Normally any independent school receives in Feb / March letters of notice for parents adhering to their terms and conditions by giving one terms notice of cessation. We, in previous years would expect 80 such notices. This year we received a little less than 40 - that suddenly increased September numbers by 40. Likewise we would expect not all of our Junior School to go through to Senior School - this year 98% chose to move through - another sudden uplift of pupils. Further, that with the recession, we would have expected parents enrolling siblings and other new registrations to tail off but it didn’t - quite the reverse. At Easter it was evident to be ready to cope, there was a need to pull the equestrian stables and indoor arena out of the Genesis Centre and make the modifications needed to replace it with a sports hall and vocational instead. By virtue of 24 hour, 7 day a week working, the building would be ready to cope come September. Foxlow, our holding Trust, decided it would be expedient to put the 40 to 55 horses into loose boxes, these could be bought and assembled quickly.

From being bottom of the league tables when we assumed responsibility for Queen Ethelburga’s some 17 years ago, by hard work, dedicated and professional staff and substantially above average facilities and resources, the College has gradually risen through the league tables. When we experienced the 18% jump in numbers the College had achieved a ranking of 5th in the region. Even though we currently still market this fact, many existing, new and prospective parents, are actually aware that as at today’s date the College ranking is now 3rd. Likewise local parents, in particular, are very much aware that this year the College is likely to come 1st in the ranking (if not then second).

The Charitable Foundation has for some years heavily subsidised local day pupil fees so local parents pay "below cost". This initiative was and is made to encourage local day pupil recruitment, to offer local parents much better value for money than is available from ANY independent day school in the WHOLE region, to give more children the ability to benefit and "to give something back" to the local community. In addition they did not want QE to become a wholly boarding based school with few local day children as this is not good for all children as it gives an "unreal world" school community. This initiative has worked and for this September we believe the split will be 300 local day children and 500 boarders.