, they carried out a series of chemical experiments to create different reactions, before creating glow in the dark solutions.

ACTIVITIES

DECEMBER 2021

• St Edward’s Royal Free Middle School / The Langley Academy Primary

FEBRUARY 2022

• Eden Girls School, Slough

IMPACT

MARCH 2022

• St Edward’s Royal Free Middle School

JUNE 2022

• St Luke’s CofE Primary School / Trevelyan Middle School

“An excellent afternoon of scientific awe and wonder… The children were fascinated by each challenge and the half-an-hour sessions flew by in no time. The children loved using their hands for each stage and the whole afternoon was deeply enriching”.

Teacher, Lynch Hill Primary Academy

“Most of us voted chemistry or biology as our favourite activities, but we enjoyed everything that we did. The afternoon was amazing”.

Pupils of St Edward’s Royal Free Middle School

PLATINUM JUBILEE SCHOOLS WEEK

Eton was heavily involved in the Platinum Jubilee Schools Week. Year 12-13 pupils from Eton, The Windsor Boys’ School and the Windsor Girls’ School formed a committee who helped create, plan and run a variety of inter school events.

There was a beginner’s debating event, organised and held at the Jafar Hall at Eton College. After a balloon debate on the favourite monarch there were head-to-head debates. Eton’s Drawing Schools hosted two afternoons of art workshops for 12 pupils from Eton Porny Primary school. The pupils’ work was displayed in the window of the Town Hall to commemorate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

The Festival of Education Dinner was held in College Hall for guests from local schools, charities and other educational organisations. Alongside the College kitchen staff, students from The Windsor Boys’ School and Windsor Girls’ School helped prepare the dinner, which they then served to guests in the evening. The Windsor Boys’ School and Windsor Girls’ School joint choir performed at the event.

The Platinum Jubilee Schools Week was coordinated by the Windsor Learning Partnership’s Director of Music, James Manwaring. The Schools Week events at Eton College were supported by the Director of Local Partnerships, Dr Andrew Saunders.

ACTIVITIES

FEBRUARY 2022

• Platinum Jubilee Student Meeting (Windsor Girls School)

MARCH 2022

• Platinum Jubilee Student Meeting (Eton College)

MAY 2022

• Eton Porny Art Project

• Festival of Education Dinner

• Schools Debate

STATE-SECTOR TEACHERS’ VISITS

STATS 2021-2022

• 10 staff visitors

• 11 Eton staff hosting discussions

• 5 state sector schools (John Madejski Academy, Eden Girls’ School [Slough], Barking Abbey School, Cox Green School, Ditton Park Academy)

On selected dates, headteachers and other staff from state-sector schools are welcome to visit Eton College to discuss partnership opportunities in digital learning, Teaching & Learning, research and Museum Learning. The day is designed for Eton to learn more about visiting schools and for teachers to hear about other educational opportunities available through Eton Connect. Visitors are also invited to lunch with Eton staff and a tour of the College with students.

IMPACT

“Thank you so much for inviting me as a guest for the day. I thoroughly appreciated the opportunity and experience to be shown around the site. In addition to this, to have also been allowed to engage with so many members of staff and students was a privilege. Both the staff and the students I met made me feel welcome and appreciated”. Director of Learning – Humanities, Eden Girls’ School (Slough)

“The day you organised was so action packed and you and your colleagues were all so generous with your time. You have given us so many ideas, definitely be back in touch soon!”

Deputy KS5 Leader, Cox Green School

PRIMARY SCHOOL HEAD TEACHERS CONFERENCE

The Tony Little Centre (CIRL), Eton Admissions and Eton Connect were proud to host primary and prep school leaders at the inaugural Primary Heads Teaching & Learning Workshop at Dorney Lake in June 2022. Attendees heard from leading researchers in the fields of evidence-based pedagogy, character education and cognitive neuroscience, learned more about Eton’s New Foundation Scholarship, Primary School Collections visits and the Eton Connect programme. The event concluded with a lively group discussion workshop around all topics. Attendees left feeling more informed about engaging with Eton Connect and CIRL and felt enriched by the talks and discussions.

The creation of a yearly Primary Heads Teaching & Learning Workshop brings Eton College into close conversation with local primary schools. The aim of this event is to share knowledge of existing partnership and bursary programmes, as well as hear how working together can create future learning opportunities for both pupils and teachers.

IMPACT

“Great venue, very welcoming, current and relevant to all - Thank you”.

Headteacher, Eton Porny C of E First School

“I think that shared opportunities to talk about curriculum and teaching and learning benefit staff at all levels”.

STATS 2021-2022

• 33 Senior leaders from local primary schools attended

• 24 local Primary Schools were represented

• 2 local prep School Headteachers attended

• 69% attendees had not engaged with Eton College before

• 100% attendees agreed the talks were relevant to their role at school

Headteacher, Hilltop First School

COLLEGE COLLECTIONS

COLLEGE COLLECTIONS

In 2021-2022 the College Collections continued the engagement programme to bring these Collections to wider audiences. The dedicated team ensures that access is granted to the general public for free. The Natural History Museum, Verey Gallery and the Eton Museum of Antiquities are open on Sunday afternoons, while the Museum of Eton Life is open on both Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

The Collections participated in the Eton Action Fair 2022, opening exhibition spaces and providing craft activities for families, in addition to the family learning event held in October half term.

Over 60,000 users engaged with the Collections’ digital content, including live online events, virtual exhibitions, a trail, the virtual reading room, the blog, the online catalogue and the website (collections.etoncollege.com), which includes resources for schools as well as other digital resources for use by researchers and the general public.

In addition to services available for researchers, on-site museum learning sessions resumed post-pandemic in September 2021. The Education Officer welcomed many classes who were making their first school trip. Over the academic year 2021-2022, there were 83 on-site sessions, for 2,198 students from reception to year 11, coming from both local schools and further afield. Some schools still chose online sessions, with 37 virtual sessions delivered to 1,628 students. A group of Eton students, as part of the College’s Community Engagement Programme, developed and presented their own sessions to local primary schools – most had to be done virtually due to COVID-19 restrictions but they were able to do some in person.

The Collections’ education programme is managed and run by the Collections Education Officer, Saskia Nesja.

STATS 2021-2022

• 160,000+ artefacts, specimens, files and documents in collections

• 20,000+ onsite visitors

• 100% of teachers would both return for another visit and recommend it to other teachers

ACTIVITIES

• 104 adult led Primary School Learning Sessions (onsite and online)

• 16 Eton student led Collections Sessions (onsite and online)

IMPACT

Over 78,000 people engaged with Eton Collections in some manner in 2021-2022, whether through a tour, a casual exhibition visit, an online search, a school trip, or research. These people included not only those connected with Eton but many from the local area and further abroad.

A closer look...

PRIMARY SCHOOL FORMAL LEARNING SESSIONS

There are three permanent museums at Eton College as well as a temporary exhibition space. The Collections offers a wide range of opportunities for museum learning at all primary school levels.

IMPACT

The Collections’ Primary Schools Learning Programme provides a valuable free resource for schools. The varied collections allow schools to access free learning sessions for multiple curriculum strands, close to home. The option to have a live online session improves accessibility to those schools that find it difficult to travel, whether it be for logistical, financial or time reasons. The education spaces are not open to the public during sessions and thus allow students the chance to get up close to objects while giving teachers security. Many students visit us as their first school trip, or even their first time visiting a museum. Attending a visit to the Collections increases students’ confidence in these spaces as well as their cultural capital.

“The information was detailed and relevant and enhanced our curriculum learning. The activities were varied and kept the children engaged throughout. They were also fun and I’m sure lots of the children will go away and research further/be enthused to learn more.”

Local primary school teacher

ACTIVITIES

ENGLISH

• Botany Bay Creative Writing (Key Stage 2):

SCIENCE

• Minibeasts (Key Stage 1)

• Dinosaurs and Fossils (Key Stage 1&2)

• Animals (Key Stage 1&2)

• Climate Change (Key Stage 2)

HISTORY

• Investigating the Ancient Egyptians (Key Stage 1&2)

• Ancient Greeks (Key Stage 1&2)

• Tudors (Key Stage 1&2)

• Toys (Early Years Foundation Stage):

• Tailcoats, Top Hats and Trials

– Victorian Children at Eton (Key Stage 1&2)

• Remembering the Fallen (Key Stage 1&2)

• WWII Home Front (Key Stage 2)

ECCE COLLEGE COLLECTIONS SESSIONS

TITLE

Body Text

As part of Eton College Community Engagement (ECCE), three groups of Year 12 students worked in each of the three museums to create and deliver museum learning sessions to local primary schools. In the Natural History Museum, students worked with the Museum Curator to cover a wide range of subjects. In the Museum of Eton Life the students chose to cover the WWII home front, while the students in the Museum of Antiquities ran their workshop on the Ancient Egyptians.

