May Update
Eden School Challenge
Just before February Half Term we sent a ParentMail announcing Wycombe High School’s participation in the Eden School Challenge offering a chance of winning £1,000 for our school. We asked students, parents, grandparents, friends and family to collect as many tokens as possible. Every £5 spent in Eden Shopping Centre, High Wycombe became 1 token for WHS! We had until 16 March to redeem tokens to win £500 worth of Eden gift cards and £500 cash to go towards the ‘Play Your Part’ campaign. Many tokens were collected by the participating schools from High Wycombe, Beaconsfield, Gerrards Cross, Amersham an Chesham. We are thrilled to inform you that this year’s winners are Wycombe High School winning £1,000 for our school! Thanks to your support £500 will go directly to ‘Play Your Part’. We have requested different denominations of the Eden Gift Cards for Development Ambassador event prizes and for PAFA’s Summer Ball Raffle. Niamh Crowley, Marketing Manager for Eden, will be coming to school later this month to present the cheque and gift cards to Mrs Cromie in assembly. We would not have been able to win this challenge without your support, for that we are hugely grateful.
Wycombe Orpheus MVC Bursary
Formed with just 12 members in 1923, the Wycombe Orpheus Male Voice Choir’s main objective was to deliver high quality singing entertainment for local audiences. Today, this objective hasn’t changed, though the size of the choir – now more than six times its original size – certainly has. In addition to performing, Wycombe Orpheus MVC promotes young musicians in the local area. Wycombe High School has always played important part in supporting their Festival of Young Musicians which takes place in March each year. And this year was no different with the following awards won by talented WHS students.
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The English Chamber Orchestra Senior Strings Award: Charlotte Reston - Guitar
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The Cleary Family Senior Woodwind Award: Aoife Dudley - Oboe
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The Cygnet Singers Senior Vocal Award: Charlotte Nohavicka
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The Marsha Rae Ratcliff Senior Ensemble Award: Lucy Twine, Sophy Yeoman, Aoife Dudley, Georgia Betteridge—String Quartet
As part of its support for young musicians, The Wycombe Orpheus makes Bursary awards of up to £1000 each year. Craig Lewis, Choir Secretary, along with fellow trustees on Wycombe Opheus MVC’s Bursary committee, are pleased to award Wycombe High School a bursary of £1000 to go towards the new Music Centre - a project that will benefit all young musicians at the school and local community. The bursary is being award at their annual concert held at the Wycombe Swan where our very own Chloe Rooke will be accepting the award on behalf of the school. If you are interested in joining the choir please contact Craig at Tel: 01628 528550 or Mob: 07930 240824.
Zenopa Sponsorship Renewed
We are pleased to announce the continuation of Zenopa’s sponsorship of Wycombe High School. Zenopa is a UK recruitment agency placing executive, marketing and sales personnel into Medical, Pharmaceutical, Veterinary, Pharmacy, Dental and Laboratory Jobs with offices in Penn, Leeds and Edinburgh. By raising the profile of Zenopa among current and past students and their families through advertisements in High Flyer, our official WHS Facebook Group, direct mails to targeted year groups Zenopa hopes to recruit one additional member of staff per year from amongst the Wycombe High School alumnae. Wycombe High School not only benefits financially but through our Careers and Pathways Office events as well. Zenopa has participated in the Year 13 Future Day, the Higher Education & Careers Fair and has lectured on the topic of ‘Working Life Career’. We are very grateful to Mark Denton, MarkManaging Director, for his continued support.
JustGiving
Please go to Wycombe High School’s JustGiving Charity to support the Grade One-a-thon and other initiatives parents, teachers and students have planned to support Play Your Part to help us reach our £1.5m goal. At the time of writing we have raised £720 for Steven Roy (father of Megan 8C B3 ) who has run the Bisham Half Marathon; £2636 for James Campanini (father of Emily in 8E P4 and Vice President of the Play Your Part Development Board), who is cycling from Lands End to John O’Groats on behalf of Play Your Part; and £7663.01 for the Grade One-a-Thoners . We won’t be able to reach our targets without your support.
