Impact of partnership work done in 2024 (ISC annual Census 2025)
- 871 state schools involved
- 2001+ state school pupils involved
- 18000 staff hours given
Academies or free schools sponsored
- Holyport College
- London Academy of Excellence
- Thames Valley Learning Partnership
Impact Statement
Holyport College
Holyport College was founded in 2012 with Eton College as its sole educational sponsor, and opened its doors to students in Years 7 and 9 in September 2014. The UK’s first state-maintained boarding free school now educates 630 pupils from Years 7 to 13, and the link with Eton College has led to one of the closest cross-sector partnerships in the country. Holyport College was judged by Ofsted (May 2017) to be ‘outstanding’ on all counts, and has consistently enjoyed some of the strongest GCSE results in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. The College is academically selective in the Sixth Form and after only two cohorts of school leavers, is already sending the majority of its Sixth Formers to Russell Group universities. Boarding is at the heart of life at Holyport, and this is reflected in many areas of College life for day students, as well as boarders, with a longer school day and a full and varied programme of co-curricular activities. This is a partnership in the truest sense of the word: Holyport has gained from access to Eton College’s facilities and expertise, especially through support for university entrance and an extremely successful Year 8 mentoring programme, but also in the co-curricular field with, for example, a joint CCF scheme and significant collaboration in the running of after-school clubs and societies. Holyport has also adopted a fair amount of Eton traditions as well as lexis. Eton, in return, has gained from Holyport’s expertise, particularly in supporting children with high levels of need. As Eton becomes involved in the Boarding School Partnerships scheme, it envisages benefiting from widespread support from Holyport in establishing robust pastoral structures for LACs and pupils on the edge of the care system. Both schools benefit from strong pedagogical partnerships and cross-sector collaborations, pupils on each side develop strong social relationships and community links, and both the Eton and Holyport Leadership Teams are immensely proud of all that has been achieved in a comparatively short space of time to make the partnership so successful and meaningful.
London Academy of Excellence
Eton College is one of six independent school partners for the London Academy of Excellence situated in the London Borough of Newham. With Eton’s continued support, LAE achieves outstanding A-Level results, placing them in the top 1% of state schools nationally for ‘value added’, measuring student progress from GCSE through to A-Levels. These outcomes placed LAE in the top ten state schools and in the top two of sixth form colleges in the UK. These impressive results have enabled a record number of LAE students to take up places at their first choice university. Around 200 LAE students a year embark on degree courses at some of the UK’s most prestigious universities, with many securing places on highly competitive courses.
Thames Valley Learning Partnership
The Thames Valley Learning Partnership (TVLP), launched in September 2019 and based at Eton College, has developed a strong programme of activity, bringing staff and students from eleven schools together to mutual benefit. The TVLP’s collaborative and informative student experiences span a range of subjects, as do the staff networks which are used to share information, resources and best practice, and to guide future events. A TVLP end of year video, and Annual Report for the year ending in August 2022, are both available to view on the TVLP website: https://tvlp.org.uk/2021-2022.
Slough and East Berkshire Church of England Multi Academy Trust
Eton’s engagement with the Slough and East Berkshire Church of England Multi Academy Trust (SEBMAT) has been established to form a group of schools which can support each other to ensure the best possible outcomes for young people in Slough and nearby areas. Slough and Eton Business and Enterprise College, Colnbrook Primary and Eton Porny School were the first three schools under the Trust, joined in 2018-19 by Lynch Hill Primary School and Lynch Hill Enterprise Academy.
The Deputy Head (Partnerships) serves as a Member of the Trust and the Director of Local Partnerships as a Director. In addition, seven masters are on governing boards of four of the SEBMAT schools with two serving as either chair or co-chair of governors. In addition, eighteen members of staff are on the governing boards of state schools in a variety of roles.
System Leadership
The Deputy Head (Partnerships) at Eton College was the chair of the Schools Together Group in 2017/18. This network brings together over 300 partnership co-ordinators from the independent and state sectors. ‘Over and above’ events took place in Wimbledon, York and Stratford (East London). The Deputy Head (Partnerships) also edited the first ‘partnerships in practice’ publication, which brought together outstanding practice in fostering and promoting cross-sector music partnerships.