ACTIVITIES

• Eton students provided an hourlong museum education session that combined discussion with various activities to consolidate the pupils’ learning.

IMPACT

STATS 2021-2022

• Eton students facilitated sessions for 511 students in Years 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6.

ECCE sessions have a marked impact upon both the visiting pupils and Eton students. The pupils are not only learning information but are also being shown what they are capable of in the future as they are learning from students just a bit older than themselves. The Eton students not only learn about the subject, but also learn a lot from presenting to and interacting with large groups of young children.

“What a fabulous session we had today. Thank you for being so patient with my emailing and settling up the webinar. Please do thank the boys for the amazing presentation and how well they adapted their delivery as and when needed –gold star from our end!”

Local primary school headteacher

SUMMER SCHOOLS

For over 30 years, Eton has offered a wide range of opportunities to young people from across the world during the summer holidays.

Notably, Eton has run a university preparation summer school since 1982, which has seen thousands of state school students go on to top-tier courses and top-tier universities (including Oxbridge). Eton College University Summer School (ECUSS), a historic summer school, has undergone major change in 2021-2022 in order to reach more young people and, importantly, reach those who will most benefit. This summer school has been rebranded as the Eton Summer University Preparation Courses and is now free and non-residential.

ETON SUMMER UNIVERSITY PREPARATION COURSE

The new Eton Summer University Preparation Courses (ESUPC) were run during the first two weeks of July 2022. ESUPC is a series of free non-residential subject-based courses designed for Year 12 students from state schools, taught and curated by Eton’s teachers. Coming from 40 local state schools, 284 Year 12 students travelled to Eton College for three-five days to study one of nine available subject courses. State schools were asked to nominate students who would not otherwise have had the opportunity to gain extra university application support. These students were then asked to make a direct application to the course. A team of Eton staff reviewed nearly 400 applications and allocated places based on both the students’ grades and level of need.

The courses showed participants what it might be like to study the subject at degree level, with the course content extending beyond the A Level curriculum. The primary appeal of the summer school was enabling like-minded students to work and socialise together alongside dynamic teaching delivered by Eton’s teachers. The nine subject courses offered by Eton College were Mathematics, English, Economics, French, Biology with Chemistry, Chemistry, Physics, Theology and Philosophy, and Classics. As part of the summer school, general university preparation talks for the students were led by Oxford, Cambridge and Reading universities, all held at Eton College. These talks covered university preparation topics such as student life at university, how to write a personal statement, understanding student finance, and the support available for students at university (including mental health support).

STATS 2021-2022

• 284 Year 12 students attended from 40 different local state schools (45% male and 54% female)

• 59% of students who attended would have been the first in their family to attend university

• 20% of the students qualified for the 16 – 19 bursary

• 29% of the students had an annual household income under £25,000

IMPACT

‘My favourite thing was 100% all my lessons. All the teachers we had were brilliant and the content we were being taught was eye opening. It was so well taught, and I feel as if I have learnt so many new things I never knew before’.

Rasna, Year 12, The Westgate School

‘The teachers were absolutely wonderful and I appreciated all the support, help, and guidance they showed us throughout the whole week. They were so lovely and connected with us, showing us so many different routes of philosophy and just giving general advice for university. They were so kind, and I genuinely have so much appreciation for them’.

Year 12, Heston Community School

ETON CONNECT SUMMER SCHOOL

STATS 2021-2022

• In 2022, 146 students attended the five-day residential course

The Eton Connect Summer School (ECSS) was run for the first time in summer 2021. The free five-day residential Summer School was based at Eton College for two cohorts of 60 Year 10 local state school students. After the continued disruption of COVID-19 on young people’s education and social experience, we created the course to complement the support given by schools in promoting social and emotional wellbeing.

In July 2022, ECSS ran as three cohorts over three consecutive weeks. The first week’s course was run for the students whose course was cancelled in 2021, due to COVID-19, with 120 new Year 10 students invited to attend the second two weeks.

Partnership schools were asked to nominate four students each to attend the summer school, focusing particularly on students who otherwise would be unable to attend a summer school and who might profit from the sense of independence and aspiration created from spending a week in a boarding school.

Working alongside EtonX, the summer school ran the ‘Skills for Success’ course teaching students through skills-based learning, where topics such as public speaking, verbal communication, resilience and creative problem solving were covered.

As well as the ‘Skills for Success’ course, the students took part in a variety of team building activities including various sports, a ‘Fun Facts’ tour and treasure hunt, an Eton Mess making competition, a careers lecture, performing in a talent show and celebrating everything they had achieved during the week at the final night’s BBQ and disco.

ACTIVITIES

• Skills for Success classroom sessions devised by EtonX

• Team building activities: sports (access to the tennis courts, sports hall and the swimming pool), an Eton Fun Facts Tour, a treasure hunt, the Eton Mess making competition, a talent show

• Careers lecture

• BBQ and Disco at Queen’s Eyot or Dorney Lake

• Formal course Farewell Lunch in Bekynton

IMPACT

‘I feel as if I learnt a lot and it gave me knowledge that is important throughout my whole life, not just in a school environment’.

Adam, Year 10, Harlington School

‘It’s been an amazing experience meeting everyone… and experiencing all those moments. The staff were just as much as or even more enthusiastic than us kids and I love them all’.

Abdul, Year 10, Cumberland Community School

‘My favourite part was the teacher carousel where I was given the opportunity to talk and listen to many different people who specialise in different fields of work and university related subjects. This experience allowed me to ask the questions I never got the answers to and gave me new insight on different career paths and university choices you can choose. In addition, I really enjoyed talking to the people leading the course such as Rohid and Jonathan, as well as meeting new people and building friendships’.

Cristian, Year 10, Barking Abbey School

“Making new friends and connections which has helped me become more confident. I also enjoyed the lessons which inspired lots of contributions. The disco and BBQ were great fun”.

Shiloh, Year 10, Cumberland Community School

ETON DORNEY ROWING COURSES

In July and August 2022, two non-residential Eton Dorney Rowing Courses took place at Dorney Lake, Eton College’s Rowing Centre and venue for the 2012 Olympics. The courses are non-residential, led by experienced coaches, and tailored to cater for both ‘Learn to Row’ and advanced rowers. There are 40 free places for students who attend UK state schools. The aim of these places is to give as many students as possible the opportunity to learn to row. In 2022, these places were allocated to 37 UK state school students with limited rowing experience.

All participants spent five days learning to row or developing the skills they already possess. Participation, progression and performance are installed in any rower who takes part in the courses with the aim of providing each participant with the skills to flourish along their rowing journey.

STATS 2021-2022

• 111 students attended the courses including 37 students who attended on free places

• 76% of the students who attended a free place had no rowing experience

The Eton Dorney Rowing Courses are run by the Rowing Manager, Hannah Vines.

IMPACT

“The Eton Dorney Rowing Course is definitely something I will forever remember, and its scholarship scheme made this possible – something which I would have otherwise been unable to do”.

Jacques, Year 10

SPORTS

Through the free letting of Eton’s sports facilities, rowing coaching, Fives coaching and swimming lessons, Eton is able to provide thousands of local children and adults with world class sporting opportunities.

SPORTS FACILITIES LETTING

The Eton Willowbrook Centre is regularly used by local community clubs under our lettings programme. The Willowbrook Centre is home to two full sized Astros, a warmup cage Astro and 20 tennis courts. Under the Community Use Agreement held with Slough Borough Council, the facility is available for SBC community usage during the mornings and the afternoons, all free of charge.

Sports facility lettings are coordinated by Director of Summer Schools and Facilities Letting, Philip Highy, and Summer Schools and Lettings Manager, Amy Cross.

REGULAR SLOUGH BOROUGH COUNCIL USERS DURING THE MICHAELMAS AND LENT TERMS:

Mondays

• 11:00-12:00 Disability walking football

• 17:00-18:30 Singh Sabha Football

• 17:00-18:30 DNA Football

Wednesdays

• 17:00-18:00 DNA Football

• 17:30-18:30 Golden Eagles Football Club

Thursdays

• 11:00-12:00 Disability walking football

Fridays

• 17:00-18:30 Singh Sabha Football

Alongside the Slough Borough Council usage, a number of local community clubs hire the facility in the evenings and at the weekends throughout the Michaelmas and Lent terms.