March/April Update
We are in the midst of recruiting for 30 Student Leadership Roles that your daughter(s) may be interested in. For all roles we are looking for creative, dedicated and self-motivated students who are interested in marketing and promotion, producing events, publications and products.
Head(s) of Development – Starting next year current Year 12 student(s) will manage 12 Development Ambassadors. Head(s) of Development will meet weekly with Development Ambassadors to identify projects, assign roles and responsibility, delegate tasks and work on projects, as well as the Development Director to monitor progress.
Development Ambassadors – We will be appointing 12 students from current Year 7, 8 and 11 students (four from each year group) starting September 2012. Separate from the established Charity work, Development Ambassadors will market and sell WHS branded products at school events, produce fundraising events and promotional materials to raise money for the ‘Play Your Part’ campaign to upgrade our performing arts facilities. Separate from the established Charity work, Development Ambassadors will be focusing on marketing and fundraising for the school itself.
Head(s) of Guild – Current Year 12 student(s) will work with the Development and Careers and Pathways Offices and Guild Committee (Wycombe High School’s association for students and staff) to create stronger links between the school and ex-students starting September 2012. Responsibilities include producing and promoting events (e.g. reunions and Guild Lectures); online communications (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, Friends Reunited etc.); increasing Guild membership to current and ex-students; and contributions to Wycombe High School Guild annual magazine.
Wycombe High School News Crew – We will be appointing 16 students from current Year 9, 10, 11 and 12 students (four from each year group) starting immediately. In 2011 we launched the Wycombe High School Magazine incorporating news from the Guild. In 2012 and beyond securing original content, producing, editing, publishing, design and promotion of the magazine will be a student led initiative, providing first-hand experience of writing, editing, producing and marketing for students interested in the world of publishing. If you are interested in being a part of the 2012 edition of the Wycombe High School Magazine please consider applying for the Wycombe High School News Crew.
Head(s) of Development, Development Ambassadors, Heads of Guild and WHS News Crew job descriptions can be here. Hard copies can be found in the Christie letter racks. The deadline for applications is Friday 20 April. However this may be extended if necessary. Thank you for encouraging your daughters to apply and good luck to them.
January/February
We are very pleased to announce that since September we have raised almost £100k for the Play Your Part campaign to improve the performing arts facilities in the school. Together with on-going Future Fund donations from parents and grants from the Academies Capital Maintenance Fund we have raised £500k for Phase One – a new Music Centre. This is a great start, but will have a long way to go to reach £1.5 million.
Not only do we need you to contribute financially, we need your help to encourage other parents, family members, the community, your colleagues and employers to get involved in the campaign by:
• contributing financially;
• spreading the word;
• getting others on board;
• attending events;
• inviting others to attend events;
• encouraging your daughters to participate in events;
• getting your employers to donate; and
• celebrating our successes.
To those parents and friends who are already contributing generously, we are hugely grateful and thank you. We know from past experience we cannot achieve our fundraising goals without the support of parents, family, friends and former students of WHS. Everyone’s personal circumstances differ. No matter the size, every gift is meaningful, every gift has value. Please support us by making a regular donation to the ’Play Your Part’ campaign using the gift aid scheme by completing the ’Play Your Part’ gift form.
Final plans for the building have been signed off and can be viewed on the Performing Arts Section of our website where you will also find a Play Your Part brochure detailing why we have launched the campaign and why we need you to Play Your Part.
Play Your Part Parent Information Evenings
These evenings are continuing for all year groups providing an opportunity to meet with other parents, members of school staff and the parent led ‘Play Your Part’ campaign Development Board. The next four evenings are taking place before the ‘Daisy Pulls It Off’ school play and the Lower and Senior Music Concerts. Those parents who are planning to attend the school play and music
concerts will have an opportunity to come earlier to sample tasty refreshments and canapés while
being updated on our plans for the new Music Centre and upgrades to the Hall. You will then be escorted to your reserved seats in the Hall. Look out for a Parent Mail inviting you to attend one of the following evenings in the Wainwright Learning Centre.
