The St Albans School Foundation
A Message from the Headmaster
Today, St Albans School's place among the front rank of the great academic schools of England appears as secure as it was for much of the 20th century. We feature regularly in the top 50 schools, whichever your preferred newspaper; our musicians and actors feature in County and National orchestras and the National Youth Theatre, while on the sports field, old rivals struggle to compete, and no new opponent, however prestigious, dare take us lightly.
This tale of success is not, however, a matter for complacency and has its obverse side. The School's advance in recent years has outgrown a restricted campus. We have been punching above our weight with facilities that lag behind not just our current status, but our aspirations for the future.
No great school could survive for as long as this one has - 1,060 years - without a remarkable ability to adapt to changing circumstance. Across the centuries, it has been enabled to do so though the generosity of men and women whose vision has matched the moment; the giants on whose shoulders we stand, whose names are familiar from the Commemoration of Benefactors read each year at the Founders' Day service in the Abbey.
In 1976, with the abolition of the Direct Grant scheme, came probably the most powerful spur for reinvention in the School's history, and one from which, in a very real sense, St Albans School is still in the process of recovering. In that year, at a stroke, the School was deprived of the ability to offer places to able pupils solely on merit, without regard to parental income. Simultaneously, it was thrown into competition in the recruitment of pupils and in every other way, with the richly-endowed, highly-resourced independent school sector rather than the effective, but somewhat spartan state grammar schools that had been its competitors hitherto. We have been playing catch-up ever since.
The School's developing needs cannot be funded from fee-surplus alone, or from disjointed one-off appeals. For future pupils to benefit from the richness of the education that previous generations have enjoyed, we have launched the St Albans School Foundation to ensure that despite economic pressures, we can still retain our commitment to providing the best academic, pastoral, artistic and sporting opportunities for our pupils. The Foundation will also raise vital support for our Bursary Fund - a means of attracting and enabling the brightest and most deserving pupils to enjoy a St Albans School education.
I hope you will consider joining us in seizing the moment to secure a prosperous future for St Albans School.
Andrew Grant
Headmaster
A Message from the Chairman
You will appreciate, I hope, the vitally important role that we envisage the St Albans School Foundation playing in the continuing development of St Albans as a truly exceptional School. The following pages explain more about our vision for the School, both the growth of the bursary fund and the development of the site. Whilst the latter might ultimately be a long-term ambition, it will give you an idea of how we hope the School site will look in 20 years' time, and the level of support we will need for it to do so.
Your contribution to this endeavour, whether large or modest, will make an important statement about the value of a St Albans School education.
Please join us in this exciting venture in St Albans School's history.
Stephen Eames
Chairman
Click here to download a donation form