REGULAR COMMUNITY HIRERS:

Mondays

• 19:10-20:10 Windsor Youth Football Club

• 19:10-20:10 Old Windsor Tigers Football Club

Tuesdays

• 19:20-21:20 Windsor Hockey

• 19:20-21:20 Windsor Youth Football Club

Wednesdays

• 19:20-21:20

Thursdays

Windsor Hockey

• 19:10-20:10 United Select

• 19:10-20:10

Windsor Youth Football Club

• 20:20-21:20 Pure Footy

Saturdays

• 9:00-12:00 Holyport College

Sundays

• 9:00-12:00

Juniors

Windsor Hockey

With the completion of Athens in spring 2022, a couple of introductory sessions were run with our regular swimming pool users alongside the

dry run of the Primary School Swimming Programme. From September 2022, in line with the Community Usage Agreement with the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, there will be ten hours of swimming pool hire allocated to local community sports clubs such as Windsor Swimming Club, Maidenhead Marlins Swimming Club and Reading Water Polo.

ONE OFF ACTIVITIES

September 2021

• Slough Schools Sports Partnership hosted their start of year Heads of PE meeting in the Willowbrook Pavillion

October 2021

• Slough Schools Sports Partnership football festival at Willowbrook

June 2022

• Slough Schools Sports Partnership mini tennis tournaments at Willowbrook

July 2022

• Slough Schools Sports Partnership hosted a teachers’ seminar followed by their school summer games at Willowbrook

• Slough Schools’ Cricket League Finals (Years 7-10) took place on the artificial cricket pitches

ROWING

Eton’s rowing partnerships are managed and delivered by the Rowing Manager, Hannah Vines.

DORNEY LAKE SCHOOLS ROWING

The Dorney Lake Schools Rowing programme has been running for several years and has introduced hundreds of young people to the sport of rowing. Sessions are offered to local schools and can range from curriculum PE lessons, GCSE PE, an after-school club or a rewards day.

DORNEY BOAT CLUB

Dorney Boat Club is open to any young person that wants to row but may not be attending through their school. The club is also a pathway for those introduced to it through a school session or the Eton Dorney Rowing Courses.

ACTIVITIES

• Learn to row sessions for curriculum PE

• Progression and skills development with after school clubs planning to race

• Fundraisers – Reindeer Row –linked with Santa Fun Run for Alzheimer’s Dementia Support

• Development of leadership and transferable skills through team building

IMPACT STATS 2021-2022

• An average 150 students per week (during the Summer Term)

• Over 300 coaching sessions delivered

• 11 schools/charities partnered with through rowing

• 5 students competed in their first official race

• Annual club regatta and BBQ

• First steps into racing

• A place of stability and refuge for young people experience trauma

• Reward days

• Duke of Edinburgh sessions

“What you do is make the gym sessions hard but fun”.

Parent, Dorney Boat Club

“My day at Dorney Lake was incredible. I had so much fun doing all of those fun activities especially after practising with the rowing machine like we did at DPA, but we also did it in an actual boat”.

Mahith, Year 9, Ditton Park Academy

“We did some rowing on the machines and went rowing with coaches, Hannah and Sophie, they were great. My favourite part of the day was going rowing and working as a team with new people. I also enjoyed the part where we all had to row together.”

Jamie, Year 9, Ditton Park Academy

PRIMARY SCHOOL SWIMMING PROGRAMME

Eton’s Primary School Swimming Programme is built and run by Swimming Teaching Coordinator, Amy Cross.

Since the opening of Athens in early 2022, we have been designing and implementing a Primary School Swimming Programme (PSSP) for our local state primary schools.

The model is to run a 12-week term of 40-minute lessons. Each session has a capacity of 36 swimmers with four Eton College employed swimming teachers running separate ability lessons each session. The programme will be open to children from Years 3-5 from schools within Slough and Windsor. There will be a fee for the primary schools to pay which will cover the cost of the staff required to run the lessons.

The teachers will follow a scheme of work, incorporating elements of the Swim England School Swimming and Water Safety award (National Curriculum) and additional elements of bespoke Eton College criteria. The founding principle is to not only teach water safety and movement, but to ensure the swimmers are taught to swim efficiently

with identifiable strokes and to maintain a stable body position on both their fronts and their backs.

Prior to the programme officially starting in Michaelmas 2022, a dry run was carried out with a local primary school. Eton Porny sent two year groups of students (Years 3 and 4) to participate in the primary school lessons from February half term to May half term in 2022. A total of 51 swimmers attended the sessions and swam weekly on Thursdays from 11:20-12:00 and from 13:25-14:05 for 12 weeks.

At the start of the programme, 33.33% of the swimmers were unable to move 5m in the water (with assistance) and were unable to put their face in the water. By the end of the 12-week programme, all swimmers were able to confidently travel 15m on their fronts and backs with their face in the water and 9.8% had already reached the National Curriculum goal which is a requirement by the end of Year 6.

The programme commenced in September 2022 with five different schools swimming across eight sessions. The schools attending are as follows:

ETON WICK FIRST SCHOOL

(WINDSOR)

• 27 students from Year 4 swimming Mondays from 9:00 – 9:40

TREVELYAN MIDDLE SCHOOL (WINDSOR)

• 24 students from Year 5 swimming Tuesdays from 11:40 – 12:20

• 22 students from Year 5 swimming Thursdays from 11:30 – 12:10

LYNCH HILL PRIMARY SCHOOL (SLOUGH)

• 28 students from Year 5 swimming Wednesdays from 13:25 – 14:05

ST MARY’S PRIMARY SCHOOL (SLOUGH)

• 24 students from Year 5 swimming Tuesdays from 13:20 – 14:00

• 22 students from Year 5 swimming Thursdays from 12:20 – 13:00

• 21 students from Year 5 swimming Thursdays from 13:10 – 13:50

• Kings Courts First School (Windsor)

• 36 students from Year 4 swimming Fridays from 13:25 – 14:05

All parents are asked for a rough ability level prior to their students starting the swimming programme. At the start of the Michaelmas term, 38.5% of the swimmers were unable to move 5m in the water (with assistance) and were unable to put their face in the water. Further, 62% of the swimmers attending have been classed as beginners who can’t travel 10m through the water unaided.

We are hopeful that by the end of the 12-week term, all swimmers will be able to confidently travel 15m in the water on their fronts and backs with an understanding of water safety and identifiable strokes across the board.

SERVICE LEARNING

SERVICE LEARNING

Service Learning is achieved through an organised network of volunteering placements and personal social action projects sought by Eton’s students, as well as effective engagement with our local community to have a meaningful impact on the lives of those around us.

Volunteering initiatives are coordinated by the Master-in-Charge of Community Engagement, Dr David Anderson, and the Social Action Mentor, Misha Mehta, who guide and inspire students to explore every opportunity to make a difference.

KEY ACTIVITIES

SEPTEMBER 2021

• Eton Action Fair

• Start of ECCE placements

• TVLP Student Leadership Conference

OCTOBER 2021

• Harvest deliveries to local community members

• Eton Community Litter Pick

NOVEMBER 2021

• Year 12 joins the Eton Action Committee

• Mufti/Casual Change Day Fundraiser

• Movember Fundraiser

DECEMBER 2021

• Christmas deliveries to local community members

• Santa Fun Run Fundraiser for Alzheimer’s Dementia Support

JANUARY 2022

• Khemka Social Impact Prize

• Social Impact Challenge

• Student Consultancy begins

FEBRUARY 2022

• Eton Action Annual General Meeting

• Eton Community Litter Pick

MARCH 2022

• Sleep Out Fundraiser

MAY 2022

• Birchall Prize

• Student Consultancy final presentations

JUNE 2022

• Friendly Club fundraising

THROUGHOUT THE YEAR

• Sunday tea parties for elderly members of the community

• Student-led fundraising

• Social Impact Society events

• Volunteering within the community

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ETON COLLEGE COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

In the autumn of 2021, the Eton College Community Engagement (ECCE) programme of volunteering for Year 12 was re-established post-pandemic. It involved 160 students who were each allocated to one of 30 different placement activities.

Eight members of the teaching staff and two non-teaching staff assisted with various placements (involving training and organising students for certain activities and supervision of some activities). One member of the support staff assisted with the administration.

STATS 2021-2022

• 160 Year 12 students volunteering

• 30 weekly placements

• approximately 235 hours of service a week / 1880 hours of service per term

• 11 members of staff supporting

ACTIVITIES

PLACEMENT ACTIVITIES

EXTERNAL TO THE COLLEGE

INCLUDED:

• Charity shops

• Local schools (primary, middle, and secondary)

• Care homes

• Libraries

• Slough Mencap

• Swan Lifeline

• Eton Tourist Information Centre

• Community arts spaces

PLACEMENT ACTIVITIES

INTERNAL TO THE COLLEGE

INCLUDED:

• College Collections sessions for primary schools

• Rowing Outreach at Dorney Lake

• Environmental Enhancement Group looking after local wildlife spots

IMPACT

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“I gained a lot of patience, understanding of the most effective methods of teaching, empathy for my mentee, and practical skills as I improved my maths alongside him”.

