News Summer 2023/24
From the Chairman Neil Sutcliffe
A warm and festive welcome to the Foundation News for the Summer of 2023/24. With this time of year traditionally known as the Season of Goodwill, it inevitably shines a spotlight on giving, which is more of an all-year round endeavour for your Haileybury Foundation. Having been honoured this year with a Life Governorship of the School at the annual Council Dinner, I spoke about my lifelong association with a school called Haileybury, what this Haileybury means to me and my family, the societal benefits of a great education and the deep value I place on us building our Foundation to underwrite in perpetuity what this great School delivers today for its students, families and the society it serves. My first contact with a school called Haileybury was during the first half of the 1980s, when my parents added the original Haileybury (in the UK) to their shortlist for me to attend. While I gained my place at the school my family had attended for generations, I still visited a school called Haileybury to play sport against it each year – indeed, on leaving, I counted several Old Haileyburians as friends. When emigrating 10 years later to begin my life in Australia, the probability, based upon my knowledge at the time, of ever again coming across a school called Haileybury appeared remote. Yet, moving interstate to Victoria eight years hence, with my wife Annie and two children, Grace and Austin, our decision to try and combine a rural lifestyle upbringing with strong education and work commuting options, led us to the rolling
hills of the Berwick and ranges area. Little did I know, two decades on from that initial childhood encounter, that we would be passing by some imposing School gates with the name and crest of this School called Haileybury: the entrance to the Berwick (Edrington) campus. With both children attending the Edrington ELC and us barely knowing a soul in the area, Annie and I immersed ourselves into the School community, volunteering to help build its fabric while getting to know our fellow travellers: manning BBQs at the annual Fair, bringing farm animals to ‘Show and Tell’ and starting a parents’ rock band, to name a few. Engaging with both the School and the local business community ultimately formed the backdrop as to how I came to serve on the Haileybury Council for 16 years, 11 of which have included being on the Foundation’s Board. It is all too easy to forget, knowing what a successful era we live in, that, in 2007, the School was faced with the death of its then Principal – potentially jeopardising its future after such a high growth phase - swiftly followed by the worst global financial crisis in 80 years. As a Council, we planned for the worst and hoped for the best. The rest, as they say, is history: during those 16 years, under Derek Scott’s leadership and Tom Poulton’s chairmanship, Haileybury has risen to the top of both State and National academic rankings, excelled in so many extra-curricular activities and doubled its campus and student base - while securing itself financially by always placing its students first. I believe passionately that, aside from a loving family, education is the greatest gift for a child. This is not just for their personal advancement: being ‘educated’ helps create positive societal benefits. So many of today’s well-known ‘great schools’, both here and globally, were formed over centuries past through religious or wealthy benefactor endowments to educate the offspring of ordinary townsfolk, whose families could not have otherwise afforded to. Founded as a small business ‘start-up’ enterprise in 1892, this School called Haileybury was
not endowed in this manner: its future has never been underwritten and, therefore, its perpetuity is not yet guaranteed. The School’s current brand, academic and consequent financial strength is the reason we collectively need to be creating the endowment it never had, to ensure this great world School continues to change lives for the students of today and for generations to come. It is almost 10 years since I presented my Community Engagement Strategy paper to the Foundation Board, advocating that it needed to become an integral part of our growing community, if we were to be asking its members to give back. First and foremost, we agreed to create a philanthropic brand that our community could trust, commencing with a range of affordable giving groups and campaigns. Furthermore, having our own distinct emblem would separate ‘giving’ from ‘paying’, with Castlefield’s Moreton Bay fig tree symbolising our heritage, our strong roots and our desire to grow. We also ensured the OHA and P&F groups became fully engaged and advocated for Senior School parents and past parents to have a ‘home’, partly through the revamping of the Haileybury Society. With a united Board, supportive School Executive and Foundation leadership teams, we have continued with our focused and inclusive strategy, nurturing our trusted brand and continually engaging with the community – our Foundation fig tree now has many branches and leaves and is most certainly beginning to bear some fruit. That said, all strategic plans need fresh input and engagement: to this end, the Board and Executive team will be holding our Foundation Strategy forum in early part of 2024 to foster further community engagement, celebrate volunteerism, develop new ideas and perhaps even discover some of our Foundation’s future leaders. Enjoy your festive Season of Goodwill, give generously and we look forward to seeing you in 2024. Neil Sutcliffe Chairman, Haileybury Foundation