Play Your Part Parent Information Evenings Date Time Location
‘Daisy Pulls It Off’ 1 Mar 6.15-7.00 pm Learning Centre
‘Daisy Pulls It Off’ 2 Mar 6.15-7.00 pm Learning Centre
Lower School Concert 27 Mar 6.00-7.00 pm Learning Centre
Attending Senior Concert 25 Apr 6.00-7.00 pm Learning Centre
JustGiving
JustGiving is an established and well respected online fundraising tool that is proven to be more effective, efficient and easy to measure success. To help us reach our £1.5m goal we have re-launched Wycombe High School’s JustGiving Charity website to support the Grade One-a-thon and other initiatives parents, teachers and students have planned to support Play Your Part.
As you’ve read in the Music Grade One-a-thon article we have over 60 members of staff participating. Each of us will be launching our individual JustGiving pages to raise funds for Play Your Part. Mr Steven Roy (father of Megan 8C B3 and President of the Play Your Part Development Board) is running the Bisham Half Marathon and Mrs Emma Exelby (teacher of English at WHS) is running the Milton Keynes Marathon on behalf of Play Your Part. Now any student, parent, member of staff or alumnae can fundraise for Play Your Part. It’s up to all of us to amaze and inspire others to find ways to fundraise for Wycombe High School.
Grade-One-A-Thon
Wycombe High School Just Giving Site
December 2011
Our ‘Play Your Part’ campaign to improve the performing arts facilities in the school, including the school hall, is well underway. We’ve had three concerts, sales of WHS merchandise, various Development Ambassadors projects and our first ‘Play Your Part’ Parent Information Evening for Year 7 Parents. These evenings will continue for all year groups providing an opportunity to meet with other parents, members of school staff and the parent led ‘Play Your Part’ campaign Development Board. There you will be updated on our exciting plans for the new Music Centre and upgrades to the hall, as well as sample tasty refreshments and canapés. Look out for a Parent Mail inviting you to attend one of the following evenings at 7.00 pm in the Wainwright Learning Centre:
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Year 8 Tuesday 10 January
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Years 9/10 Parent Thursday 19 January
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Years 11/12/13 Thursday 2 February
The performing arts touch each and every student at Wycombe High School. They might have taken part in drama productions, dance and gymnastic shows as well as music performances and other events. They may have been a performer, or have helped back stage, with costumes and make up. They may have worked the lighting system, or the sound system. Others may have been involved in scenery construction / painting, front of house, programme designs, marketing and publicity – it takes a huge team to put on any type of performance.
A huge range of student talent goes into making the performing arts at this school - a real strength of which we are all very proud. But our facilities are in desperate need of being upgraded –not only so we can make use of them but we are also able to offer them to the community of High Wycombe providing outside organisations with better performance and rehearsal facilities too.
There are not enough practice rooms. The acoustics are insufficient making it difficult to hear. If you sit in certain places and it’s raining outside – you may well feel a few drips of water descending onto you and your work. We have no room to have a recording studio – and we would really like one.
The first stage in the development will be to build a new Music block – next to the Wainwright Learning Centre. We need more space, rehearsal and performance space, practice rooms and a recording studio. In order to be able to carry out this building, we need to raise £1.5 million – and we need you all to Play Your Part and help us. If we all pull together and get involved in playing our part in a huge range of events and invite family, friends and colleagues to play their part too – we hope we will reach our goal.
We have a series of events and concerts planned and we need your help to promote, participate in and attend them. The Development Ambassadors have ambitious plans for projects this year - we need you to support them. Let your imaginations and creativity run wild to come up with creative ideas to fundraise. We are looking for teams of parent volunteers to help secure major donors, benefactors and sponsorship; research grants, trusts and funds; carry out parent outreach; produce events; and work with ex-students and staff.
