Highgate as a charity
A philanthropic school, leading the way for the educational sector.
Highgate is committed to strengthening and building upon our charitable foundations and making a difference to the lives of thousands of children each year.
As an independent school, we want to use our position as a charity effectively: to make a difference to children’s lives at Highgate, through our bursary programme, and beyond, through our work with local state schools.
Highgate is a reflective community: we play an empowering part in our communities, to help our pupils to see caring as a way of life and to connect with others, regardless of similarity or difference.
Charitable areas:
Bursaries: providing more means-tested fee assistance to support more children in our Junior and Senior Schools
Partnership: supporting children at state schools across North London through our Chrysalis Partnership Teaching work with over 50 local primary and secondary schools,
LAET: Our ongoing support of our sibling school, London Academy of Excellence, Tottenham.
Volunteering and fundraising: Our school community is actively supporting local and national charities, donating time and money.
“Pupils have opportunities to give generously of their time and efforts to local communities" Chanel Noel, Community Partnerships Director
Statistics
In the last full financial year, c.£3,255,000 was spent on charitable activities, including bursaries and partnership work. This broke down as follows:
- Bursaries: over that period, £1,925,000 was spent on means-tested bursaries for Senior School pupils. The average bursary award was £20,670 (c.94% of full fees); this equates to an average spend of c.£1,480 per Senior School pupil.
- Partnership work (Chrysalis, which includes our partnership with LAET): c.£1,330,000, which includes employing 18 additional full-time members of the teaching and support staff.
In the current academic year, we offer about 90 means-tested bursaries to Senior School pupils; this is about 7% of the pupils in the Senior School.
- 56 of these are 100% plus (‘free places’)
- An additional 20 are over 90%
- In September, the first (four) bursaries were offered to pupils entering Y3 of the Junior School. These are means-tested and will be available to these pupils throughout their time at Highgate.
Partnership: Chrysalis and LAET
London Academy of Excellence, Tottenham is a sixth form free school which provides an academically rigorous sixth form education to students in the Tottenham area. Highgate is the lead education sponsor and Tottenham Hotspur football club is the business sponsor.
Highgate has an extensive partnership programme with nearby schools, which we call Chrysalis. It has grown to become a year-round programme involving partnerships with over 50 schools.
Bursaries
We raise funds to help bright children for whom Highgate is the right school come here, regardless of their parents’ or carers’ ability to pay the school fees.
We currently have ~90 bursary holders in the Senior School, most receiving substantial awards, covering 90%-100% of their fees.
We know that bursaries benefit an entire school: parents want children to grow up in a reflective community and leave Highgate being able to relate well to others, irrespective of their background.
Donations to this area means we can offer a transformative educational experience to more children.
Volunteering and fundraising
All pupils have the opportunity to participate in meaningful volunteering and fundraising activities.
Pupils raise tens of thousands of pounds, and donate tens of thousands of food items to local families, local and national charitable causes. The impact felt by recipients is immediate and long-lasting whilst pupils also receive the developmental benefits of giving-back and engaging the community.
- Whole school annual giving drive in partnership with Food Bank Aid. In 2021-22 we collected 25 carloads of donations, and we collected an additional 1,400 items to help to target summer holiday hunger.
- All pupils from Pre-Prep to Senior School select a charity to support throughout the year. Last year pupils supported: Ukraine relief, period poverty, homelessness, and the Food Bank.
- All Y10 pupils participate in two annual Environment Days to learn about environmental and conservation issues, and to be part of the local and national solution eg. working to increase biodiversity with our local partner charities.
- All Y9 pupils participate in an annual charity day in which they volunteer their time, efforts, and ideas to our many local and national charities.