Student, Year 12, Eton College - Maths mentoring

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closer look...

LATIN CLUB

“The boys have been a credit to Eton”.

Local

Primary School Teacher

“All the boys are helpful, brilliant and when asked to do a task they are always happy to do things straight away”. Charity Shop Manager, Windsor

“My communication and people skills have greatly improved, as I was thrust into an environment which forced me to help and communicate with strangers”. Student, Year 12, Eton College - Library placement

Four Year 12 Eton students went into Eton Wick First School and three into Eton Porny First School each Monday to run a 30-minute after-school club for children from Years 3 and 4. These students were supervised in their preparation of each of the lessons but were encouraged to come up with their own plans and ideas to make the sessions fun and engaging for the pupils.

Each group of students was accompanied by an Eton teacher. After the sessions, this teacher helped the students think about any adjustments in the content, delivery or classroom management for the next session. The Latin Club loosely used Barbara Bell’s Minimus to structure the sessions, which contains a mixture of cartoons, grammar, mythology and bases its stories at Vindolanda. Minimus has plenty of extra resources to use, and students also produce their own materials such as word searches or other games to engage the pupils.

MUSIC

ECCE MUSIC IN THE COMMUNITY

Over the Michaelmas and Lent terms, 11 Year 12 Eton students took part in a variety of ECCE projects in local primary schools. The students visited Eton Porny First School and Eton Wick Primary, running weekly music sessions for children in Year 3 and 4. The project culminated in a gala concert on the final Monday of the term. The children selected ‘Songs from the Shows’ as their topic, and the hall was full of the sounds of The Jungle Book, The Greatest Showman and The Little Mermaid.

PRIMARY SCHOOL BRASS DAY

Eton’s Head of Brass took seven Eton students to Lynch Hill School Primary Academy to take part in an afternoon joint Brass Workshop. Eton students performed a number of items before joining forces with the primary school children in some collaborative music making.

SOCIAL ACTION

Social Action at Eton encompasses the giving of time and/or money, raising awareness of social issues, campaigning for an important cause, and/or devising a social action project. This list is not exhaustive; social action includes anything that involves an Eton student going beyond themselves to be of benefit and service to others. It can take place across various disciplines, including Career Education, Sports, Debating, Music, etc.

Some social action opportunities are built within the structure of the school, whilst others involve an Eton student taking the initiative to use their voice and actions in a meaningful way to bring a practical and positive difference to others.

All Social Action is centralised at the Social Action Hub, a collaboration space for all involved with Social and Environmental Action at Eton. The Hub is a room used for meetings and has drop-in office hours for students and staff. It is staffed by the Master-in-Charge and the Social Action Mentor and includes resources to encourage and assist students on their social action journeys.

2021-22 ACTIVITIES

• Students supported Slough Mencap’s 70th anniversary through a fundraising drive and helped organise the celebration party

• 90 Christmas goodie bags were delivered to seniors in the local community. The bags included handwritten cards, designed by Jack in Year 13

• 20 students and five teachers took part in a Sleep Out to raise funds for the homeless in Windsor and Slough

• A school-wide fundraising effort to support UNICEF’s Ukraine Appeal raised over £40,000

• In the Michaelmas and Lent Halves, 13 students took part in online courses organised by EduSpots, an educational charity and NGO. The charity connects students in Ghana with UK students through online courses that develop social literacy. Three Eton students achieved distinctions for their high level of engagement with the Ghanaian students

STATS 2021-2022

• About 200 pupils are involved in volunteering activities

• At any time, about 100 students across all year groups are actively taking part in partnerships activities

• Over 40 hours a term are dedicated to volunteering outside of dedicated volunteering time such as ECCE

• 33 pupils in Years 9-11 are actively taking part in volunteering (the highest number so far)

• From September 2021 to June 2022, students independently fundraised over £15,000 for 10+ charities

A closer look...

ART OF DEBATING (Student-led project during Michaelmas 2021)

In Lent 2021, Hasit in Year 12 entered the Khemka Social Impact Prize with his project titled Art of Debating, which focused on providing debating training to students from schools that do not have debating programmes. Unfortunately, out of eight entries he did not place in the top three.

However, the project caught the eye of the Social Action Mentor, who approached Hasit about running the sessions with partner schools. During his presentation, Hasit had shared how over the summer he had run debating workshops for state school students in his local community, giving eight virtual lessons and running many practice debates over Zoom. Each programme ran over one week, and he had run several programmes over the course of the summer. He was keen to organise a similar programme for partner school students.

Through several meetings with the Social Action Mentor a general plan and schedule was made up that would work for Hasit, his helpers (other Eton students in Years 12 and 13), and students from the partner schools. With the help of the Eton Connect and TVLP teams, emails were sent to partner schools advertising the workshops.

Over the course of the term, weekly sessions took place on Zoom with students from LAE, Windsor Boys’ School, and Beechwood School. During each session Hasit would first deliver a lecture, after which the students would be given a motion to prep in breakout rooms followed by a debate. The Eton students would then give feedback to the students.

Feedback from students after the end of the course was positive:

‘I enjoyed learning new styles of debating and how to structure arguments’.

Student, LAE

‘The PowerPoint presentations helped a lot as they always demonstrated a way we could develop our debating’.

Student, The Windsor Boys’ School

Hasit was keen to run the course again during the following term, and these workshops have now become a regular part of the ECCE programme.

UNICEF UKRAINE APPEAL

Eton Action raised funds for the UNICEF Ukraine Appeal, which was designed specifically to help children impacted by the war. In addition to other forms of help, nearly £30,000 was raised towards this appeal with the help of donations from staff, parents, students, and Old Etonians (Eton College alumni).

In addition to the school-wide fundraiser for UNICEF Ukraine, many students organised fundraisers to raise even more funds to support children impacted by the war:

• Year 12 students Marco, Alexander, Julius, and Nicholas organised an inter-house basketball tournament, raising over £250

• The students of The Hopgarden House played atrium sponge football for 24 non-stop hours raising over £3,600 for UNICEF

• The 12-in-24 marathon returned, with the students of Durnford House playing 12 sports continuously over 24 hours and raising nearly £5,500 (split between UNICEF and the five Eton Action charities)

• Peter in Year 12 designed and produced t-shirts to sell, with all profits going to the UNICEF Ukraine Appeal (over £50)

• Ms Herbommez’s Year 12 tutor group – Dhruvit, William, Cassius, Oliver, Giles, and Alban, organised and took part in a ‘Sleep In’. For three days they stayed in Ms Herbommez’s classroom, eating and sleeping there too. The students only left the room to attend lessons. Through their efforts they raised over £1,000.

SLEEP OUT

In March 2022, 20 students and five teachers took part in the Eton College Sleep Out to raise funds for two charities: Windsor Homeless Project and the London and Slough Run. Organised by a Year 13 student, the idea was to provide a greater insight into homelessness whilst raising much needed funds for the two charities. Pupils and teachers slept on cardboard leftover from dining hall food deliveries and sleeping bags borrowed from the CCF, and were given soup for dinner. Whilst this is clearly a far cry from the harsh reality of sleeping on the streets, it helped raise awareness about the difficulties of sleeping rough.

ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE FOR LOOKED AFTER CHILDREN

In 2020, the headmaster announced Eton2020: A New Social Vision, which includes bursaries to bring looked after students to Eton. This resonated with two Year 11 students, Gabriel and Lysander, who felt that it was important to do something to support looked after children. They set a fundraising target of £6,500; with 1,300 students at Eton they believed that if each donated £5 they would be able to reach this goal easily. To encourage donations, they used the famous ALS Ice-Bucket Challenge, asking staff at the school to ‘ice’ themselves. The headmaster pledged to take ‘The Ice’ himself as a grand finale if the £6,500 goal was reached. Through hard work and determination, the fundraising goal was met, and on a November morning the headmaster received a ‘Grand Icing’ in front of the whole school!

SANTA FUN RUN

In 2019, a Year 12 student named Guy discovered that a Santa Fun Run organised by the local charity Alzheimer’s Dementia Support would be taking place at Dorney Lake. His grandmother had dementia and having spent a month living with her the previous summer, he came to see firsthand how devastating this disease is. He wanted to do something to raise awareness and help support the countless families that are struggling with it. He searched ‘Dementia Eton’ to find out how he could get involved and saw the 5K Santa Fun Run around Dorney Lake. He took it upon himself to organise a team from Eton, which included ten students and one teacher. They raised over £6,500 and completed in the top ten of all

runners (out of a total 150), with one Year 12 student coming in 2nd place overall.