Most of all we need you, your friends, family, colleagues and companies to donate. We hope you feel able to support us by making a regular donation to the ’Play Your Part’ campaign using the gift aid scheme which provides our largest source of income. Please use the ’Play Your Part’ gift form to make a regular contribution. Thank you in advance for your anticipated support and to those parents and friends who are already contributing generously, we are hugely grateful.
Call for Volunteers
For this campaign to succeed, everyone needs to play their part. The Development Office is in need of administrative support and teams of parents to work with the Performing Arts Centre Campaign Development Board on various committees such as: Corporate Sponsorship (securing donations from major benefactors); Grants, Trusts and Funds (conducting research and writing grants); Events (management, promotion, logistics); Parent Outreach (hosting events, producing mailings and telephone campaigns); and Marketing (branding, communications, social media). For more information about ‘Play Your Part’ campaign and how you can play your part, please e-mail playyourpart@whs.bucks.sch.uk.
If you would like to be part of our Development Office, for a few hours per week, we would very much like to hear from you. Competence with Word, PowerPoint, Publisher, Excel and good organisational skills would be an advantage. If you feel able to help with any of these teams / projects, please contact Mrs Dana Morgan on 01494 523961 or dmorgan@whs.bucks.sch.uk.
MATCHED GIVING
Many companies will help charities such as WHS (registered charity number 1068409) through a matched giving scheme. Some will match pound for pound, and others will even double match
donations made to registered charities by its employees. If you are making a gift to WHS, please check with your Payroll or HR department whether your company operates a scheme like this as it could make your donation worth even more to us. Please refer to the development section of our website for the list of companies already taking part.
WHS Branded Merchandise
We continue to sell the familiar bone china mugs, pens, Hoodie, ‘First 100 Years of WHS’, ‘History of the Guild’, Artwork and Digital Photography Notelets and Music CDs and DVDs and our NEW placemats and coasters. Order form(s) can be found on the Development Course in Moodle, on the website and the letter rack in the Christie Corridor. Orders will be returned to your form room, or posted to you. We are also looking to extend this product range and we welcome any suggestions.
November 2011
Play Your Part – Phase 1 Music Centre
At Wycombe High School, we support the development of the whole person and we want our students to leave us qualified to take their equal place in an increasingly global society. The performing arts play a crucial role in this process helping to build the life skills of confidence and self esteem needed to be the next generation of leaders.
Over the years we have invested in our academic and sporting facilities, whilst our performing arts facilities have been ignored, despite almost every student being involved in the performing arts in some way throughout her career at Wycombe High School. She may be a performer or a backstage hand, a technician, part of the sales and marketing team, or watching and supporting her peers at our many events.
We have launched Play Your Part - a major fundraising campaign to support the required upgrade to our performing arts facilities. We all need this campaign to be a success. New facilities will not only benefit your daughter, but will be an invaluable addition for the local community, providing a much needed venue for music, drama and dance rehearsals and performances. We are already a local hub for many external community organisations; this will enable us to support our wider community even further.
The well reported challenges with school funding highlight the difficulties we face acquiring government funding to improve our school. As a state-funded grammar school we have no fees to support us. By raising funds through regular parental donations, we can move at pace to provide the facilities and resources that we feel are essential to support your daughter’s education here and the education of future generations.
We acknowledge that the economic climate is difficult and that we all have to prioritise expenditure. However, unless we can convince you to contribute we will not be able to raise the £1.5 million we need to build a new Music Centre. With that in mind we hope you feel able to Play Your Part by promoting and attending the concerts we have planned for the year; tapping into your personal and professional network to target potential donors and sponsors; and most importantly we need you to make a regular donation to the Play Your Part campaign.
I hope you will give us your wholehearted support. For Wycombe High School to remain the exceptional school that it is; for your daughter to continue to develop the skills needed for her future; we need you to donate.
