Bursar’ s Message
Steven Little
BURSAR & SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNING BODY
It is a commonplace that Win Coll is remarkable. It is indeed a unique school. It is, however, much, much more than that. It is a community, a community where 700 pupils and more than 100 dons, supported by 400 non-teaching staff, live and work in common purpose; well, most of the time, though indiscipline is not unknown even at Win Coll!“ How hard can it be to run a school?” you might reasonably ask. Win Coll is a surprisingly complex undertaking and the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. The school rightly lies at the centre of things, but from the Bursar’ s perspective Win Coll sometimes takes on the aspect of being a property company, and at other times, thanks to the endowment, an investment company. We pay more than 500 people each month. Not all, by any means, are permanent, full-time staff; many are part-time or casual and all the more valuable for that, primarily servicing the domestic and catering needs of the ten boarding houses and College. We also have the ancillary staff that support the school and help make its environment what it is; not many schools can claim to have a river keeper, and a deputy. It has been said that no young person will grow up in a more beautiful place than Winchester. The built and natural environments are, of course, entirely man-made and need constant care. Extensive parts of the campus are either public access areas or Sites of Special Scientific Interest( e. g. the Nature Reserve) or Special Areas of Conservation( e. g. the main River Itchen and its carriers), all managed at the College’ s expense. The College also maintains the canal, and there is extensive public access to parts of the College grounds. There are more than 170 school buildings, including teaching spaces, staff accommodation and the boarding houses. One of the College’ s main charitable objects is the preservation of the ancient buildings with their contents for the public benefit. The school also maintains entirely
10 The Wykeham Journal 2016