Framlingham College was founded in 1864 to provide education to the sons of the middle-class in rural East Anglia. Over the years the fundamental purpose has evolved and it now caters for both boys and girls of all social and economic backgrounds from the local area and further afield. Set in the heart of the Suffolk countryside some 20 miles from Ipswich, the senior school and Preparatory school at Brandeston Hall play a significant part in a rural community that cannot easily benefit from the range of activities and opportunities that exist in a suburban and urban environment.
Charitable Purpose
The College is established as a registered charity with the express purpose of the advancement of education. Pupils that benefit from this education are drawn from the local community, the wider East Anglian catchment as well as nationally and internationally. The wider public benefit from the fact that the College is unable to recover VAT paid on its inputs, and saves taxpayers the cost of educating the pupils at the College in the state system. In order to further widen the benefit provided to the public a range of means tested bursaries and scholarships, including at least 6 100% remissions of tuition fees, are offered to enable children from less well off backgrounds to gain from a Framlingham education. The College collaborates with a wide range of local state schools, offering access to facilities and sharing of staff and senior students. The local community is also able to use many of its facilities, and it is both a major local employer and a consumer of local goods and services. The Governors of the College consider that these provisions far exceed the minimum required of a Charity.
Scholarships and Bursaries
The College provides exciting opportunities for the 700+ boys and girls, aged between 3 and 18, who come to study and benefit from its impressive facilities and it is therefore fitting that the College, through bursaries and scholarships, is able to provide an excellent education to many of those children whose parents would otherwise be unable to meet the fee provision. The College is firmly committed to providing scholarships to the most talented and able pupils that apply to us. In order to ensure that access is available for as wide a cross section of the community as possible, we cap the financial awards associated with scholarships at 30% of fees, with the exception of the Pembroke scholars. This policy has allowed us to increase the funds available for bursaries. Bursaries are awarded to “top-up” scholarship awards, and are fully means-tested. This allows talented children from less well-off backgrounds to access the benefits of a Framlingham education. Additional funds are available to assist current pupils where their parents have fallen on hard times to provide temporary assistance to minimise disruption to education.
Access to scholarships and top up bursaries is at age 11+ through the Prep School and 13+ and 16+ at the Senior School. Awards are made to individuals after a comprehensive, and transparent, assessment of all applicants. Not all applicants can receive financial awards as the total funds pot available is calculated each year in advance depending on resources.
At any one time there are six holders of the Pembroke Scholarship who receive full remission of tuition fees. These awards are governed by the terms of our constitution and reflect the wishes of Pembroke College, Cambridge, which bequeathed the land upon which the College was built. These pupils are drawn from local parishes and are judged to be excellent pupils who require financial assistance in order to gain access to the College. The College also offers a scholarship under the HMC scheme whereby a disadvantaged student from Eastern Europe is given the opportunity to study at the school. All fees are covered by this scholarship which is paid for out of the Colleges own funds.
The Albert Memorial Scholarships are awarded to boys and girls who are likely to make an exceptional contribution to the overall life of the College. Other awards are made to pupils with a gift for drama, music, design and technology, science or art, sports and pupils who are joining the school for their sixth form study. The Sixth Form Scholarship awards often attract pupils from the state sector whose schools do not offer a suitable A Level syllabus and can benefit from the wide range of subjects and activities available at Framlingham.
The late Cecil Isherwood Stapleton was a distinguished Framlinghamian and graduate of Exeter College, Oxford. His will set up a fund to enable scholarships to be provided to pupils looking to follow in his footsteps. It is a condition of awarding this scholarship that candidates investigate the possibility of studying at Exeter College, and we have forged strong links with Exeter College to assist in this.
Collaborations with local State Schools
In order to enhance the educational opportunities available to children not able for whatever reason to attend the College, the campus facilities are made available as far as possible to local schools. In particular the indoor swimming pool, sports hall, astroturf pitches and theatre are used by local schools. Drama production invitations are extended to local schools and we also host Gifted and Talented days for local children excelling in Maths, Languages, Performing and Creative Arts including Computer Science. We provide a member of staff as a governor at the local state primary school. The teaching services of language staff have been offered to local primary schools where timetables have allowed, and a mutually beneficial link to the Endeavour Academy in Ipswich has been fostered, introducing activities in The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme and Drama to their students, led by staff and students from the College. We continue to actively work with local schools to seek innovative new ways to collaborate for the benefit of children.
Use of School Facilities by Local Organisations
To the benefit of the wider general public, the College opens up its facilities as widely as possible to both organisations, and the wider public. Access to the local community has to be limited to some degree due to the large boarding population and the inherent security and child protection implications of running a school site. Nonetheless, the College recognises the limited number of similar facilities in the local community and is continually looking for opportunities to ‘open its doors’. We take our Safeguarding responsibilities extremely seriously and we will not allow our facilities to be used by individuals or groups that we believe are not appropriate for a school setting. The College has a clear priority order determining the purpose for which the facilities are to be used and the frequency of use. The fees charged, if any, are also determined by this priority order, with the highest for category 5 and the lowest for category 1. Our classification of these uses is as follows:
- Education
- Charity
- Former Pupils
- Local Community
- Business
Pupil and Staff involvement in the Local Community
The College actively recruits staff from the local area and purchases goods and services from the local community when practical and financially viable. As a key element of their personal development, and to provide assistance to the local community, pupils provide support to local residents and organisations through the school’s activity programme. Initiatives range from gardening and provision of food for the elderly to undertaking projects to help maintain a clean environment. We also provide access to our land for both the community garden and town allotments. Additionally, groups of pupils such as musical bands are actively encouraged to support local events and Charities. The College owns the land currently containing the Elms Car Park, which is the largest car park used by the community to access the Framlingham town centre. Parking is currently offered to the town at no charge. The Operations Director is responsible for maintaining effective links with local schools, the Town Council and other local bodies and for actively seeking ways in which the College can assist the local community and become involved in local activities. Recent involvements have included Christmas, the Queens Jubilee celebrations and the Olympics. The Operations Director reports to the Headmaster to discuss new initiatives and opportunities.
Summary
The purpose of the policy is to ensure that the activities of the College are run in an appropriate manner to provide proper public benefit exceeding the minimum parameters set down by Charity law and guidance from the Charity Commission. Governors regularly review this policy to ensure it remains current.
