Bursary and Development Update

SHAPING OUR COMMUNITY

Ellie Sleeman, Director of Development and Engagement at St Paul’s School, gives an update on the progress of the Shaping our Future campaign.

When asked to apply for the role of Director of Development at St Paul’s I was living in Windsor with no intention of heading back into London. I came in to meet Professor Bailey and Governor Ali Summers and, almost despite myself, found my professional interest piqued as they talked eloquently and passionately about their fundraising ambition for St Paul’s. I looked at this impressive, historically significant school with its extraordinarily talented pupil and alumni body and felt a desire to help deliver their vision of more equal access – the way that it might have been when assisted places were part of the landscape.

My instinct was that the only way this could be done in a sustainable way was if we first built a greater sense of community; if OPs, parents and former parents felt an ongoing regular connection to the school, and if the fundraising ladder was pointed at the right wall, then the rest would surely follow. At that stage Professor Bailey handed over the communications and engagement remit too and my dream of escaping to the country was parked.

What has followed has been a huge amount of generosity from OPs and parents as well as hard work from Governors, fellow staff members, volunteers and a very talented team. The plan has stayed consistent – listen to what is needed, build the community through increased engagement and by widening access to the extraordinary events and content the School has access to (through the Old Pauline Club and committed parent groups in particular) and then share a fundraising vision to inspire those who are able and keen to support.

Shaping Our Future

We launched the £20m campaign at St Paul’s Cathedral in May 2019 with ambitious fundraising targets. Following consultation with our community, there were three elements: bursary and partnership work as the main strategic areas of focus (joint target of £10.4m), and building to inspire, which allowed provision for the West Pavilion and Boat House replacements (£2.5 and £7m respectively due to the complexities related to both builds), for those members of our community who wish to support capital projects. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have held back on our fundraising work on the Boathouse, which leaves us with a target of £13m. I am pleased to report that together, in less than two years, we have raised over £11m.

One of the most important elements was the scale of participation. We hoped that almost everyone in the Pauline community would feel able to give at a level right for them. We built on the 1509 Society model introduced

£11m

has been raised in less than two years

Donations 2018-2020

■ Parents 71% ■ Old Paulines 26% ■ Other 3%

by Old Paulines, John Dennis and John Ellis, offering the chance to support the school from £1.50 or £15.09 a month up to £1,509 and we have been delighted with the results. We now have 849 members of The 1509 Society and 528 regular donations being received which amounts to £155,000 per annum – the equivalent of six bursaries. 36% of all current parents are now supporting the campaign and 4.4% of all contactable Old Paulines – our ambition is to increase this to 50% of parents and 10% of OPs by the end of 2021.

This level of support will ensure that whatever happens politically, St Paul’s will have the independence to deliver what it believes is the right thing to do.

Any responsible fundraiser of course also needs to ask themselves what is being spent to generate income. My role of Director is split between fundraising, external relations and marketing and communications. On top of which there is a Fundraising Manager, Sam Bushell, and a Fundraising Operations Manager, Andrea Hudson, who runs the data, and financial processing elements. Alex Wilson and Viera Ghods who spend between half and one third of their time on fundraising related activity. For the sake of analysis we will say 4FTE plus revenue expenditure which still gives a very healthy ROI of £9.66.

St Paul’s Fundraising projections 2018/23

£000 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22 2022/23 Total

Income Target

Actual Cash In 685 2,420 3,705 2,765 10,425 20,000

3,350 1,789 2,233 7,372

Annualised Regular Gifts 160 164 162 486

HNW Gifts Due in Year (Pledges) 1,771 904 515 3,190

Income Actual for Year 3,350 1,789 4,164 1,068 677 11,048

Projected Fundraising Revenue costs -333 -353 -431 -440 -448 -2,005

Net Gain 3,017 1,436 3,733 628 229 9,043

Cost to Income Ratio 9.94% 19.73% 10.35%

Return on Investment (ROI) £10.06 £5.07 £9.66*

*(IDPE Benchmarking 2018 – Development offices raising £1m+ average ROI is 6.3)

Creating a long term sustainable community

One of the key contributors to the success of the campaign has been ensuring the community feels able to engage and be involved. The Old Pauline Club and successive Presidents have worked tirelessly to ensure they are supporting the School and the pupils – and this now extends to funding 2 bursaries within the School. By building on the activity offered by the Club as well as the Parents’ Groups and teachers/pupils, we have been able to share an increasingly rich offer that has seen nearly 5,000 attendances by OPs at a school event since the programme launched in 2017. Our annual programme provides a variety of thought provoking speakers, predominantly from our own community, and COVID-19 has forced us to become more creative in terms of our online offer. We have now had nearly 12,000 attendees at virtual events since April 2020, including OPs tuning in from across the world – something they were unable to do when the majority of events were held face to face. We will retain the more positive elements of online programming when we hopefully return to normality in the foreseeable future. »

