from four different partnerships (including Afghan evacuees) which have deepened through the Covid period, and helped us to resist the blinkering effect which Covid restrictions have had on so many. The School has managed to continue to look outwards throughout. The machinery of Government continued to turn during the year, and we now have planning permission to build a new Sixth Form on the site of Wilson House, Cox’s bungalow and the maintenance workshops. This will open, we trust, in the middle of 2023. The Old Dairy, just off Castle Street, is in the middle of building work to create a new maintenance and service hub, and Deans’ Hall has had a terrific refurbishment. By (almost) the end of the calendar year, I had rowed a million metres (partly as a lockdown challenge, partly to raise money for the Anniversary Fund), the Choir had sung a specially commissioned work by Philip Stopford for the HMC Conference Service, the 1st XV had been enjoying a magnificent season and the lacrosse and netball teams reached national finals that will take place in 2022. We are even beginning to plan overseas trips for our pupils again. It’s almost feeling normal – and then, as I write, there is news of a new variant in South Africa, the ‘omicron variant’ which may mean
the race we have been in for the last two years may have an additional lap. I am confident that the School will meet it as it has the previous Covid circuits, with ambition and imagination, with an outward gaze and with authentic Berkhamsted spirit. The replanting of the Acacia Tree in the Gravel Quad this month is a reminder to us that the Berkhamsted spirit has been around for a long time and will be around for a long time to come. I am sure it will enable us to meet the challenges of next year as we have those of the last one. Richard Backhouse Principal
Treasurer’s Report TOB Ltd After the experience of 2019/20, just about anything was bound to be better. And it was from my point of view – a bit, but not all that much! Following the discovery of our VAT problem, the revised arrangements with the School to avoid VAT problems have been put into place. The major change has been the establishment of an agreed support grant for the activities of TOB Ltd rather than receiving leavers’ subscriptions for future investment. The support grant is agreed each year
to cover a programme of events, the non-School running costs of our organisation and support for our various subsidiaries. This has, in addition, eliminated the ‘circularity problem’ which was exacerbating the previous situation. This occurred when, for example, we paid for the costs of the Overton office, only to have them reimbursed by increasing the subscriptions we received, effectively pushing us further towards liability for VAT. These changes have ensured that we can act in concert for the benefit of all. The Old Berkhamstedian 2022 | 5
