Welcome
to the
Wykeham
Journal
It is an important source of comfort to the
Governing Body that Win Coll’s Bursar,
after his first full year in charge, has reported
on another good year for our finances.
That comfort, of course, has been hard won: it reflects
a discipline in decision-making and administration
by the management of the School and the Governing
Body over many years. The discussions on fee levels
are hard fought, just as are the budgets for every aspect
of running the School; and investments are approved
or denied, or sometimes approved only if they can be
funded externally. Setting and adapting our bursary
policy raises fundamental questions of who comes
to the School and what we expect of them and their
parents. Comfort can be transitory, as well we know:
we still rely on the generosity of our donors to bridge
the gap between our fee income and our costs.
We were greatly encouraged by the Independent
Schools Inspectorate’s report on the School
in November 2015 (available on our website),
which described our pupils’ achievements and
learning as ‘exceptional’, particularly in academic
competitions, music and sport. Such results are not
achieved just-in-time, but over many years of consistent
endeavour by dons and pupils alike, a tribute to
Ralph Townsend’s leadership of the School. Academic
results by examination have been quite excellent at
all levels, the more commendable given the amount
of time devoted to the unexamined curriculum and
activities beyond the classroom. When our pupils
leave us for university, they do so to institutions as
demanding as Win Coll, but now with a geographic
spread beyond Southern England, a sign of our
increasing comfort with all the world’s opportunities.
The Wykeham Journal 2015 1