Chair of Governors

Open Letter to the Tiffin Community

Some of you will have seen articles in the press regarding the financial situation at Tiffin School. The reference to a "crisis" in the Evening Standard is unfortunate and, as parents will know from my previous communication, wholly inaccurate. The suggestion that we have used reserves without realising is nonsense and patently impossible.

I would like to assure everyone who is concerned about the current state and future of Tiffin School that we are by no means in a crisis. Our savings from the generous donations by parents over many years have been invested into the School over the past four years making it stronger, and helping to achieve the best ever GCSE results (2nd best state boys school in the country by The Times ranking), as well as maintaining our extraordinary range of sports, events, curriculum and teaching quality. Sean Heslop has been instrumental in providing a strong vision and progressive leadership for the School, and there has been a conscious decision to put these funds to work rather than hoarding them, as grammar schools have become increasingly recognised for the immense value they provide for education in the UK in recent years.

Due to an unexpected combination of circumstances we have been faced with a sooner than expected requirement to bring run-rate expenditure directly back into line with long-term total income. We may face a cash shortfall of up to £50,000, but this is not significant against an annual budget of £5.5 million. We already have fairly detailed plans in place to reduce expenditure, but they will not be rushed in as we have considerable due-diligence to conduct to ensure that there will be no impact on the boys education, and there are also negotiations to work through with unions and other parties on staff working conditions.

The school is also doing everything possible to ensure that any requirement for redundancies of staff are kept at an absolute minimum, and might even be avoided altogether. Our ability to deal with this in a measured and professional manner has been greatly enhanced by the support of RBK for short-term funding, if required. We will, of course, continue to encourage the good offices of our parents to provide voluntary donations, and it is my hope (I can't quite yet say expectation) that we will be clear of all debt within a year and incremental donations will be able to be focused back into further building the extraordinary things Tiffin is able to provide for its gifted students over and above a normal state education.

I would like to add that I am overwhelmed by the fantastic support and encouragement we have received from parents in the past few days, and the enormous recognition that Tiffin does indeed achieve its aim of providing an extraordinarily positive and broad educational experience for its boys. The recent approval of our application for status as a Specialist School for Languages, in addition to our primary Specialist Performing Arts College, are testament to the continuing progression of Tiffin School.

Stuart Lester
Chair of Governors - Tiffin School

Tiffin School - A leading creative community - an enduring love of learning.

Ofsted:  "an exceptional performing arts college that provides its students with an outstanding quality of education" .