Bristol Grammar School case studies (24)

Impact Statement

Bristol Grammar School has at its core a commitment to be a School which serves Bristol and beyond. Its allied aims are the development of good character amongst its pupils, and to be a diverse and representative community and these are, in part achieved through engagement with communities beyond our gates.

Our pupils, staff and governors are dedicated to making a sustained and positive contribution to Bristol’s communities. Further, our charitable status requires and deserves a genuine commitment to impactful action. In our outreach and community engagement work we will:

1.       Make a substantive contribution to our community in recognition of our charitable status through the creation and maintenance of positive relationships with community groups and charities and by building bridges with Bristol’s educational providers;

2.       Provide community access to shared use of facilities and resources which is sustainable and meaningful;

3.       Widen access to BGS via financial assistance and supported places for all pupils who will benefit from a BGS education.

Below follows the tangible actions we will take to make these aspirations a reality.

1.The creation and maintenance of positive relationships with community groups and charities is to be achieved by:

-          Ensuring that 500 or more senior school pupils are regularly involved in mutually beneficial community outreach each year;

-          Focusing our charitable fundraising by pupils on developing meaningful engagement with, as well as fundraising for, our local community;

-          Working with partners towards meaningful action to tackle racial and other inequalities across Bristol;

-          Setting and reviewing targets annually to evaluate our impact on our local. We aim that over 3000 people from beyond BGS to be positively impacted each academic year by BGS Community Outreach.

Links for pupils and staff across the education sector to share learning across a vibrant educational community is to be achieved by:

-          Funding for teaching staff to share expertise with local primary and secondary schools via timetabled Outreach of around 15 periods per fortnight;

-          Developing ‘Bristol Bridge’ partnerships - mutually beneficial outreach for pupils and staff at BGS with local maintained sector schools;

-          Being a committed member of the Bristol Educational Partnership (BEP) of 15 schools and universities; supporting the BEP aims of broadening young people's experience of education, opening up new opportunities and overcoming disadvantage;

-          Supporting our staff to participate in our educational community by providing and encouraging professional development network opportunities in Bristol and beyond;

-          Supporting staff to be actively involved in the governance via roles as governors or trustees of local schools;

-          Regularly auditing the impact of our partnerships by surveying our partners annually to ask if BGS Outreach has a positive impact and enhances the level of service offered by partner organisations.

2. Providing access to our resources which is sustainable and meaningful. We recognise that we have greater resources available per pupil than maintained sector schools. In this role we commit to:

-          Providing hubs for community events

-          Providing free or reduced rate resources and facilities via BGS Lettings for charitable and/or community groups (based on assessment of need)

o   Access to our state-of-the-art Performing Arts Centre

o   Use of our Sports Hall, squash courts and training facility at our University Road site

o   Use of our Sports Centre facilities at Failand.

3.Widening access to BGS via financial assistance and supported places for all pupils who will benefit from a BGS education. We commit to:

-          Fundraising to enable 1 in 4 BGS pupils to be on significant fee assistance by 2032 (estimated cost 3m annually);

-          Partnerships with the Virtual Hope School and Royal National Children’s Springboard Foundation to mentor and raise aspirations of Looked After Children.

-          From 2023 we will be supporting 3 pupils on bursaries to cover 100% of their fees and allied additional costs (approximate cost £54,000 per year).

-          Supporting pupils fleeing conflict via our Refugee Admissions programme. From 2022 we will be supporting 4 pupils on fleeing conflict to cover 100% of their fees and allied additional costs (approximately £65,000 per year)

-          Providing a programme of enhanced support, advocacy, and mentoring for all pupils receiving transformational bursaries (deemed to be 50% of more).

Outreach activities impact report 2022-3

5,846 people outside BGS community were positively impacted by pupil and staff partnership and outreach work 2021-2 

372 people per week regularly impacted by 6th form service in Activities

BGS pupils and staff 2021-2 participated in 8000 hours of outreach and service activities

Over 200 staff were involved in outreach activities in 2022-3; 38 of whom were involved in regular outreach (teaching, leading partnership activities, governance activities).

BGS staff contributed 1000 hours in charitable and partnership outreach activities in 2022-3

£23,013 savings given to community groups in free or heavily discounted lettings in 2021-2

In 2022-3, 100% of partners agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “Our partnership with BGS provides a positive impact for a number of people within my organisation.”

100% agreed or strongly agreed that “Outreach by BGS staff/pupil(s) has improved the service we provide to our community”.