Impact of partnership work done in 2024 (ISC annual Census 2025)

• 20 state schools involved
• 201-500 state school pupils involved
• 100 staff hours given

Impact Statement

·         Port Regis educates over 300 children aged from 2-13 and the standards of education and care are judged by the Independent Schools Inspectorate as ‘excellent’ in all areas. The last inspection took place in September 2022.

·         By educating these children in the private sector the School is saving the public purse a seven-figure sum, an indirect and significant public benefit.

·         In 2023/24 the School awarded bursaries to the value of £1.093m for children from a wide range of financial backgrounds who would otherwise be unable to afford a Port Regis education. In 2023 the School formed a partnership with the Royal National Children’s SpringBoard Foundation (RNCSF) to provide fully-funded bursary places for children who most need access to the opportunities it provides. This includes children from under-served communities and those with experience of the care system.

·         The School provides full boarding for local, military and international families and during the 2023/24 academic year was home to a number of non-British pupils with parents living overseas (France, Spain, Monaco, Russia, Portugal, Nigeria, Ghana, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand and India) or whose parents live in the UK (from the US, Hong Kong, China and Taiwan).

·         The School actively seeks to promote community links by making its facilities (music, sporting, art, design and technology) available to the local community, schools and other organisations and by engaging where practicable and desirable in community affairs. This includes links with Motcombe Church and Motcombe Primary School, a Christmas lunch for the Motcombe Pensioners, the provision of a minibus and driver to support Semley Primary School’s summer outing, design and technology workshops with Wardour Primary School and sports events for local primary schools including tri-golf and mini tennis events.

·         The School organised an art exhibition at Messums West Gallery in Tisbury which showcased work by children at Port Regis and two local primary schools. Port Regis sent a member of staff to teach the art lesson at St John’s Primary School in Tisbury and Semley School, and along with Messums provided the art materials. It held a joint private view which included music, dance and poetry, alongside the art, for the children and parents of all three schools. 

·         The School sponsored local events such as the Semley Music Festival, the Motcombe Music Festival and the Chalke Valley History Festival.

·         The Port Regis Sports Centre includes swim and gym facilities which are open to the local community and are used by multiple local primary schools for their PE lessons.

·         The Port Regis Sports Centre provides swim and gymnastic facilities to the wider local community, and continues to be focused on widening opportunities available to children. Multiple local primary schools use the facilities for their weekly PE lessons, as well as many local football and netball clubs. The School also hires its facilities to organisations such as TCW Sports, Rugby Tots and English Country Schools.

·         The School runs a range of sporting and creative holiday clubs which are open to Port Regis pupils aged 2-13 and children from the surrounding communities aged 7-13.

·         The School’s Saturday morning programme of enrichment - called PR+ - utilises links with the local community and hosts visits from a wide range of speakers including local historians and businesses such as Feltham’s Farm and The Newt. PR+ also promotes the benefits of volunteering in the local community with activities such as clearing the Motcombe churchyard.

·         The School supports and fundraises for a wide range of local, national and international charities. These are often chosen by the children and are of special significance or relevance. In the 2023/24 academic year, the following charities benefited from donations by the School, by pupil led fundraising or by fundraising events held at the school: Horatio’s Garden, the Foundation of Goodness, Macmillan Cancer Support, Restless Development, the Royal British Legion, Save the Children and Children in Need.

·         The Headmaster runs an annual trip to Arnhem in Holland where senior pupils and their parents learn about and listen to the moving stories from the last survivors of this dramatic battle fought in 1944.

·         The School is responsible for maintaining at significant cost the historic building at the heart of the School, Motcombe House, as well as all the grounds and other buildings within its curtilage.

·         The School made good progress with its Green Vision in 2023/24. The installation of a 300kW ground solar array on land adjacent to the golf course is expected to reduce the School’s carbon production to less than 60% of pre-Covid levels. Initiatives such as the 30-mile menu, waste reduction, increasing organisms across the site, tree planting and food production have all supported progress towards the School’s carbon neutral targets.