October 2011
A Crescendo is Building – Play Your Part
For many years the performing arts at Wycombe High School have been widely recognised as outstanding areas in the school. The excellence of opportunities provided for countless numbers of students has been recognised by the hundreds of people, including parents, staff, governors, civic dignitaries and many more that have attended rehearsals and performances, both here and further afield in Europe. Our annual Music Tour receives international accolades; our school concerts, musicals, and plays are always excellent and our dance productions are held in the highest regard in the wider community.
We now wish to develop this success further. With healthy numbers of students participating in a wide range of performing arts events, it is important to give them a really positive experience and support their endeavours by providing the facilities which will enable them to achieve their best. Such facilities will benefit WHS students and be an invaluable addition for the local community, providing an additional venue for music, drama and dance rehearsals and performances.
However, new facilities are very costly. We are therefore launching a major fundraising campaign to support the required building work. The first phase involves the building of a new dedicated Music Centre, boasting practice rooms, recital and performance space, rehearsal facilities, appropriate acoustics, sound proofing and a state-of-the-art recording area. This will replace our existing facility which no longer fulfils the needs of a very busy and successful department or the talents of our students.
We have organised many exciting concerts and events throughout this academic year in support of our fundraising which you can read more about in High Flyer or on our website by following this link Performing Arts Centre.
The school is being supported by a parent volunteer Development Board who are assisting with the events and other fundraising initiatives. They will be in touch to let you know how you can ‘Play Your Part’.
Call for Volunteers
For this campaign to succeed, everyone needs to play their part. The Development Office is in need of administrative support and teams of parents to work with the Performing Arts Centre Campaign Development Board on various committees such as: Corporate Sponsorship (securing donations from major benefactors); Grants, Trusts and Funds (conducting research and writing grants); Events (management, promotion, logistics); Parent Outreach (hosting events, producing mailings and telephone campaigns); and Marketing (branding, communications, social media).
If you would like to be part of our Development Office, for a few hours per week, we would very much like to hear from you. Competence with Word, PowerPoint, Publisher, Excel and good organisational skills would be an advantage. If you feel able to help with any of these teams / projects, please contact Mrs Dana Morgan on 01494 523961 or dmorgan@whs.bucks.sch.uk.
July 2011
The academic year is coming to a close giving us a chance to review the financial goals and objectives for the Development Office this year. Financially we met 86% of our target raising over £50, 000 for the School Development Fund thanks to the charitable support of former and current parents, students, staff and friends of Wycombe High School. By far the largest single contributions came from Year 7 parents’ contributions to the Future Fund by generous regular and one off gifts the majority of which have been increased by 25% by Gift Aid Declarations.
We continue to depend on the generosity of past and current parents, students, staff and friends of WHS. If you are already contributing and would like to increase your gift, or would like to consider contributing please complete the Future Fund Gift Form which can be found in the Development section of our website. Likewise if your company would like to sponsor a project, or you would like to recommend a company, please review the Sponsorship section on our website and/or get in touch with me via email dmorgan@whs.bucks.sch.uk or tel 01494 523961.
May/June 2011
The school year is winding down. We’re into the Summer Term with more movie nights and a second annual Inter-form Sports Day Cake Sale Competition to wrap up the current Development Ambassadors fundraising efforts.
Movie Nights
17 June Year 7 Showinig ‘St Trinian’s 2 & The Legend of Fritton’s Gold’
24 June Year 8/9 Showing ‘Tangled’
1 July Year 8/9 Showing ‘Mean Girls’
8 July Year 7 Showing ‘Mean Girls’
Sports Day
12 July Interform Cake Sale Competition
Interform Competition
As an incentive to encourage your daughters to participate in our fundraising events we are running a ‘competition’. The Form that participates most in our events throughout the school year will win a custom party in their Form Room towards the end of Summer Term. The contenders so far are: Form 7B/ Christmas Card Project, Form 7E/Year 7 Movie Night and Forms 8C and 9D/Year 8/9 Movie Night. All funds raised go towards the School Development Fund so encourage your daughter’s to show up, help the school and win a custom party just for their Form!
