Agenda item

Contact with Presentees

A Donation Governor questioned the most effective and appropriate ways for Donation Governors to contact their presentees. The Director of Development advised that it was best to contact presentees initially via their house parent and to also ensure that the house parent was sighted on/copied in to any correspondence.

Several Donation Governors reported that they had taken this approach and had found the School to be very helpful in terms of encouraging contact and presentees to respond to their Donation Governors.

The Chairman suggested that it would be useful for the School to provide the Committee with a list of house parents and their contact details for all of the City’s existing presentees. It was also requested that a list of all forthcoming events/concerts would be helpful to see to help improve contact between Donation Governors and their presentees/families.

Director of Development

In response to questions, the Director of Development took the opportunity to explain a little about his role at the School. He summarised by stating that his role was primarily focused on the future development of Christ’s Hospital and ways in which the School could raise funds in order to increase its charitable impact and the number of bursaries offered. He added that he and his staff were also tasked with looking after all of the School’s Alumni (‘Old Blues’) – many of whom were very supportive of and often ‘gave back’ to the School – as well as external engagement with various organisations at partnership, funding or policy level.

The Director of Development went on to touch upon Child Protection and its importance stating that this was an ever evolving area of work which Christ’s Hospital ensured was applied with rigour. He added that House Parents played a vital role in this area as they had daily contact/communication with pupils.

The Chairman questioned whether there was any specific guidance on Child Protection that could be issued to Donation Governors. The Director of Development stated that all Donation Governors were members of the School’s Court of Governors and that extensive guidance on both Child Protection and other matters was issued to all members of the Court as part of their initial induction. He confirmed that inductions for all new Governors took place in June each year and was scheduled for 21 June 2017 on this occasion.

The Committee requested that they be provided with a Safeguarding update at their April meeting each year going forward, specifically covering any changes in Christ’s Hospital Policy or guidance for Donation Governors. The Director of Development undertook to provide this information.