We are thrilled to have recently received our first public recognition for our 150th Anniversary fundraising campaign from The Institute of Development Professionals in Education (IDPE) so we thought we would share some of the exciting ‘firsts’ from our fundraising campaign.

In November 2021 we appointed our first development professional to help create and deliver our 150th Anniversary Bursary Appeal. Molly Tollit was appointed to raise the profile of bursaries and work with our parent and alumnae community to support the appeal and share the importance of extending our bursary provision to give more local girls with the talent but not the means the chance to contribute to and benefit from this aspirational yet grounded school. 

In October 2022 we launched our first bursary campaign aiming to create three, new transformational bursaries as a philanthropic legacy of our 150th Anniversary celebrations. Two of these will run for the seven senior school years and one for the two sixth form years. We wish to make them transformational i.e. 95+%, for those with a total family income of less than £49,500 a year. We will name each of these bursaries in recognition of the contributors: for our current parents in both the junior and senior schools, ‘The Parents’ 150th Anniversary Bursary’, for our recent Leavers, ‘The Leavers’ 150th Anniversary Sixth Form Bursary’ for our alumnae, former parents and former staff, ‘The OGA Alumnae 150th Anniversary Bursary’, This would be our biggest investment in bursaries since the end of the Assisted Places scheme in 1997. As we look forward to our next 150 years, we will reinforce the NHEHS founders’ commitment to the accessibility of our school.

11/10/2022: the day our campaign launched we received our very first donation in response to our launch of the Parents’ 150th Anniversary Bursary Appeal!

12/10/22: we received our first donation of £1000 from a parent!

In November 2022 we held out first thank-you event inviting long-standing supporters of the school, including some former parents, to a drinks reception at the Reform Club in Pall Mall, with a VIP guest, NHEHS alumna, TV and radio presenter, Angellica Bell, to thank them for their support. The Reform Club was the first of the major London clubs to allow women to become members and the offer of this venue free of charge from one of our community for our first stewardship event was greatly appreciated.

In March 2023 we held our first Junior School Class Art Exhibition. Parents were invited to tea and cakes while they viewed artwork which each class had produced; this was then auctioned to the highest bidder and proceeds allocated to the Parents’ 150th Bursary. We were delighted by the response, welcoming over 80 parents, creating 16 new donors and raising £1803.

July 2023: we passed £10,000 of one-off donations for our parents’ appeal!

July 2023: we received our first 1% pledge from a parent whose child would be joining us in September!

September 2023: Our Alumnae association, the OGA, holds its first auction at its annual tea party for Bursaries raising over £10,000!

Everyone makes a difference. Join our efforts to give more young women the chance to learn without limits: https://gdst.net/donate/NHEHS