April 2011
Wycombe High School hosted the inaugural Wycombe4C speed networking event 30 March 2011. 48 local businesses participated. 24 businesses were seated and 24 businesses moved from desk to desk over the two hour speed networking event. Each meeting was 5 minutes with 2 ½ minutes allowed for each participant to give their presentation. When the bell rang the participants moved on to the next meeting.
Mrs Morgan, Development Director, and Mrs Hayward, Careers and Pathways Advisor participated on behalf of Wycombe High School. Mrs Morgan was keen to secure sponsorship for the various projects targeted this year including a new Data Logging Suite, a new Science Prep and Chemical Storage Facility room, upgrades to the Hall, and a new School Shop. Mrs Hayward’s appeal focused on establishing relationships for potential internships, work experience, future Career Fair participation and visiting lecturers.
The feedback from the participants was very positive. There was a buzz of excitement and fun in the air as we were encouraged by the bell to move on to the next table. The networking continued more informally during the break when The Parents And Friends Association sold refreshments on the evening raising funds for the school. All in all, it was a successful event and one that we hope to host again in the future.
Be sure to check out the April Business Monthly section of Bucks Free Press for a write up.
March 2011
Wycombe High School Needs You! “Many of the largest and most challenging fundraising campaigns being run in the UK today are led by a handful of dedicated volunteers who are using their influence and affluence to raise millions of
pounds.” Capital Fundraising in the UK – the Compton Way”
My second year as Development Director is all about building teams of parent volunteers to help drive a major fundraising project to upgrade our performing arts facilities in 2012. This will include new music and dance classrooms, recital spaces and improvements to our School Hall.
We take great pride in our academic achievement at the school and take particular pleasure from the success we have in music, drama and the performing and visual arts. To build on this success we urgently need to enhance our current facilities with £1 million plus upgrades.
This will only succeed with the full engagement of all parents and friends of the school. Experience tells us we cannot do this without you. To this end we are recruiting teams of volunteers to help secure major gifts and corporate sponsorship and research and acquire funds from grants, trusts, foundations and suppliers.
If you are interested in helping your daughter’s school to continue to excel, we would be pleased to meet / speak with you personally to discuss your participation as a campaign volunteer.
February 2011
‘‘2011 will be a challenging year for grammar schools in England’ - Compton Fundraising, leading fundraising consultants in the UK.
The function of the Development Office at Wycombe High School is to support the school in its aim of providing students with an exceptional educational experience. This is achieved through promoting the school’s vision for the future and securing funding to ensure that this vision is achievable.
Wycombe High School does not have an endowment upon which to rely for its funding requirements. It is due to the generosity of parents, alumnae and members of the wider WHS community that projects of all sizes are successfully funded, for which WHS is very grateful.
The culture of giving within the WHS community is a great asset to the school that has provided our girls with a solid preparation for their futures. To be able to assist current and future students in unlocking and acting upon their greatest potential, WHS requires facilities that do justice to their abilities.
We have identified the 2010/2011 academic year projects that will enhance resources for teaching, learning and attaining which would otherwise not be possible without external funding. We encourage sponsoring and co-sponsoring of these projects and welcome any recommendations for companies or individuals who would like to contribute as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility programme.
Now more than ever we urge you to consider a financial donation, if you have not already done so. We acknowledge that the economic climate is difficult and that we all have to prioritise expenditures. However, unless we can convince alumnae, parents, and friends of WHS to contribute we will have to scale back our plans to improve facilities.
With that in mind we hope you feel able to support us by making a regular donation to the school using the gift aid scheme which provides our largest source of income. Please use the Future Fund Gift Form which can be found here to make a regular contribution. Thank you in advance for your anticipated support and to those who are already contributing generously.