Rowing at Dorney lake
The Dorney Lake Schools Rowing programme works with over 10 different state schools providing enrichment rowing sessions, GCSE practical delivery and assessment. In the summer term over 250 local school children make use of the lake every week. For those that want to row in addition to school sessions or live in the local community, they can join Dorney Boat Club and even progress to competing. The club regularly sees attendance of 50 members weekly across the junior and adult sections.
Collections
In 2021-2022 the College continued the engagement programme undertaken to bring these Collections to wider audiences. The dedicated team ensures that access is granted to the general public. The Natural History Museum, Verey Gallery and the Eton Museum of Antiquities are open on Sunday afternoons, while the Museum of Eton Life is open on both Saturday and Sunday afternoons.
Overall, over 60,000 users engaged with the Collections’ digital content, including live online events, virtual exhibitions, a trail, the virtual reading room, the blog, the online catalogue and the website (collections.etoncollege.com), which includes resources for schools as well as other digital resources for use by researchers and the general public.
In addition to services available for researchers, on-site museum learning sessions resumed post-pandemic in September 2021. The Education Officer welcomed many classes who were making their first school trip. Over the academic year 2021-2022, there were 122 on site sessions, for 3305 students from reception to year 11, coming from both local schools and further afield. Some schools still chose online sessions, with 39 virtual sessions delivered to 1,579 students. A group of Eton students, as part of the College’s Community Engagement Programme, developed and presented their own sessions to local primary schools – most had to be done virtually due to Covid restrictions but they were able to do a few in person.
Facilities Letting
The Eton Willowbrook Centre is regularly used by local community clubs under our lettings programme. The Willowbrook Centre is home to 2 full sized astros, a warm up cage astro and 20 tennis courts. Under the Community Use Agreement held with Slough Borough Council (SBC), the facility is available for SBC community usage during the mornings and the afternoons, all free of charge. Alongside the SBC usage, a number of local community clubs hire the facility in the evenings and at the weekends throughout the Michaelmas and Lent terms.
With the completion of Athens in spring 2022, a couple of introductory sessions were run with our regular swimming pool users alongside the dry run of the Primary School Swimming Programme. From September 2022, in line with the Community Usage Agreement with the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, there will be 10 hours of swimming pool hire allocated to local community sports clubs such as Windsor Swimming Club, Maidenhead Marlins Swimming Club and Reading Waterpolo.
Scholarships and Bursaries
Thanks to generations of benefactors and supporters we are fortunate to have a well-established endowment, which this year allowed us to budget £6.9 million for scholarships and bursaries in 2019. Bursaries are means-tested awards which are given to help support families who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford some, or all of the school fees. Scholarships are merit awards and usually (but not always) secure a fee reduction of 10%, irrespective of the boy's financial backgrounds. As merit awards the majority of scholarships aren't means-tested but there are one or two exceptions with particular schemes supporting talented boys who also need substantial financial support towards fees.
Bursaries
Means-tested bursaries are awarded to those pupils whose parents/guardians wouldn’t otherwise be able to pay the full fees. An independent company will assess the family finances during a home visit and make a recommendation to us. This isn’t a test but is designed to produce a fair assessment.
We support as many applications as possible. In 2018/19, 255 pupils were receiving a means-tested bursary (averaging a 67% reduction in fees), with 90 students paying no fees at all.
In particular, we have launched in 2019 the Orwell Award, which is a sixth form award for boys who have spent Years 9, 10 and 11 in a UK state school. Up to twelve places are usually awarded per year, however this depends on the quality of applications received.
The Orwell Award offers recipients a funded place in our Sixth Form subject to means-testing. We want to find boys for whom Eton’s warmth, rigour and breadth will be life changing, for example:
Boys on pupil premium
Those who are the first in their families to go to university
Boys with a need to board
Boys in care or on the edge of care
Or simply boys, currently with limited opportunities, who need a break, to enable them to take off and fly when they join our amazing community.
