Day Pupils.

Anything that doesn't fit anywhere else, but that's still CH related.

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dinahcat
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Re: Day Pupils.

Post by dinahcat »

I am glad there is no paintballing and quad biking. I wouldn't choose a school on the basis of these activities.
The fees that are described for the forseeable future are to keep the school open. Mr Franklin explained it very well to the pupils who accepted it. The same thing happened in the 80s and many more full fee paying pupils were accepted than are being proposed now. When things improved the school reverted to accepting more pupils on partial fees. Any suggestion that the school is trying a back door method of changing into a totally full fee paying school is not proven by any means.
If there are no takers then the future of the school is in doubt. I imagine there are all sorts of measures in place to keep the school from closing and taking some full fee payers and some day pupils is what has to be done .I am sure the school is aware of all the implications of doing this and everyone will have to make the best of it.
There are plenty of activities for the children to take part in which the staff work very hard at.If these activities are not glamorous enough for any parent then their child is at the wrong school. Nothing can compare , if you have a child who is lucky enough to be chosen, to the sight of the band marching towards you from behing Big School on the last day of the summer term. That is a moment of real joy that will stay with you forever. Call me sentimental if you like but I love it and I am prepared to welcome with open arms any full fee payers who will assist in keeping that going until the hard times are over.
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NEILL THE NOTORIOUS
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Re: Day Pupils.

Post by NEILL THE NOTORIOUS »

Well Put Dinahcat !
However, how did the School get into this financiaslly dangerous position.
A great deal of money has, and is still, being spent on extra buildings. The costs of these, as we all know, are Horrendous.
If you, or I, decide we need an Extension, or a Conservatory, or an Attic Conversion, we firstly sit down and consider what is the cost, what is the CONTINUING cost, and, most importantly, can we afford it ?
It may well be, that at the time when the decisin was made to build extensions to the Houses, with modern Master's accommodation, a Sports Centre Etc. Etc.
that the income from the Shares, Endowments, and the like, were sufficient.
It is not beyond the wit of Man (Or Woman, for that matter) to realise that Investments, with the Stock Market, have a See-saw tendency.
The whole Country is now in the grip of "Buy now -- pay later" -- including the Government.
I would have hoped that those who direct the fortunes of our beloved School, would have had a little more "Nous"
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Re: Day Pupils.

Post by englishangel »

Easy for you to say with your 4 pensions and your mortgage paid off, but savings interest rates are now 0.5%, which with annual inflation at around 2.8% amounts to -2.3%.
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Re: Day Pupils.

Post by jhopgood »

NEILL THE NOTORIOUS wrote:Well Put Dinahcat !
However, how did the School get into this financiaslly dangerous position.
A great deal of money has, and is still, being spent on extra buildings. The costs of these, as we all know, are Horrendous.
If you, or I, decide we need an Extension, or a Conservatory, or an Attic Conversion, we firstly sit down and consider what is the cost, what is the CONTINUING cost, and, most importantly, can we afford it ?
It may well be, that at the time when the decisin was made to build extensions to the Houses, with modern Master's accommodation, a Sports Centre Etc. Etc.
that the income from the Shares, Endowments, and the like, were sufficient.
It is not beyond the wit of Man (Or Woman, for that matter) to realise that Investments, with the Stock Market, have a See-saw tendency.
The whole Country is now in the grip of "Buy now -- pay later" -- including the Government.
I would have hoped that those who direct the fortunes of our beloved School, would have had a little more "Nous"
I have never run a charity but believe that the rules are slightly different for those in business. I don't know whether funds can be saved up for a rainy day, or whether they have to be committed to specific projects of the charity.
And if they do, I assume someone checks up to see that they are spent on the assigned project.
Add this to the fact that the Education rules change and in order to keep educating, the school has to "improve" the lot of the children, meaning committed investment.
Maintaining Grade "whatever they are" buildings cannot be cheap and so the expense goes on.
And I am not sure how you say to HM Inspectors, "Sorry, can't do, no money" and stay open for long as a school.
It would be remarkable if CH had taken action on the economic downturn, and been one of the few who saw it coming and did something, especially when most of the "advisors" got it wrong.
I understand that the CH portfolio outperformed the market, but the drop was so great, that it made little difference.
Easy to comment now, in the absence of complete information, but I would guess that all decisions were taken on the basis of the best information available and a desire to do what was best for CH.
Frankly, I am more interested in what can be done now to keep CH as an on-going institute, and once that has been achieved, concentrating on the why, to learn lessons for the future.
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Richard Ruck
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Re: Day Pupils.

Post by Richard Ruck »

J.R. wrote:I'm still interested to see how The School will set times for these pupils to be 'On Campus', if you'll excuse the Amercanism.

I still reckon it'll only be feasible for pupils residing in or around the Horsham area.
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Re: Day Pupils.

Post by lonelymom »

So day pupils won't have to stay to do prep if they don't want to, and can leave at 6.30pm and do prep at home. That makes much more sense!!
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Re: Day Pupils.

Post by Eruresto »

Looking at the page, it says they do everything a normal pupil would do, but they don't have a bed. Which begs the question, do they have a room? They'll need one for changing for actives, certainly. And by the looks of it they won't have the same social life as a boarder - leaving at half nine on a weekday and half five on Saturdays! Should be interesting, at any rate.
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Re: Day Pupils.

