Over the past 5 years, as Principals of Claires Court, my brother Hugh and I have sought how best to develop the school, despite the failure of our ‘One Campus’ proposals at the planning and appeal stages in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

Our first resolution was perhaps inevitable; in the face of advice received from the Department of Education (DfE) and our own RBWM Education service that updating the existing campus sites in Ray Mill Road East and College Avenue would be too challenging to meet current needs, that’s what we set out to achieve. Like the painting of the Forth Bridge, those steps will never really be concluded, but we are delighted to have completed the latest phase of physical development at Senior Boys, with the new Food Studio opening for business this week. 

At College Avenue, now primarily focussed on Senior Girls and Sixth Form students, planning applications for improved PE facilities and a Sixth Form pavilion (to meet additional study and examination needs) were lodged in June, and, subject to approval, will follow in due course. These additions are to meet an expansion in numbers as well as new Sixth Form courses in Sociology and Travel & Tourism. 

Also based at College Avenue is our Nursery School, central to Maidenhead’s needs and, since its transformation in 2021, the first stage in a child’s educational journey..

Major developments at our Ridgeway campus to renew classrooms and other infrastructure were required before it could become home to all our children aged 4 to 11. Over the summer, an entirely new sewage system has been installed (no glamour there at all) but this was to enable work to begin on the Multi Sports Games Area (MUGA) for which we finally received planning approval on 12 July, the day after the end of last term. This week Berkshire Archeology service completed their investigatory excavation and work now commences in earnest to provide us with the much-needed addition of a weather-proof outdoor surface, sufficient for 3 tennis, netball and football/hockey courts! 

Our adjoining playing fields and multiple cricket facilities there have now been approved after 2 seasons for the new Thames Valley Cricket League, providing the main home for Maidenhead Royals Cricket Club, plus teams from Binfield, Maidenhead & Bray and other junior cricket sides. The sewer and MUGA developments have enabled us to create a new Forest School area in the grounds, distinct from the school, where in due course, the planting of 36 mature trees will provide an ‘orchard’. Our Junior PTA celebrated the school’s return after the Summer break last Friday, the setting was simply glorious and there’s clearly now so much to look forward to in 2025 and beyond.

Our embedding of Claires Court in the community has been a long term strategic aim, and this autumn we celebrate 40 years of collaboration with Maidenhead Rowing Club and Phoenix Rugby Football club. The high point to date this term was working with The Friends of Maidenhead Waterways and participating in their third festival last Saturday. This major project has helped bring a little of our river Thames back into the heart of Maidenhead, with Chapel Arches becoming a destination food and beverage area for our town. Our school stall on Saturday celebrated our commitment to service in this respect, with our rowing, sailing and CCF groups represented, and Claires Court Outdoor Education (CCOE) kayakers on the water displaying their talents.

CCOE expansion has not just included the canoe/kayak centre of Boulter’s Island, where we also host Paddleboard Maidenhead but also now includes Duke of Edinburgh waterways expeditions, and I was very pleased to assess our inaugural SIlver Paddling expedition around Oxford over the summer break.

Of course the Independent School landscape isn’t all rosy at all, with the Labour government’s proposals to remove the exemption from VAT of both private school and further education college fees. I’ve written elsewhere my views on this policy, and I was delighted to be in attendance at the House of Lords for their 3 hour debate on the matter. Lord Lexden (ISA President and a very good friend of Claires Court) closed the debate which ‘carried’ the following motion: “Many who have been watching this debate and follow these controversial matters will be disappointed by what the Minister has said. I do not think that the great concern that exists has been in any way significantly alleviated by her comments. We who have sought to represent the difficulties feel, above all, that VAT should not be introduced without, as I said at the start, a full and independent assessment of the implications  of our first-ever education tax. This is the essential point on which nearly all speakers agreed. We must ask the Government to think again.”

Throughout the term ahead, we will continue to demonstrate just how interwoven are the interests of the school and the wider town, villages and community groups. It’s not just the education of almost 1,000 local children or the employment of 400 adults that’s at stake, but the wider investment we bring into the many amazing centres of excellence such as Norden Farm and the many sports and community groups with which we collaborate. As so many commentators in the House of Lords and wider press have noted, the Government’s position that our sector only benefits 7% of the nation’s population is an arbitrary number chosen to belittle our sector’s contribution to British society. From data collected annually via the DfE’s school census, the Office of National Statistics  regularly reports that circa 20% of children of school age (i.e. 5 to 16) resident in RBWM are in independent education. As our school serves a community throughout the school age range from 2-18, we clearly reach far more than that, with families choosing us for the needs they have at any given age and stage. With half of the boy and girl footballers under the age of 11 playing on our pitches this weekend and for the rest of the season, it’s pretty obvious Claires Court’s involvement in the wider provision of learning facilities for children has a major positive impact on the well-being of our young Maidonians too.