Dear Parents

This time last year, we wrote to share with you news of developments at Claires Court, and 12 months on it’s pleasing to report that at Senior Boys, the Food Tech studio is now successfully commissioned and the MUGA at Juniors nearing completion. We have permission to replace the Senior Boys Music facilities, planned for July 2025, and we are reviewing how best to conclude the refurbishment of the ‘Shed Theatre’ drama studio and adjacent workshops in a similar manner. Further applications for a new PE facility and a Study pavilion for Sixth Form at College continue to work their way through RBWM planning. Across the sites, our efforts for continual improvements to meet our children’s needs and our future aspirations will continue with careful consideration.

VAT Matters 

We continue to work with HMRC to complete our VAT registration and implement the requirements of the Autumn Budget 2024 and Finance Bill 2024-25. In passing, please support the new petition for Parliament to reconsider the imposition of VAT on school fees — please use this link: https://schl.cc:443/gk. 

It’s not just our sector that feels the government has significantly failed to consider the repercussions of its decision to impose VAT on tuition fees. Last week, Buckinghamshire County Council published this paper, leading as follows “The recent introduction of a 20% VAT on independent school fees, and the abolition of business rates relief by the Government, has sparked significant concerns about the potential impact on Buckinghamshire’s education system.” Read more here. Over the 43 years of James Wilding’s Headship, Buckinghamshire Council (and Buckinghamshire County Council before it) has always taken a proactive approach to working with the independent sector, including Claires Court, both to maximise the benefit for all of the children and as appropriate to minimise the additional cost to the Education Authority. The new government has yet to recognise how complex the meeting of SEN needs is, how seriously underfunded the sector is, and how schools like Claires Court have played a significant part in alleviating the problem for local education authorities. 

Court Report

We used to publish an annual 200+ page book to chronicle all aspects of the school; however, now we are in a more digital age and publishing so much more frequently on many channels, we have condensed it to our main highlights over the years. We are delighted to share the Court Report for 2022 to 2024 with you next week when it will be available online via our website. I will also add a further post to this Blog as well. In the meantime, our ever-updating website media continues to cover the news as it arises, also available via the Claires Court App, from the Apple or Android store.

Parent questionnaire – opening for comments on Wednesday 8 January 2025

This annual questionnaire takes the form of the one used by the ISI Inspectorate. It will be released as an on-line form at the start of next term, be open for two weeks and will be emailed to you.  At the same time, we will be running our annual pupil and staff questionnaires, as these assist in triangulating incoming data to check for common patterns of praise, concern or interest. A sample for view, but not completion can be found here.

PTA matters

We express our immense gratitude to the PTA Trustees, Committee Chairs and active supporters for the wonderful events already run this term, including the Autumn Fireworks, Chess Competition, Christmas Fayre, Wreath Making and PTA Quiz Night. 

Many will have seen PTA President, Phyllis Avery MBE at these events, not just leading by showing an interest, but as Chair of the PTA Foundation charity, working hard to ensure new incoming funds are put to best use. Our PTA AGM is to take place on Friday 7 March at 2pm, to be concluded in good time to support the official opening of the new Multi-User-Games-Area for our Junior school and other community users. We are delighted to confirm that Sports commentator Steve Rider will conduct the official opening later in the afternoon, with some showcase activities on display on the astroturf from children and adults from the school! More news to follow on both the AGM and a funding update from our JustGiving channels.

Independent Schools Association (ISA)

ISA is the largest and most diverse of the associations in our sector, where each of the 691 headteachers act as our representative. As Principal, James Wilding has been elected from those to serve for a further three years on the Executive Council. Not only is James the longest serving head on Council (since 1990), but when at the same time, as the ISA member the school joined, we then discovered that the founder of The College, Maidenhead, Andrew Millar-Inglis was one of a handful of school proprietors who chose to establish the group of Principals of Proprietorial schools formally in 1878. Messrs Wilding very much hope to be representing our school in 2028 when ISA celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2028, for which event an updated History of the Association is to be written, in which we hope our contribution over time will be recognised!

Staff Departures

The photo shows Chris Rowan, ICT & music teacher, on the keyboards at the Junior School Carol service at All Saints this week. After 38 years teaching at Claires Court, Chris steps away into his new career as proprietor/photographer for Classpicks, so in many ways will still be seen around our events, capturing the scene, and as required stepping back in to play the Organ, Piano, Keyboards or Ocarina for the school as required. When alumni talk about their time as a junior, most will always have Mr Rowan up there as someone who inspired them, as class teacher, for music, for technology and anything involving the school ‘show’!

Next steps

We have much to look forward to in 2025 and would like to wish you all a peaceful, happy and healthy Christmas break with your families and friends.  As you might expect, teachers and administrators continue to catch up on workflow and quality assurance activities. End of term Friday sees the staff working with Finn O’Regan, one of the leading Behaviour and Learning specialists in the UK, to understand even more clearly what we now understand about neurodiversity in our community. In addition, the staff will workshop together on how to use the growing set of tools using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to best effect in the classroom, as well as in their workflow as professionals. 

SchoolTV advice for the break

Our SchoolTV website is well used by our community, providing excellent independent advice and information on common areas of concern. We highlight specifically the item on ‘Managing Overwhelm’ here, the advice provided by Laverne Antrobus, child & adolescent psychologist, to highlight the active parenting actions to consciously and intentionally assist their children to learn good well-being strategies. The video is easy to watch, 10 minutes of good advice that covers very up-to-date concerns.

If there is One Thing you can do for Claires Court over the break…

It’s to pass on, in your friendship groups and communication channels, just how positive our school remains about the future ahead for our children. The Carol services at the end of term were true celebrations of how we collaborate and how musical and choral scholarship continues to grow across the years. All the many plans we continue to develop have your children at the heart of why we come to work and what we do. As we highlighted in our previous communication, we will continue to work on business efficiencies, develop further our existing relationships and work on new out-of-school partnerships to bring additional revenue in too. 

With many best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year.