Post by ailurophile »

I am glad there is no paintballing and quad biking. I wouldn't choose a school on the basis of these activities.
The fees that are described for the forseeable future are to keep the school open. Mr Franklin explained it very well to the pupils who accepted it. The same thing happened in the 80s and many more full fee paying pupils were accepted than are being proposed now. When things improved the school reverted to accepting more pupils on partial fees. Any suggestion that the school is trying a back door method of changing into a totally full fee paying school is not proven by any means.
If there are no takers then the future of the school is in doubt. I imagine there are all sorts of measures in place to keep the school from closing and taking some full fee payers and some day pupils is what has to be done .I am sure the school is aware of all the implications of doing this and everyone will have to make the best of it.
There are plenty of activities for the children to take part in which the staff work very hard at.If these activities are not glamorous enough for any parent then their child is at the wrong school. Nothing can compare , if you have a child who is lucky enough to be chosen, to the sight of the band marching towards you from behing Big School on the last day of the summer term. That is a moment of real joy that will stay with you forever. Call me sentimental if you like but I love it and I am prepared to welcome with open arms any full fee payers who will assist in keeping that going until the hard times are over.
Dinahcat, I agree with you 100% on so many of these points. I too get a lump in my throat when I watch the band at Beating Retreat; I too will always been grateful that my sons were lucky enough to be chosen by CH; and I too would have gone elsewhere if paintballing and quad biking were our priorities!! We turned to CH for a top quality academic education which our local comp does not offer and which we could not have afforded elsewhere in the independent system, and in this we have not been disappointed. But I suspect that when it comes to attracting full fee paying pupils the school will be dealing with people who have somewhat different priorities - you're not talking about families who will be grateful for being chosen by CH, but families who must choose the school in the face of strong competition, and who can afford to go elsewhere. By all means "welcome with open arms any full fee payers who will assist in keeping [CH] going until the hard times are over", but I can't help wondering whether there will need to be more in it for them than pride in the knowledge that they're helping to keep the tradition of CH alive!

I'm sure I recall a poster on this forum last year (I can't remember the name, or I'd look this up!) who was really committed to the ethos of CH and had accepted a full fees place for their son, but withdrew him before entry when those fees shot up without notice and they realised that they'd be paying thousands more to CH in the first two years than they would be at other boarding schools. Does anyone else remember this?
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Re: Day Pupils.

Post by anniexf »

ailurophile wrote: I'm sure I recall a poster on this forum last year (I can't remember the name, or I'd look this up!) who was really committed to the ethos of CH and had accepted a full fees place for their son, but withdrew him before entry when those fees shot up without notice and they realised that they'd be paying thousands more to CH in the first two years than they would be at other boarding schools. Does anyone else remember this?
I do - it was "Dusty" on the "Are We Alone" thread, p.23.
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Re: Day Pupils.

Post by YadaYada »

When things improved the school reverted to accepting more pupils on partial fees.


I'm glad you reminded us of that DinahCat. I'm new to CH whereas I know many of you have a long-standing affiliation with the school. I can only say that my son is in absolutely the right place for him and I can't tell you how grateful I am to CH for his opportunity. I think for those of us who don't know so much about the school, the new moves towards full payers and day pupils can seem like a move away from what we were presented with and I certainly want others to have the opportunities my son is having. But you are right that it is a necessary but temporary measure.
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Re: Day Pupils.

Post by jtaylor »

There's often a lot of suspicion about the motivations of the school's "powers that be."
Having been a little closer to some of those people over the last few years, I can clearly say that they ALL have CH's best interests at heart from what I've seen. There are a vast number of people volunteering to help CH in the various structures, whether as Almoners, Governors, Committee Members, Stewards, or various board members.
Without exception I have seen them debating tirelessly and passionately for the good of the school.
I'm sure not all decisions have been perfect, but whose are? Looking at the banking situation, all those people who "work in the city" (doesn't hold the same impact as a statement now does it?!?) didn't get it right - and they're supposed to be some of the brightest and best!

Re. the day pupils and full-fee boarders - as far as I'm concerned, provided the school maintains an understood and managed spectrum of incomes, and in doing so enables CH to continue, then I'm all for it. Provided there are sensible limits (i.e. little Tarquin doesn't come to school with £50 pocket money each week) then I see it simply maintaining the healthy spread of social and enthic background to match every day life - and thus produce balanced kids.

The school and foundation are doing what it can to shore up the endowment, abide by the appropriate charity rules to ensure a good Total Return for the endowment, and hence enable CH to continue as it has. From what I've seen, there is no wish to change the ethos or purpose of the school at all - and this has been uppermost from what I've seen over the past few years.

If any Old Blues or others have any practical and workable ideas for boosting the income of the school, without compromising the ethos, then I'm sure that the Development Office would be very pleased to hear them. There are a number of initiatives being looked at from what I've heard, of which the full-fee places and day places are a couple - and they'll have a good impact on the income of the school, and thus its future - or so is hoped!

Well - there's my thoughts anyway.

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Re: Day Pupils.

Post by NEILL THE NOTORIOUS »

In the end ---- despite some of the reservations expressed on this Topic ----- we shall have to wait and see.

I look forward (Should the Good Lord spare me) to seeing how things have worked out, after another year or two.

Perhaps a fairer judgement may be made at that time.
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Re: Day Pupils.

Post by ben ashton »

Only just heard about day pupils, and haven't been on here for a while, but tbh... I'm not impressed!! :o!
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Re: Day Pupils.

Post by dinahcat »

It has to be done to keep the school going ; we have to embrace it .
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Re: Day Pupils.

Post by icomefromalanddownunder »

dinahcat wrote:It has to be done to keep the school going ; we have to embrace it .
I still don't understand how the small number who are being admitted as day pupils are going to make a significant difference to the school's finances.
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