Since then, the Santa Fun Run has become a regular fixture in the December school calendar. The run is now organised by Eton College around the Agar and Dutchman playing fields. Each year a different student takes the lead and coordinates the run to raise funds for the charity Alzheimer’s Dementia Support. In 2020, the funds raised doubled to £12,500; this number has been increasing every year since.

FRIENDLY CLUB

For over 50 years Eton students have been volunteering weekly at Friendly Club with Slough Mencap, a local charity that provides services to people with learning disabilities. Slough Mencap receive no financial support other than the funds raised by itself. Recently, the local council cut all services for adults with learning disabilities so Slough Mencap has had to begin providing extra services to ensure that the most vulnerable continue to receive support.

To support Slough Mencap, two students who volunteered weekly took it upon themselves to raise some much-needed funds. Torsai and Ivan in Year 12 organised a school-wide fundraiser which included a five-a-side football tournament. Year 12 tutor groups paid £5 per person to play a round of football against another tutor group. Seven tutor groups participated, and including a £1,000 donation from Eton College as well as generous donations from staff, parents, and Old Etonians, the students were able to raise over £3,000 for Slough Mencap.

Slough Mencap’s 70th anniversary falls in June 2022, meaning that Eton students have been a weekly part of the charity for 70% of its existence.

To celebrate this, Dr David Anderson (Head of Community Engagement) and Mrs Mercedes Porcel Martin (Master in Charge of Friendly Club) attended the 70th anniversary celebration, with the Eton College Catering Team at Bekynton kindly providing the food and drinks. It was a lovely afternoon filled with shared memories and photographs.

In honour of this anniversary, the Community Engagement team reached out to Old Etonians (Eton College alumni) who had volunteered at Slough Mencap whilst they were at Eton. What became clear is that Friendly Club was an incredibly important activity for many Eton students and helped shape the paths their lives took. The team heard from many old Etonians who shared their thoughts and spoke warmly about their time at the Friendly Club with the Slough Mencap team during the 70th anniversary celebration:

“It meant a huge amount to me to be involved with the Friendly Club and I will never forget it”.

ROW FOR UKRAINE

ANGUS IRVINE PLAYING FIELDS FUND

“Being part of the Friendly Club was, without doubt, a particular highlight of my time at Eton. It was an extremely formative, grounding and hugely enjoyable experience”.

“The Friendly Club was my first engagement with the world beyond home and boarding school, both perceived as secure and privileged. But the real privilege, not recognised perhaps at the time, was entering the world of the Friendly Club. It opened my eyes to others who faced challenges and struggles beyond anything I or my peers had to face. I can honestly say that Friendly Club was the most important and most formative part of my five years at Eton. What remains with me is the absolute non-judgmental warmth of acceptance we encountered”.

A. Holmes (OE, 1974 JA)

After an accident, one of the Eton rowers, Walter in Year 11, spent a year in an Ilizarov frame, a device invented on the Ukrainian border to repair shattered bones. Appalled by the injuries inflicted on innocent children in Ukraine and memories of his own recovery, Walter and his friends organised a sponsored row, on a large scale, to support Save The Children’s work in Ukraine. Eton’s entire rowing squad of 150 rowers took to Dorney Lake in Ukrainian national rowing suits and attempted to ‘Row to Ukraine’, a distance of 2,000km.

The event took place on a blistering hot day, 14 June 2022. Despite the heat the rowers managed to row 2,407 km. This is approximately the distance to Kherson, the home city of Ukrainian World Champion, Dmitriy Mikhay, who joined the team on the water.

Through generous donations over £38,500 was raised, with all funds going to Save the Children UK to support their work in Ukraine.

Year 12 student and keen footballer Louis organised a football tournament to raise funds for the Angus Irvine Playing Fields Fund. Having grown up playing football in Oxfordshire, in particular playing for Oxford City FC for five years, Louis knew what a difference playing sport can make. The Playing Fields Legacy Fund was a charity established by the late Angus Irvine in 2012, prompted by what he felt was a failure of the 2012 London Olympics to provide the promised legacy for grassroots sport.

In order to raise funds for the Playing Fields Legacy Fund, Louis ran an inter-House, five-a-side tournament in the garden of his boarding House. The tournament was played between 16 boarding houses, during which two 15-minute games were played each night, for nine days, culminating in a nail-biting final. In total, Louis raised over £2,200 for this charity which was close to his heart.

Christopher Frederick (OE, 1968 MNF)

N. Diggle (OE, 1987 NJTJ)

SOCIAL ACTION PRIZES

There are many prizes at Eton which span across various disciplines. The Social Action prizes below aim to encourage Eton students to participate and engage in meaningful social action whilst at Eton.

KHEMKA SOCIAL IMPACT PRIZE

The Khemka Social Impact Prize is open to Years 11, 12, and 13 and encourages students to develop social enterprises. Students must pitch a business idea that helps to solve a global or local social issue. The prize was founded by Mr Uday Khemka (OE) and aims to encourage older students to think about how they can make a positive impact on their communities through their future business endeavours.

This year saw presentations of the highest standards yet – four teams of students presented their entrepreneurial solutions for local or global social problems to a panel of judges. Judges included a mixture of teachers, members of the Leadership Team, other students, and Mr Khemka. Each project focused on a different issue: mental health, loneliness, shortage of STEM teachers, and homelessness.

SOCIAL IMPACT CHALLENGE

The Social Impact Challenge is open to Years 9, 10, and 11 and aims to introduce younger students to the principles of social action. Students must choose a charity and contribute to it in some way, either through fundraising, raising awareness of the issue they work towards, and/ or volunteering with the charity. The winning team’s charity becomes one of the charities that Eton Action will support the following academic year. Therefore, the Social Impact Challenge really encourages the students to use their voices to bring about practical and positive change to a cause that is important to them. In order to be successful, they must truly go beyond themselves and be of service for the benefit of others as the winner is chosen based on how much they engage with the cause they are trying to support.

This year’s Social Impact Challenge saw six groups present their charitable endeavours to a panel of judges consisting of a mixture of teachers, members of the Leadership Team, and older students. The types of charities represented spanned across many different causes; they included food banks, pet care charities, and disability and health charities. Whilst only one winner could be chosen, the judges were supremely impressed at how much fundraising, volunteering, and raising awareness the students had done. In the end, all the other charities also received a donation from the school.

BIRCHALL CITIZENSHIP PRIZE

The Birchall Citizenship Prize was initially set up in the 1920s in honour of John Wykeham Dearman Birchall, who passed away at the age of sixteen whilst a student at Eton College. The goal of the Birchall Citizenship Prize was to ‘emphasise the Christian duty

of individual service’ and ‘corporate responsibility for the conditions of life and work in the world around’.

In 2020 the prize was relaunched as an essay prize with the same ethos. Students who have taken part in social action in the last year can submit an essay reflecting on their experience. What is key about this prize is that it does not matter what social action the students have taken part in; it is the reflection and introspection that is awarded. The best pieces of writing are insightful and reflective, and show a process where a student, whatever their age, is engaging effectively with social action.

Judging is based on quality of thought, level of engagement, level of initiative, and quality of writing. This year, 11 students entered the prize, with three (from Years 10, 12, and 13) winning top prize: a £100 donation to the charity of their choice.

ETON ACTION

Eton Action is a charity founded by Eton’s students with the aim of raising funds for other charities. This year, the students raised significant funds for five key charities (Project Luangwa, Samaritans of Windsor, Slough, and Maidenhead, St Giles Hospice, The Honeypot Children’s Charity, and World Land Trust). They also engaged in a wide variety of volunteering projects for the individual charities and led many society meetings dedicated to thinking about effective social action through the selected charities. Outside of these five charities, students organised fundraisers for causes close to their hearts. Various sports tournaments, such as football, table tennis, and swimming, have taken place to raise much-needed funds for charities such as UNICEF and Save the Children.

In total, Eton Action raised nearly £130,000 for charity in the 2021-2022 academic year. This includes school fundraisers such as the Eton Action Fair and fundraisers organised by students.

ETON ACTION CHARITIES OF 2021-2022

• Project Luangwa

• Samaritans of Windsor, Slough, and Maidenhead

• St Giles Hospice

• The Honeypot Children’s Charity

• World Land Trust

A closer look...

ETON ACTION COMMITTEE

Over 50 Year 12 students applied to be on the Eton Action Committee in Michaelmas 2021, showing a huge appetite amongst students for being a part of Eton Action. After a rigorous shortlisting and interview process, 19 were chosen.

This year’s Annual General Meeting was the first to be entirely student-led, and nearly 100 students attended the evening in Jafar Hall. Each charity chosen was proposed by a student.

