We are so excited to have been chosen as one of the final three shortlisted schools for the Ambition and Progress Award in the IDPE Awards 2023, for our transformational bursary campaign, the Promise Campaign, launched in summer 2022. The Promise Campaign was born out of our commitment to widen access to FHS for talented girls who show great potential, yet lack the means to consider this pathway. We aim to raise £15,000,000 to double our current bursary provision by 2032, enabling 50 girls to benefit at any one time.

The campaign and its proposition, “All Their Promise Needs is Yours”, asks donors to promise a donation to help our bursary students fulfil their unique promise. In turn, the school offers the promise of a transformational education. Recipients’ places will be funded out of endowment, ensuring this commitment will continue ad infinitum, and they will be called Foundation Scholars in celebration of their individual contribution.

We are so grateful to all our generous donors and benefactors, who enabled us to smash targets and raise £915,000 in the first year of the campaign. It’s been wonderful to see our pupils, parents and staff organise and attend a smorgasbord of creative fundraising initiatives, from development dinners and auctions at the House of Lords, Claridge’s and the Oxo Tower to students completing individual sponsored exercise challenges. 34% of parents are now donating to support bursaries, and the appeal has resonated with the entire FHS community, resulting in a marked shift in the culture of giving at the school.

The Institute of Development Professionals in Education (IDPE) commented: “The judges were impressed by the bold and innovative work exemplified in this year’s entries and it was a close fought competition to the top three spots in each category.”

Judge Jamie Robertson, Managing Director of the social archive, commented: “It was fantastic to read about the ways in which many schools are really pushing themselves, both in scale and scope, to achieve new heights in development. We really enjoyed understanding where schools had come from in previous years and seeing how the building of strategic, often long-term plans, are shaping up to hugely enhance their abilities to engage and fundraise, both now and in the years to come.”

Thank you so much to IDPE Europe for recognising us, and congratulations to the other shortlisted schools. We look forward to the announcement of the winners on Friday 17th November 2023, after voting by IDPE members during their Celebrating of Giving Week next week.

To learn more about the Promise Campaign, please click here.