When reflecting on how to best prepare my first annual report, I thought it prudent that I looked at how my immediate predecessors had approached the task.
A construct soon emerged that, essentially, provided a short-form version of the College's Report and Accounts. If you did wish to review the financial performance of the College in more detail then I would refer you to the said documents, recently published, for a more fulsome read.
Paresh Thakrar ended the Bursar’s report last year reflecting on his departure, concluding ‘I wish the next Bursar every success in the role. They'll be taking on one of the best jobs in the world!’ (his exclamation mark). Writing this, I am about a year in role and, whilst it therefore might be somewhat premature to set such a high bar, I remain incredibly proud to have been appointed Bursar at such an exciting, and indeed pivotal, time in the College's history.
Looking down the roll of Bursars, it transpires that I am the 13th of the ‘modern era’ (modern being defined as post 1877) – the role prior to that date having been undertaken by Fellows on some form of rotation – selected, one assumes, on ability and not for punitive reasons. How the baton is passed between successive incumbents, whatever the role, varies. Liam Byrne famously chose to leave David Laws a note; my predecessor when writing this article 12 months ago, under the heading ‘The future’ opened ‘And now to the lows’ and went on to refer to the worsening outlook for the sector; ‘the three horsemen of the Autumn Budget’; the increasing affordability challenge to parents; and the possibility of wider (negative) impacts to the broader independent school system – before reassuring me, as noted above, that I would be ‘taking on one of the best jobs in the world!’! (my exclamation mark this time).
We are now about 18 months on from VAT having been introduced on school fees and the latest reports are that almost 5% of independent schools have closed already. Add to this the exponential rise in schools coming together (largely through mergers and acquisitions into Groups – be they charitable or commercial) and it is estimated that, by the end of this period of consolidation, as few as 120 - 150 truly standalone schools will remain. The College has clearly played its part in this process as we welcomed The Pilgrims' School into the fold last September. Aside from its obvious geographic proximity, Pilgrims’ has routinely prepared and sent significantly more boys to the College than any other preparatory school (indeed more than most combined). That said, like many other preps up and down the country, the school has its challenges. When one couples the affordability pressures Paresh referred to, with the ‘demographic cliff’ of an 18.6% decline in births between 2012 and 2023 (Office for National Statistics), then one should not be surprised that the recruitment of pupils is becoming ever more difficult. Nationally last year, pupil numbers into the key recruiting years of prep schools (Yrs 3 and 7) fell by 5.7% and 5.5% respectively; this is likely to be repeated, if not amplified, when the most recent census data is issued. Despite this reset of the independent school landscape, ‘good’ schools will always be in demand, and it is incumbent on us to do all that is necessary to ensure that Pilgrims’ not just survives but thrives into the future.