ETON ACTION FAIR

The Eton Action Fair, which takes place in September, is the largest annual fundraising event for Eton Action. Eton College’s grounds are transformed into a charity fair with games, stalls and performances organised by students and staff of Eton College to raise money for the five charities supported by Eton Action. In its 48th year, the fair was run on Saturday 18 September 2021 and drew thousands of visitors from Slough, Windsor and Maidenhead, as well as parents and friends of Eton students. On the day, over £30,000 was raised for Eton Action.

The involvement of the Eton Action Boy Committee and other student volunteers was incredibly positive with students reflecting that they gained a lot of experience working with the public. Their roles at the fair included, manning the ticket booths, helping at the jumble sale, litter picking and more. There was also lots of praise of the students’ conduct from both visitors and stallholders.

STATS 2021-2022

• £30,768.69 was raised at the Eton Action Fair in 2021

• Over 2,000 visitors joined the Eton Action Fair

• Over 200 student volunteers took part on the day

• All 25 boarding houses ran a stall at the fair

• Over 40 external stall holders (charities and local business) participated

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

Environmental education has been present in one form or another throughout Eton’s history, as exemplified by the founding of the Natural History Museum in the late 1800s (one of the few remaining maintained school museums for natural history in the UK). Indeed, the museum is now used for outreach on a regular basis.

Today, Environmental Education at Eton aims to develop ways to encourage the following with respect to environmental sustainability:

1. Awareness – build awareness of a broad scope of issues, ranging between energy (sourcing and waste), waste management (including recycling, food and water), purchasing (ethical and sustainable sourcing), and exploring how these relate to the climate and biodiversity crises.

2. Ethos – foster sustained good habits by having sustainability embedded in infrastructure and operations.

3. Action – encourage and support projects undertaken by the College and by students.

Eton’s Environmental activity is managed by the Co-Directors of Environmental Education, Pauline Herbommez and Kerri Hicks.

ACTIVITIES

ENVIRONMENT SOCIETY

The Environment Society is a studentled venture where external speakers are invited to give talks, seminars or workshops on wide-ranging environmental themes. Local and partnership schools are always invited. This year, meetings included a talk from Dr Andy Palmer on fast cars and the environment, and an evening conversation with Mark Rose, CEO of Fauna and Flora International.

Numbers vary depending on the subject but we often welcome small numbers of external students from the TVLP and Berkshire Schools Eco Network (BSEN).

ENVIRONMENT WEEK

Environment Week celebrates World Environment Day (5th June) each year. It is a week of events aimed at increasing awareness of environmental issues, notably the biodiversity and climate crises. There are multiple society meetings with external speakers. Holyport College run their Environment Week at the same time and both colleges collaborate on ideas and resources.

BERKSHIRE SCHOOL ECO NETWORK

The Berkshire Schools Eco Network (BSEN), is composed of ten secondary state and independent schools, including Eton College, Wellington, the Marist, Holyport College and many others. It is modelled off the London Schools Eco Network (LSEN) and is part of the wider national UK Sustainable Schools Network (UKSSN). It is a network that aims to encourage environmental action internally and externally. It shares ideas of projects and supports schools in running these projects, as well as participating in national events to raise the profile of both the BSEN and environmental issues.

Eton ran a logo competition and ran a session for the Youth Climate Summit 2020 on Food, Farming and Forests, aimed at primary school children. Phoebe (Year 13, Marist) and Cosmo (Year 13, Eton College) went to COP26 and participated in the Al Gore Climate Leadership programme.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT WITH ETON PORNY FIRST SCHOOL

Members of Environmental Action have re-engaged with Eton Porny to revive their former Eco-Club. Students have started to attend clean-ups in the afternoon to get to know the children and will be working on the achievement of the green flag award and the deliverance of a few environmental themed sessions.

BEYOND COP21 SYMPOSIUM

The Beyond COP21 Symposium series began in 2016 in Dubai and Eton College was the thirty-first school to host. All of Eton’s Year 9 students attended alongside 150 students from local schools for two days of talks and workshops around climate change and a sustainability showcase exhibition with local charities. Participating schools included Beechwood School, Charters School, Claires Court, Holme Grange, Holyport College, Slough and Eton Business and Enterprise College, St Joseph’s Catholic High School, The Abbey, and The Windsor Boys’ School.

IMPACT

STUDENTS’ FEEDBACK FROM THE BEYOND COP21 SYMPOSIUM:

“I think it made me feel more confident discussing issues as I was in a room with so many people who wanted to make change”.

Year 9 student, The Abbey

“It completely changed the way I thought about climate change. Showing the giant spectrum of consequences and disasters that come with it”.

Year 10 student, St Joseph’s Catholic High School

“It made me feel more inspired to do more for preventing climate change, it also made me feel a lot more aware about the events taking place that are related to climate change”.

Year 12 student, Claires Court

“I am definitely more interested than I was going into it. I want to take action myself and I am interested in volunteering for a local environmental group”.

Year 10 student, The Windsor Boys’ School

CAREER EDUCATION

CAREER EDUCATION

The objective of the Career Education department at Eton is to help students to understand the need to develop their employability throughout their time at school. The department creates opportunities to enable

A closer look...

VOCSOC - CAREER SEMINARS

The programme of regular once or twice-weekly ‘VocSoc’ career seminars is offered to all pupils in the TVLP partnership, irrespective of year group. The talks expose all pupils to speakers from various sectors and hopefully inspires them to think about the world of work.

• Participating Schools

• Holyport College

• The Windsor Boys School

• Windsor Girls’ School

• Beechwood School

• St Mary’s Ascot

Attendees from local schools have enjoyed in-depth insights about careers such as Journalism, Documentary Filmmaker, City Careers, Entrepreneurship, Solicitor, Ski Careers, Investment Management, Sustainability Finance, Marketing, Civil Service Fast Stream and Veterinary Medicine as well as talks from a whole raft of speakers who have spoken to vocational societies, such as LawSoc, MedSoc and Journalism Society. Recordings of most seminars are available to all students on a TVLP password protected site, in case students have been unable to attend in person that evening.

students to be better informed about the world of work. Students at schools local to Eton College are invited to participate in all career seminars and networking events.

STATS 2021-2022

• 80 external students attended

• 19 events

STUDENT CONSULTANCY

Social Action and Career Education came together for the Student Consultancy programme, where Eton students act as consultants for a charity under the guidance of the Social Action Mentor and the Deputy Director of Career Education. In 2022, ten pupils worked with Project Luangwa, a charity that sponsors education in the Luangwa Valley in Zambia, and with Honeypot Children’s Charity, which supports young carers in the UK. Eton students were taught how to research and compile a report about a project put forth by the charities, not only gaining some work experience but also knowledge about the charitable sector.

Project Luangwa employed our student consultants on two different projects. First, they were given the task of following up with students

Eton’s Career Education activity with partner schools is coordinated by the Social Action Mentor, Misha Mehta, Eton’s Career Education department, and the TVLP Coordinator, Clare Matheson.

sponsored by Project Luangwa through education to learn how they can continue to support them. Second, they required assistance on how to make their café, which they run to fundraise and make people aware of their work, more profitable. The project with the Honeypot Children’s Charity involved surveying their supporters to learn about how their experience could be enhanced.

Eton students worked in teams to tackle these projects from January to May 2022. With two lessons a week over two terms, they received lectures to learn about management consultancy and sessions focused on project work. Throughout the process, they engaged with representatives from the two charities whilst they carried out their research. A full report with all data and analysies

was compiled, and the entire course culminated in final presentations over Zoom to their clients.

The charities were extremely grateful for the support the Eton students were able to provide, whilst the students learned some important business skills and gained lots of knowledge about the charity sector.

GAP YEAR FAIR

The Gap Year Fair was held in June and showcased 19 exhibitors from various gap year providers. Providers included cookery schools, conservation programmes, travel companies, and language course providers, just to name a few. Along with Year 12 Eton students, students from partner

TVLP CAREER EDUCATION NETWORK

The Career Education department initiated the TVLP Career Education Network in 2021 to create a community of practice with the view of meeting regularly to collaborate on career related events and to share ideas. The network held their first meeting in October 2022, with staff from Eton College, The Windsor Boys’ School, Beechwood School and St Mary’s Ascot.

The staff were joined by Clare Matheson, Thames Valley Learning Partnership Coordinator, and a guest speaker, Stephen Barnett from Amplify Trading. Stephen introduced to the meeting attendees the benefits of the simulated trading platform that can be used to show students the work involved in some City careers. A workshop date has been agreed for February 2023 and students from all partnership schools are invited.

schools also attended. This included students from Holyport College and Windsor Boys’ School, who were excited to get the chance to meet with

gap year providers and learn more about the opportunities available to them.

