Funding the Future

Funding the Future Hero image of students from different ages WHS logo

FUNDING THE

FUTURE AT W I M B L E D O N H I G H S C H O O L

Funding the Future

WELCOME FROM THE HEAD

Funding the Future is about two things: helping individual girls to have the opportunity to become the best version of themselves as they grow and develop; and ensuring our Wimbledon community continues to thrive and prosper as we head toward our 150th year. Wimbledon High has a proud heritage as a flagship school of the GDST, and we look to our future with equal amounts of optimism and ambition.

We are asking for your help in securing that future for each and every Wimbledon girl who comes through our gates, whether that be by supporting our bursary programme to ensure opportunities for all, or assisting us in fulfilling the goals within our three strategic pillars of Innovative Learning, Partnerships and Philanthropy, and Wellbeing.

With Project Ex Humilibus complete, it is time to turn our attention to our 150th birthday and the school we want to be in 2030: vibrant, inclusive, modern and filled with girls making the most of every opportunity.

Fionnuala Kennedy, Head

Funding the Future

OUR THREE

STRATEGIC PILLARS

Innovative Learning

Partnerships & Philanthropy

Wellbeing

Areas of focus:

Areas of focus:

Areas of focus:

Leading the way on robust, innovative, fit for purpose approaches to neurodiversity.

Ensuring our sports provision continues to build towards excellence.

Ensuring every aspect of our Sixth Form provision – in the classroom and beyond is inspiring, enriching and invigorating.

Reaching as many girls as possible through the growth of bursary provision.

Educating our students about their role in society through meaningful and lasting partnerships, locally and more widely, where students enrich the lives of others and find themselves enriched in turn.

Helping students develop lifelong and necessary skills through communicating and working with people different to themselves.

Developing a lively and inclusive culture, where difference is celebrated and diversity appreciated.

Giving students a voice as well as the ability to listen through our Civil Discourse programme; we aim to disagree well, counteracting any rising culture of polarisation and offence.

Providing leisure and sports opportunities which allow our girls to stay and feel well.

Funding the Future

BURSARIES H O W YO U C A N H E L P

Ensuring that talented and academically gifted girls from all backgrounds have access to an education at Wimbledon High School has always been central to the school’s ethos and vision.

Today we make this possible through our bursary programme with almost 5% of students in the senior school in receipt of a bursary award.

Our means-tested bursary awards benefit not only the recipient and their family but all of us at the school, by ensuring our classrooms are learning environments which reflect the diversity of the world beyond the school gates.

The 1880 Society, named after our founding year, recognises members of our community who pledge a regular annual gift of £1,880 or more in support of our bursary programme.

This gift can be given termly – a donation of £502 a term plus gift aid would equal £1880 annually.

This year, we are launching the 1880 Society and inviting you, our parents, to be amongst the first members.

Each year members will be invited to a special event to thank them for their support and have the opportunity to meet with our Head, members of the senior team and alumnae who have benefitted from a bursary during their time at WHS.

Funding the Future

BURSARIES H O W YO U C A N H E L P

“ “

it encourages Wimbledon High to provide bursaries for other girls similar to Lotty to allow them also to build better lives. She is now on a path to a chosen career and better It’s appreciated more life thanks to yourself and than you know and I hope GDST and all the culture Thank you again for providing our daughter with the education and opportunities that may have otherwise been closed to her.

My bursary provided me with the opportunity to reach my fullest potential by allowing me to attend a school as fantastic as Wimbledon High.

It is also important to know that bursaries aren’t primarily based on your financial circumstances but also your potential and

that Wimbledon High has given her to approach life with an open mind and positive attitude.

A life, I’m sure, she would have struggled to achieve without GDST. Thank you.

”

Parent of a Bursary recipient

determination to achieve.

WHS has changed my life in a variety of different ways. It has enabled me to apply and be accepted into some amazing universities. It has also supported me throughout my sixth form journey and helped me become the person I am today.

”

Scarlett Jeeves, Class of 2023

Funding the Future

SPORT

OUR VISION A N D H O W YO U C A N H E L P

“ As our vast co-curricular programme continues to

expand, we know we must ensure our facilities are of the highest standard to support this.

We want all students, regardless of whether they participate at Performance, Development or Recreational level, to be inspired by the facilities in which they perform.”

Coutts Coutts-Wood, Director of Sport

Investing in our facilities and equipment at Mansel and Nursery Road continues to be a priority.

By providing inspiring teaching in lessons and high-level coaching in our co-curricular programme, we ensure that students have the opportunity to try a wide range of activities and are supported to reach their potential.

Spaces matter in this regard: our long-term goal is the replacement of our much-used AstroTurf to make the pitches fit for high performance sport as well as fun sessions for all abilities. We also wish to continue to upgrade other areas: your support would allow us to develop a new fitness suite below the Sports Hall building, a potential new strength and conditioning suite at Nursery Road and to increase seating for spectators.

Funding the Future

MUSIC

O U R V I S I O N A N D H O W YO U C A N H E L P “ In the coming year we will continue

to expand our music provision in a number of different ways, ensuring that we are stretching our best musicians in auditioned groups, whilst also providing a place to thrive musically for everyone who wants to be involved.

We will be launching a brand new Wimbledon High Choral Society, which will be open to parents and staff; learning a published Will Todd

commission, which has been written especially for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, introducing a student composition competition and hosting our first ever concerto at St John’s Smith Square, with a student soloist playing alongside Sinfonia and professional musicians. It is set up to be an incredibly exciting year, and we can’t wait! ” Will Ford, Director of Music

Funding the Future

This year we are fundraising to purchase a new grand piano to be installed in our auditorium.

The auditorium is an important and long-awaited performance and gathering space; a venue for assemblies, rehearsals, professional concert-giving, formal and informal school concerts, theatre, and partnerships work.

It will enhance the experience of current and future generations of our musicians as well as the school community at large.

Installing a new grand piano will ensure that our students get to use an instrument that befits the space, and that rewards high level and nuanced playing. Over the 30-40+ years of the instrument’s life it will benefit everyone in our community, from student performers to audience members.

THANK YOU F O R YO U R S U P P O R T

We are so grateful to our community for their support. Whether you feel able to make a one-off gift or a regular donation, it all makes a difference.

As we move forward from our fundraising campaign for Project Ex Humilibus, we are now focusing on the priorities outlined in this brochure and hope you will join us in making them a reality.

The enclosed donation form will allow you to commit to a one-off gift or a regular donation – or you can make a donation online at :

https://gdst.net/donate/Wimbledon

£10 + £2.50 = £12.50 Gift aid adds 25% from the government to your donation.

As a registered charity, we can claim Gift Aid on your donations and if you pay higher rate tax you can reclaim tax on any donation you make.

Funding the Future

EVERY GIFT MAKES A

DIFFERENCE Each of the giving options below represents a 100% bursary award for one student for one year.

13 supporters donating £1880 per year (and becoming members of the 1880 Society)

=

Bursary student

50 supporters donating £40 per month (£480 pa)

=

Bursary student

100 supporters donating £20 per month (£240 pa)

=

Bursary student

Bursaries transform lives Your contribution, no matter what size can make a huge difference to a student benefitting from a bursary.

As the infographic shows, the impact of many smaller donations is as powerful as one larger one.

FUNDING THE

FUTURE

AT WI M B L E D O N H I G H S C H O O L