St Paul’s Connect, championed by former OPC President Rob Smith, is an easy way for the community – ultimately including partner schools – to communicate. We now have over 2,000 members connecting, sharing everything from job opportunities to a desire to offer mentoring. It is also an area where our professional networks (another OPC initiative) are able to interact and we will be increasing the range of professional networks over the coming year.

Results

Our bursary numbers are growing and are well on track for the initial target of 153 bursaries by 2023. This figure is just over 10% of our current pupil numbers, but also reflects Colet’s original provision ‘for one hundred and fifty three boys of all nacions and countres indifferently to be taught free’, emulating the biblical reference to the miraculous draught of fish.

The school partnership work has grown exponentially during this period. It consists of three main strands: Working in Partnership with local primary and secondary schools, volunteering opportunities in the local community for school pupils and supporting local, national and international charities. All of the Year 12 and 13 students have the opportunity to contribute to the programme and each week around 100 boys are involved in the work.

Every year, over 1,000 students from around 30 different schools get directly involved in St Paul’s School programmes and many more are involved indirectly or in one-off events. St Paul’s School is a founding member of the West London Partnership, an association of secondary schools from both the independent and state sectors in west and south west London. Its aim is to create a genuine partnership built on sustainable, collaborative projects, social inclusivity and diversity, and the sharing of resources and expertise, in order to address educational needs and to enrich learning for everyone.

Through three enormously generous donations from a lead sponsor who is the parent of two OPs and two current parents we are now within £650,000 of the monies we need to rebuild the West Pavilion (the Pavilion to the left as you drive in to school). We are currently applying for planning permission. Once completed, the revenue from hiring out the entertaining space within this new building will be another source of funding for our bursary and partnership work. 

How bursary numbers have grown in the last five years at St Paul's School

Legacies

One important source of income for many charitable organisations including schools is legacy income. It is an area that supporters who may not be able to contribute in their own life time or those who wish to make a final gesture to reflect their previous giving may be able to make a difference when it comes to their will. For St Paul’s, which does not benefit from a large endowment, this income will be change making.

By becoming a member of the Colet Society, we can recognise you in your lifetime. We currently have 33 members of the Colet Society who, post COVID-19, will be invited for annual drinks with the High Master and Christmas Carols in the Chapel, amongst a number of other ways of sharing the community's gratitude including a Colet Society tie and pin.

THE ONLY WAY WAS UP – WHY?

Alistair Summers (1978-83), the Chair of the Governors’ Access Development & Partnership Committee explains school fee and cost inflation.

My parents’ final term’s bill, when I left the School, was £1,020 and it is no coincidence that my Dad remembers the exact figure. Even in 1983 it was eye watering. He was visibly shocked when I told him today’s fees are £8,636 a term.

He is not alone. Robert Stanier (1988-93) in his letter to Atrium calculates that in 1993 the School’s fee income was £5m (£10m in real terms) and in 2018 it was £32m. After such an increase, he cannot believe that the School cannot afford to cover its costs and pay for 153 bursaries without campaigning for additional funds. With some exasperation he asks, “Where is all the money going?”

I was a Governor for twelve years during which time I sat on the Governing Body Finance Committee. Robert makes good points that made me uneasy. So where has the money gone?

Difficulties comparing 1993 to 2020

There are some practical problems in finding out.

In 1993, the Boys’ School and Girls’ School produced combined accounts with both being subsumed into the Mercers’ Company accounts. I am not even sure they were published. The copy I have is simplified and runs to only seven pages. My analysis is therefore based on the Boys’ School making up 60% of the combined income and expenditure.

Today, it is easy to see in detail the School’s income & expenditure. Its Annual Accounts (available on Companies House or Charity Commission websites) run to 45 pages and tell you pretty much all you need to know.

Comparing Income 1993 to 2020

If my split is correct, in 1992/93, the School’s fee income must have been about £5m and in 2019/20 it was £32.6m.

As a charity the School must spend all its income on its charitable activities. It is fair to assume therefore that the main driver of its fees is its costs.

