There is little point in creating a more diverse and representative School if our pupils do not have the quality and range of facilities that will enable us to provide them with a high quality education which recognises the huge changes in teaching and learning over the last two decades (due in large part to the rapid and ongoing advances in technology and AI) and is relevant to the demands our pupils will face in the future. In several areas our facilities have become outdated or too small and do not meet the high standards expected of a school such as Bishops, which is in strong competition with other leading schools, both nationally and globally. The School carried out a needs audit in 2015 which identified the key facilities that need to be provided, or updated, to meet its requirements for the next 25 – 50 years.

Bishops’ fee income covers the annual costs of running the School, but there is very little surplus which can be allocated to capital projects or bursaries. This has been the case from the School’s foundation, since when Bishops has been fortunate enough to be able to secure voluntary funding from its friends and supporters to help finance facilities and bursaries which it could not otherwise have provided. This has evolved into a continuum of benefaction, with each generation of Bishops boys benefiting from the generosity of previous generations of pupils and parents, which tends to manifest itself in the shape of a major capital campaign every twenty-five years or so, as is the case now.

In order to fund costs of the capital projects and to expand the number and range of bursaries we can offer we will need substantial outside help, which is why we have embarked upon this major new campaign, The Bishops 175 Campaign. Challenging though the sums we need to raise are, from the early support we have already received, there is no doubt that with the generous assistance of our many friends and supporters our objectives are achievable.

The 175 Campaign will be relaunched in 2023 and details of upcoming projects will be published in due course.