By Mrs Tollit, Development Manager

We are delighted to announce our partnership with Royal SpringBoard, the UK’s largest bursary charity. Read below to find out more about how they identify students who will most benefit from our donors’ support and the impact that the experience of coming to NHEHS could have.

Royal National Children’s SpringBoard Foundation (RNCSF), or Royal SpringBoard as it is often known, helps young people facing the most challenging circumstances from across the UK to access great educational opportunities. It works primarily with looked after and vulnerable young people. 

Looked after children are those children in public care, who are placed with foster carers, in residential homes or with parents or other relatives. Children become looked after when their parents are unable to provide ongoing care in either a temporary or permanent capacity. Vulnerable young people are any children at greater risk of experiencing physical or emotional harm and/or experiencing poor outcomes because of one or more factors in their lives. 

The difference Royal SpringBoard has made to the 931 pupils they have supported since 2017 at some 120 different independent schools has been truly transformational: 99% have achieved at least 2 A-levels (compared to only 35% of disadvantaged pupils nationally) and achieved on average 2 grades higher per GCSE. Royal SpringBoard regularly surveys their students and 89% believe they now have the confidence that they will succeed in life. Royal Springboard supports their students before and during their time at an independent school and beyond, ensuring they get the extra support they need to make the most of the opportunities they have been gifted. 

By 2025 RNCSF aims to support 2,000 young people from challenging circumstances to access the opportunities which an independent education can bring – changing their futures, influencing their peers and becoming role models to others. NHEHS is immensely proud to be amongst the first cohort of day schools in the country to be offering a SpringBoard student a place in 2023. 

If you would like to help us offer a life-changing opportunity for a young person here at NHEHS by donating to our 150th Anniversary Bursary campaign, simply make a one-off or regular donation by clicking here https://gdst.net/donate/NHEHS or use our new 1% method https://forms.gle/d85Qf6NxX8DztLb98  or, if your daughter is in Year 13, pledge your deposit here http://bit.ly/nhehsleavers