RESEARCH & INNOVATION

RESEARCH & INNOVATION

The Tony Little Centre for Innovation and Research in Learning (CIRL) aims to garner the best innovations and new insights in order to further improve the teaching and learning experience for Eton’s students and to equip them for their future careers.

CIRL allows us to work alongside partners to explore and evaluate scientific discoveries, the latest technologies and best practice in teaching and learning. As a leader in its field, CIRL arranges and hosts free professional development opportunities for schools in the Thames Valley Learning Partnership and provides free online training through the EtonX platform.

CIRL works collaboratively with other schools and research organisations and is keen to share the results of the centre’s research with the wider profession. In this endeavour, CIRL produces school-based research projects on pro-social behaviour, well-being, and character and community engagement at Eton, and is also leading a cross-sector research project on resilience. CIRL publishes the Eton Journal for Innovation and Research in Education twice a year, with articles by teachers, academics and students. You can read CIRL’s latest journals here

CIRL regularly makes its facilities available to staff and students from other schools.

THROUGHOUT THE YEAR

• CIRL hosted three to four webinars per term, presented by a series of distinguished speakers. Subjects have included mental health, motivation in the classroom, empathy in the classroom, emotional agility, and study skills required at university

• Monthly workshops for the Eton/ LAE Leadership Institute for 30 Year 12 students from Eton College and London Academy of Excellence (online and two in-person)

• Created two academic enrichment online courses on Physics and English Literature that were taught remotely at CTK Aquinas Sixth Form

• CTK Aquinas Sixth Form ran the programme CIRL devised on academic resilience at Sixth Form. CIRL has written a report on the intervention including a literature review of academic resilience which is publicly available on the CIRL website

• Published a weekly blog that is publicly available via Twitter and a page on the school website and an annual Eton Journal for Innovation and Research in Learning that is available free on a page on our website

• Ran a course on leadership for students in TVLP schools

NOVEMBER 2021

• ‘Researchers in Schools Forum’ hosted at Eton College

MARCH 2022

• Following a successful ‘Researchers in Schools Forum’ in late 2021, CIRL co-hosted a similar event at Christ the King: Aquinas in Brockley

• Published research on a smallscale collaboration exploring commonalities with Falinge Park High School in Rochdale, a review of the evidence about Peer Mentoring, and a scoping paper on Building Expertise in Online Delivery

JUNE 2022

• The Science of Learning: Primary School Heads Workshop hosted at Dorney Lake

STATS

• 47 students from CTK Aquinas Sixth Form took part in our academic resilience course. CIRL found improved scores for resilience and academic resilience compared to the students who didn’t take part in the course

• 32 students from the London Academy of Excellence took part in CIRL’s Eton & LAE Leadership Institute. 100% of students on FSM who took part in ELLI got A*-B compared to 91% of students on FSM (n=76) who didn’t take part in the course

IMPACT

• 35 students from CTK Aquinas Sixth Form took part in our academic enrichment online courses in Archives and Physics. 80% agreed they would take another course if given the opportunity and 88% agreed it is valuable to experience a new teacher

• Senior leaders from 26 schools including 24 state primary schools attended the ‘Science of Learning’ workshop at Dorney Lake run by CIRL and Eton Connect

Falinge Park project: “As the lessons went on I gained more confidence while at the start I just stayed silent”. Participating student, Falinge Park

“I thought that they would not like us or would not give us a chance. But I think we showed them we are normal people and can understand other people’s ideas and they can understand ours”. Participating student, Eton College

DIGITAL EDUCATION

ETONX

EtonX, a wholly owned subsidiary of Eton College, creates innovative online courses for teenagers to develop the skills they need to thrive in a rapidly changing world. All EtonX courses are available to the state sector for free, with revenue from paid courses (individuals, and independent/international schools) going towards financing our partnerships programme. This programme builds on the offer made to UK state schools at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 where over 900 schools signed up for access for over 20,000 students.

During 2021-2022, EtonX continued to provide free self-study Future Skills online courses for state school students in the UK. This provision was significantly enhanced from Sept 2022 onwards by launch of a new learning platform which streamlined the onboarding process, enabling EtonX to provide access at scale. As part of this, schools can manage their own learners and easily track their progress. In addition, EtonX added their University Preparation courses to the free offering, meaning state school students now have free access to all 17 EtonX courses. In 2022-23, EtonX will be adding courses on Study Skills, Teamwork, and begin development of A-level academic curriculum content.

ACTIVITIES

• Eton & EtonX Shortlisted for Bett Award (Jan 2021)

• April 2022 – August 2022: EtonX brought in-house resources to focus on outreach through provision of free access to all EtonX courses for state schools

STATS

• 1000 state school students accessed EtonX courses for free in 2021-2022

• 33 state schools used EtonX courses in 2021-2022

(NB: Both stats have already been exceeded in the first four months of 2022-2023)

IMPACT

“Our students who have access to the courses have found them to be extremely beneficial and were very grateful to be given the opportunity to work though such a unique platform. As a school, our free access has meant we have been able to support our students much more effectively with progression and work experience skills”. Acting Assistant Principal and Head of Physics at Tomlinscote School, Surrey

“The courses supported our students by enabling them to learn independently whilst enhancing their writing and research skills. We noticed a difference in our Year Eleven’s writing skills and the ability of our Year Thirteens to conduct research, especially in subjects such as sociology, psychology and history”.

Assistant Headteacher, St Edward’s Academy, Romford

DIGITAL LEARNING HUB

The Digital Learning Hub on etonconnect.com has provided a free platform for sharing a range of resources created by Eton College. From professional teacher CPD developed by CIRL to home-produced practical videos created by our Chemistry Department, or the worldfamous Eton Greek Project, these resources are available for free to teachers and students through a simple sign-up system.

ART VIDEOS

• A series of films presenting art activities and creative projects that you are invited to get involved in. Hosted by previous artist-in-residence at the Drawing Schools and members of the Drawing Schools’ staff

CHEMISTRY VIDEOS

• Currently, the main resource available is a large collection of short to medium length videos

(two to ten minutes) covering a wide range of topics, demonstrations that would only ever be performed by a teacher, and practicals performed by students

ETON GREEK SOFTWARE PROJECT

• An interactive tool to test students’ Greek vocabulary and grammar

DRAMA VIDEOS

• Filmed performance work which could be of use within other schools’ curriculum

CIRL’S RESOURCES AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COURSES

• CIRL’s resources include a wide range of talks, professional development workshops, materials you can use and opportunities for collaboration

IMPACT

“We come into contact with you to thank you for the marvellous tool ‘Greek Project’ in your website. We are a group of Ancient Greek students (first year) in a high school in Salamanca (Spain). We use it every day to revise the noun and verb morphology. It’s been very useful for us. Due to this tool we are making huge progress in our Ancient Greek. Therefore, we are very thankful and we hope we can continue using it for many years”.

Nerea, Gema, Candela, Elsa, Pablo, Abril, Naroa and Ignacio, Salamanca (Spain)

ETON COLLEGE AND STAR ACADEMIES

ETON COLLEGE AND STAR ACADEMIES

In June 2022, the College signed a landmark partnership agreement with Star Academies, a leading state school provider, with the intent of bidding for up to three selective state sixth form colleges in the next five years.

With proposed locations in the Midlands and North of England, the colleges will fast-track young people, often from deprived communities, to leading UK universities. It will do this by blending Eton’s educational philosophy, including a rigorous and academic curriculum, with the ethos and approach of Star Academies. The colleges will be inspired by the hugely successful London Academy of Excellence in Stratford, East London.

It is intended that the new colleges will each admit 240 students per year and will offer many of the educational and extra-curricular opportunities available to pupils at Eton, including knowledge-rich teaching from some of the country’s most respected subject specialists, access to talks from highprofile speakers, academic essay prizes and debate clubs, Oxbridge-style tutorial sessions and the chance to learn Latin. Some teaching will be delivered virtually by Eton staff and students will have a chance to attend Eton College annually for a Summer School.

Alongside this we have started to build an exciting outreach project across all three regions. We have prioritised

building strong and collaborative partnerships with 11-16 existing schools in each area and we are already seeing excellent results in terms of an appetite and willingness to partner with Eton College. Our new Head of Educational Opportunity, Sean Costello, is creating an outreach programme and network of schools in Dudley, Middlesbrough and Oldham that can all benefit from access to high quality resources, provision and professional development that Eton can offer. This has shown a steadfast commitment to these areas and has been warmly received by the headteachers and teachers we have been meeting since September.