Comparing Expenses 1993 to 2020

If one removes fundraising costs (which did not exist in 1993) and the granting of bursaries, the School spends on the same costs as it did thirty years ago:

SPS Expenses

£’000 1993 2020 Staffing 3,052 19,712 Pensions 40 3,200 Premises 404 4,516 Education 115 3,584 General 962 1,627 Total 4,574 32,639

Size of School and Inflation

Some of these very large cost increases reflect a bigger School. In 1993 the best estimate is that there were 1,140 boys in the two Barnes Schools, today there are 1,485 – an increase of more than 30%.

More boys need more teachers, create more “wear and tear” and require more lunches.

Inflation also means that £4.574m would naturally increase irrespective of what the School did. The Bank of England calculates that inflation (CPI) between 1993 and 2020 was 2.083, which means that if nothing else had changed the costs of the School would have doubled.

That still leaves a pretty big increase. As can be seen below, all the School’s costs (apart from General Expenses) have increased well in excess of inflation.

Increase in SPS Expenses

Times Increase Staffing 6.5 Pensions 78.6 Premises 11.2 Education 31.2 General 1.7 Inflation 2.1

Staffing

The largest cost for any School is its staff salaries. Interestingly the School spent a slightly lower amount of its income on salaries in 2020 (58%) than it did in 1993 (61%).

Some of the increase in staff costs is because there is almost double the number of teaching staff:

Staff numbers

1993 2020 SPS 83 153 SPJ 44* 59 Total 127 212

*Approximation from 2000, as no figures available for 1993.

In 1993, the High Master, Surmaster and two Undermasters ran the School. Today the Senior Management Team runs to thirteen. This reflects a need to comply with more national and sectoral requirements and to be more sophisticated in the School’s management and recording of relations with staff and pupils.

As an example, in 1993, there was no formal appraisal of staff, today the system of review and support for all members of staff is extensive.

Parents, staff and Government expect better qualified and better managed teaching. The days of my Fifth Form Maths teacher storming out in a fit of frustration and banging his head on the wall outside are thankfully long gone even though I now have some sympathy with him.

On the non-teaching staff, the increase in compliance can probably explain the rise in costs alone. Thirty years ago, HR was a single person in a room near the changing rooms. Today it is a

In 1993, the High Master, Surmaster and two Undermasters ran the School. Today the Senior Management Team runs to thirteen

whole department keeping the School compliant with Immigration, Child Protection and Employment legislation.

Equally, today’s School has roles that no one would have recognised thirty years ago – Head of Mental Health and Designated Safeguarding Lead being two good and modern necessities.

Teachers’ Salaries

The other component of staffing costs is what teachers are paid. Extra roles require more skills and qualification and so my suspicion is that the School has more, better paid professionals than it had thirty years ago.

Teachers’ salaries also have risen above inflation. To some extent this reflects St Paul’s being a London school where housing costs have increased in the last thirty years well above inflation. In 1993 many teachers owned or could afford to own homes in Richmond or Barnes. Not now.

Another anomaly of all schools is the pay grading system which means teachers get paid more for greater years in the job – inflationary because the longer you work the greater your pay. Even without cost of living increases this spine adds up.

Pensions

The largest increase in costs in relative terms has been pensions.

All teachers benefit from the Government run Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS). Like many public sector schemes, it is generous and now in deficit. In 1993, the Government subsidised the School’s contribution. The dramatic increase in cost is because that subsidy has started to be phased out over the last five years and will continue to be so.

In addition, the School has its own non-teacher scheme that is increasingly expensive because our pensioners are living longer.

Premises

Premises cost increases are a mixture of increased depreciation on new buildings and greater cost of maintenance and support. Some of it is discretionary; the rest is the world today. Security in 1993 did not involve sophisticated fire alarms, CCTV and automatic sprinklers all of which need maintenance and care.

Education

In my analysis Education costs include everything from the cost of running departments, to IT to school trips to welfare support costs.

I have no idea what is in the 1993 accounts but am pretty sure that the cost increase is newer costs (IT) and more being done (welfare). Although I suspect that today’s pupils have far better school trips than my O Level week away to Bourton-on-the Water and Milton Keynes.

So where has the money gone?

I am sure everyone who comes back to Barnes is able to recognise something familiar about the School. The reality is that running it now is very different to thirty years ago.

Today’s School is bigger, more sophisticated, with greater emphasis on supporting its pupils and staff and commensurately larger costs. It is also supported less by the Government’s pension subsidy.

Could the School save money? I suspect so but nothing close to getting the fees back to what my parents paid.

With grateful thanks to Alex Wilson and Owen Toller for additional information. 