Development Plan
Serious development planning has become part and parcel of Salopian business in recent years, during which period the scale of buildings development, both new build and major refurbishment, has been unparalleled.
Building projects, whilst an obvious, visible manifestation of confident investment in the school’s future, have by no means been the only developments.
Academic, pastoral and co-curricular development themes have been centrally in play, and the introduction of sixth form co-education in September 2008, which has been a wonderful success, underlines Shrewsbury’s serious intention always to aspire to present and future excellence, without ever losing hold of the distinctive values and virtues of its past.
Shrewsbury’s development planning takes two forms.
Medium term plans look, broadly-speaking, to the decade ahead.
Annual plans define targets to be achieved, year by year, in order to meet ‘medium-term’ objectives.
September 2008 saw the introduction of a new medium-term plan running from 2008 to 2015, embracing development objectives in all principal areas of school activity.
The 2009-2010 annual plan includes the following:
- Consequent upon the introduction of sixth form co-education in 2008, incremental expansion of the sixth form student population (and therefore of the whole school, to a maximum of c740) in line with the 2008-2015 plan.
- Given the increased number of sixth form entrants, on-going attention to the natural and successful integration of those joining the school at age 16+.
- Routine reassessment of Shrewsbury’s academic curriculum (including the introduction into the sixth form of the Cambridge Pre-U, the Extended Essay and Global Perspectives Research projects), to ensure that it is appropriate and suitably challenging.
- On-going monitoring of the award of scholarships and bursaries, with particular emphasis on the value of means-related fee remission.
- On-going overview of pastoral care and shared values at Shrewsbury, to underpin the highest quality of community life.
- Routine review of the school’s extra-curricular programme, with a particular focus on its offering in community service.
- On-going development of the relationship between Shrewsbury School and Shrewsbury House, the education and youth centre in Everton.
- Continued development of the relationship between Shrewsbury School and the Shrewsbury International School, Bangkok.
- In-year fundraising, in support of bursaries and specific projects, in line with specific targets in the 2008-2015 plan.
- On-going development of ICT services within the school and in support of communication with current parents, prospective parents, Old Salopians and all other elements of the Salopian community.
- Particular attention to issues of sustainability.
- On-going implementation of the programme of the renewal and refurbishment of boarding and day accommodation.
- On-going implementation of other building and renewal projects in teaching and other areas (most immediately, the phased renewal of physics laboratories and Fives courts).
The bullet points above define a comprehensive development programme to maintain momentum in Shrewsbury’s remarkable progress in recent years.
All elements of the above programme are underpinned by a ten-year cash plan, in which sources of income (fee income, donations and commercial income) are outlined and prudent limits to annual expenditure are made clear.
Jeremy Goulding
May 2010