We have been fortunate to meet with a number of high profile and inspirational headteachers working in extremely challenging circumstances and who all see the value Eton can bring in terms of partnership and collaboration. The potential to partner with these schools, support students of all ages, and bring innovative resources and techniques from Eton will be hugely beneficial to the schools in Dudley, Middlesbrough and Oldham, as well as Eton. The need to support aspiration and

academic achievement is great in these areas but we have found that schools, teachers and headteachers are achieving incredible outcomes in some of the most challenging of contexts. Therefore, the opportunity to contribute to even greater levels of improvement through aspirations and academic outcomes is a privilege. Further, the faith already shown in us by these institutions to welcome us into their schools and to be genuinely open to building long term, sustainable and unique partnerships is fantastic.

Whilst there is more work to do, relationships to build, and partnerships to develop, we are hugely excited by the velocity at which our outreach is developing. As we move forward into October, we enter into a phase of delivery with schools in our partnership network utilising the highly innovative ‘Eton X’ suite of resources and materials that we know will enhance academic outcomes and provide valuable enrichment for young people across the cohorts.

ETON CONNECT TEAM

ETON CONNECT TEAM

TOM ARBUTHNOTT Deputy Head (Partnerships)

Tom Arbuthnott oversees the school’s strategies to widen access to talented boys from diverse backgrounds. He oversees Eton’s strong and multiple relationships with state sector schools and the community engagement programme, as well as the annual Summer Schools. Tom also leads on Eton’s new schools project with Star Academies.

DR ANDREW SAUNDERS Director of Local Partnership

Dr Andrew Saunders is director of Local Partnerships at Eton which entails building and managing the diverse meaningful partnership relationships between local schools and communities and Eton College. As well as his role with Eton Connect, Andrew is a governor at four different local state schools and coordinates governance at Eton.

ELEANOR CHOWNSMITH Eton Connect Coordinator

Eleanor Chownsmith coordinates Eton’s local partnership activities and oversees visits to Eton by students and teachers. She manages Eton Connect’s contact database, relationships and communications with state-sector partners. Eleanor works closely with the Eton teaching staff, Summer Schools Team and CIRL to coordinate joint events. Eleanor is also responsible for administering impact assessments and collating data for Eton Connect.

SASKIA NESJA Collections Education Officer

Saskia Nesja runs and delivers the Collections Learning Programme. This includes the flourishing menu of sessions for primary schools, the Collections ECCE boys, and the development of the secondary school offer. As well as promoting, administering and delivering all the current on-site and online sessions, Saskia is also responsible for creating new sessions in response to teacher requests.

DR DAVID ANDERSON Head of Community Engagement

David takes responsibility for the Eton College Community Engagement (ECCE) programme involving the assignment and management of weekly volunteering placements for Year 12 students. He also works closely with Misha Mehta (the Social Action Mentor) on other social impact initiatives and activities, including fundraising, prize competitions, society meetings, and other volunteering initiatives outside of the ECCE programme. He is a geography teacher, and, as a former trustee and member of the education committee of the Royal Geographical Society, he has been involved with many schools in connection with geography education.

MISHA MEHTA, Social Action Mentor

Misha Mehta encourages and mentors boys through social action. This can be through the established structures of the school (Eton Action, Fundraising, Community Engagement) or through boy-led projects. The most unique aspect of the role involves mentoring boys (in any year group) through the development of their social action projects, helping to make them a reality.

CLARE MATHESON TVLP Coordinator

Clare Matheson works across 11 secondary-aged schools, including Eton College, to coordinate the Thames Valley Learning Partnership. She organises a range of events, speakers, competitions, staff networks and projects, as well as managing the TVLP Student Committee. She is also responsible for all marketing and communication, including through the TVLP website and social media channels. Prior to her appointment, she had a successful career in project management in the third sector for Islington Chamber of Commerce in London, and Burnaby Board of Trade in Vancouver, Canada.

NICK ROBERTS Master-in-charge of the Holyport relationship

Nick Roberts is a member and former governor of Holyport College. He teaches MFL, is Head of Italian and currently oversees the operational aspects of the Eton-Holyport Relationship. His counterpart at Holyport is Frank Hardee.

DAMIAN STANFORD-HARRIS Master-in-charge of the LAE relationship

Damian Stanford-Harris was seconded to the LAE English Department from 2017 until 2022. As well as teaching, Damian also oversaw both student exchanges and teacher visits. He taught Year 12 classes at LAE for two days a week, as well as supporting the English Department with Oxbridge preparation sessions, Year 13 revision classes and ‘stretch’ interventions as required. Damian helped run theatre trips, drama workshops and departmental visits. He initiated yearly engagement with Poetry by Heart, seeing LAE students place in the national finals of the competition two years in succession. Damian teaches Japanese as well as English at Eton and led the first joint Eton-LAE Japan Trip in October 2019. This was a great success and will, we hope, provide the template for many similar visits to Japan in the future.

AMY CROSS Summer Schools and Lettings Manager and Swimming Teaching Coordinator

Amy Cross manages and oversees the Summer Schools programme alongside supporting the running of the wider school Lettings programme. Throughout the year, Amy is responsible for coordinating the logistics of the various summer schools and maintaining contact with the students and their parents attending the partnership courses. During the summer, Amy manages the day-to-day running of all the various courses and summer schools. Amy is also responsible for overseeing the design and implementation of the Primary School Swimming Programme.

PHILIP HIGHY Director of Summer Schools and Facilities Letting – Managing Director Dorney Lake

Philip Highy is responsible for arranging the Summer School programs for our Partnership State Schools in July, both residential and non-residential. He is also responsible for Dorney Lake and overseeing its partnership rowing initiatives alongside the Lettings that take place at our Eton based sites for a variety of different partnership organisations, in cooperation with both Slough Borough Council and the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead.

HANNAH VINES Dorey Rowing Manager

Hannah has a rich background in rowing, where her greatest achievement was representing Great Britain at the Junior World Championships in 1994. After this, her attention turned to passing on her knowledge and experience by working as a sports lecturer in further education for 14 years, where she also coached in her spare time. Hannah has mentored and worked with high performance coaches and athletes within the Great Britain Rowing Team, seeing some of them become World Champions and Olympians. Hannah manages the Dorney Lake schools rowing programme and is also Course Director of the Eton Dorney Rowing Courses, which helps participants learn to row and develop their confidence and self-esteem. Hannah has a passion for helping to develop young people and is an advocate of transformational coaching, whether through sport or team building activities.

PAULINE HERBOMMEZ Co-Director of Environmental Education

Pauline Herbommez works closely with Kerri Hicks as Co-Director of Environmental Education. Deputising for Kerri Hicks on her arrival to Eton, Pauline worked as Master-in-Charge of the Environment Society and developed the Environmental Action co-curriculum; she led teams through the final phases of the Earth Prize and was instrumental in the organisation of the first Environment summit at the college. Additionally, she successfully completed the University of Cambridge Business and Climate Change: Towards Net Zero Emissions course. She is a French teacher who served as deputy Head of Modern Foreign Languages and as Deputy Housemaster. Her passion for sustainability was nurtured while working for the Peace Boat, a Japanese NGO focused on building a culture of peace and sustainability.

JAMES STANFORTH Director of Digital Education

James leads EtonX and its growing catalogue of online courses available for free to the state sector aimed at developing young people’s leadership skills as well as help prepare them for university and the workplace. In addition, James facilitates the use of technology to enhance teaching and learning at Eton and provides support for partner schools in this area. He also teaches computer science.

KERRI HICKS Co-Director of Environmental Education

Kerri Hicks works closely with Pauline Herbommez as Co-Director of Environmental Education. Prior to this Kerri was Master-in-charge of the Environment Society and then Master-in-charge of Environmental Education. She has been instrumental in the development of these roles in the College over the past decade. She is a biology teacher who served as Head of Department during COVID-19. As a keen diver and wildlife conservationist she also has experience leading school trips in the UK and expeditions to Southern and Eastern Africa.

JONATHAN NOAKES Director of Teaching and Learning

Jonathan Noakes is Director of Teaching and Learning at Eton, where he is Director of The Tony Little Centre for Innovation and Research in Learning, a centre for pedagogical excellence, evidence-informed practice and research into teaching, learning and leadership in education. As an English teacher, he has led two departments concurrently at Eton and at the London Academy of Excellence and has been a governor or trustee at a number of state and independent schools.

DR IRO KONSTANTINOU Head of Research Programmes

Through Iro Konstantinou’s role as Head of Research Programmes at CIRL, she oversees educational research in the areas of wellbeing, teaching and learning, student leadership, and school partnerships. Alongside Eton, she is a visiting researcher at the University of Warwick and a principal researcher of a project co-funded by Pearson and UKRI where she looks into bridging the gaps in skills development from higher education to employment.