Hope Opportunity Trust Annual Report and Financial Statement Charity Number: 1164043 01 05 21 to 30 04 22
Contents
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Overview
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Our values and how we work
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Impact
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Charity structure, status & governance
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Some highlights from 2020 21
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Audit Certificate
1. Overview
HOT is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation whose mission is to change lives and transform the opportunities available for young people that have extraordinary talent and potential. Our students are young people who have been denied advantage and opportunity but have risen to life’s challenges in a unique and inspiring way.
We are offering students fully funded bursary places at some of the finest schools in the UK. These bursaries are funded by the Royal National Springboard Children’s Foundation and some direct funding from the receiving/host schools. Since 2013 we have realised over £10M of bursary place investment for over one hundred students with minimal operating costs.
Too many lives are blighted by disadvantage and too much potential squandered through restricted access to opportunity and education. Every thwarted ambition and every unfulfilled talent diminish and impoverish our communities
Our aims are clear and practicable, but their impacts can be incalculable. Our outputs are transformed lives: nurturing young citizens who will not only reach their individual potential, but who are also enthusiastic about giving back to their own communities and wider society
‘The most significant impact of the bursary is that it has broadened my viewpoint of my future and of the world. I was able to challenge myself amongst some of the brightest students in the countrysomething that the competitive part of me loved and continues to build on. My world has extended, and I have built a network of people I would never have met without the bursary. I couldn’t be more grateful for this opportunity and what it has enabled me to do for my community.’ - A HOT student
2. Our values and how we work
Collaboration
In meeting our formal objectives, we balance our responsibilities to our students, our school partners, and our communities, by working with state schools in a clearly focused and supportive partnership, helping the whole school and its local community to raise aspirations and achievement.
Creating Opportunity
The student, their family and community are our most important considerations, and we do whatever is in their best interests to nurture talent that might otherwise be lost to society. We are not motivated by politics or ideology, but we were mindful of the history associated with boarding
school education and the perceived culture of privilege. The chance to challenge and change that culture has been fully vindicated by the experiences and achievements of all HOT students. It is the case that both the sending and receiving communities really do benefit from this initiative.
Making a Difference
It is the positive impacts we have witnessed and the personal stories of our students that drive us forward and inspire HOT to continue its mission.
'We, as a family, are extremely happy that Roya has been given such an amazing opportunity. This bursary has shown both Roya and her siblings that hard work does not go to waste, and it is rewarded. Roya’s siblings are inspired and they themselves are hoping that in the future they may be able to get similar opportunities. This scheme has also helped Roya to keep up her hard work and her good grades as she sees that it is paying off and that she is getting a rewarding feeling from it.' – A Parent
How we work
HOT works in through close collaborative partnerships with Royal National Springboard Foundation, state schools, boarding schools, students, and their families.
The bursary students are identified in the five HOT Member schools by their teachers and Heads according to strict and consistent criteria of income, challenging family circumstances and the potential benefit to that student of a fully funded boarding experience. More than one hundred students have seized these opportunities.
We were the first charity in the country to work with state schools in this way, and all our partner schools provide testimony to the positive impact of their collaboration with HOT. Due to the impressive resilience of the students and consistent, personalised support from the HOT team only two have withdrawn from a place since 2013. The profile of our students clearly demonstrates our commitment to equality, equity, and access to the bursary programme irrespective of gender and race.
"Holly Lodge have worked with the Hope Opportunity Trust since 2018 and in 2021 we are now putting students 19 to 22 through the process. This is one of a raft of opportunities we use to capture the natural enthusiasm of our students and turn it into aspiration so that our students can reach their potential. As well as the life-changing benefits for the students involved, we have seen the success we have had with the bursary programme galvanise other students in school, and increasingly, students in our feeder primary schools when they meet our bursary students and hear what they have achieved." - Holly Lodge Head Teacher
3. Impact
The most powerful testimony on behalf of our work are the stories of our individual students. Their words and achievements, their lived experience can be more eloquent than mission statements or measurable outputs. They validate our fundamental conviction, that by radically changing prospects and opportunities for individuals, we can begin to deliver positive social change in ways we could never have predicted or imagined.
We have many stories to give but here are just two comments taken from much more detailed assessments by the students of their experience to give an indication of the impact.
From Timi's story
"My confidence has increased immeasurably and has taught me that no aspiration is too high, as long as I work hard enough for it”
From Curtis' story
"The most significant lesson that I took from the experience was that there are no aspirations too high for anyone."
4. Charity structure, status & governance
HOT is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. This legal entity is specific to the charity sector and ensures that HOT follows all charity rules and regulations and is ‘safe’ to invest in.
Our objective is “the advancement of education for students from existing and emerging socially and economically deprived communities by providing ongoing support and bursaries to enable access to further education.”
History
The founding idea came from the CEO of a Cheshire based housing association who saw no reason talented students from estates labelled as “disadvantaged” would not flourish if given access to schools such as Rugby, Cheltenham Ladies College, and Eton.
Working with the CEO of Urban Hope and the then Head of Blacon High School Chester, the Hope Opportunity Trust Charitable Incorporated Organisation (HOT) was launched at a partnership event held at Windsor Castle on 31st October 2012 with an aspiration to send at least one student to Eton College.
In 2013 two students from Liverpool attended Eton 6th form and since that time over one hundred students from five HOT Member schools in Merseyside have benefited from a boarding education in one of twenty-two schools throughout the UK.
Royal National Children’s Springboard Foundation
In addition to established working relationships with the current five member schools and the increasing numbers of boarding schools, HOT is proud to be a longstanding member of Royal National Children’s Springboard Foundation (RNCSF) www. royalspringboard.org.uk. Both organisations were founded around the same time and have enjoyed a fruitful and close relationship, enabling over one hundred young people so far to benefit from a two-year sixth form boarding experience.
The HOT Team
HOT is a small team that has a unique range of skills and experiences, providing the knowledge, expertise, and networks to reach deep into northern communities and build relationships to ensure that the bursary programme delivers a positive ‘ripple’ effect into the wider community, can be evidenced through the outcome our joint working in Blacon, Cheshire and across Merseyside.
Trustees - Volunteers
Dr Martin Carey - Chair of Trustees:
The current lead on the regeneration of Everton on behalf of Everton FC.
John Denny – CEO and Trustee
Consultant & CEO of the Anthony Walker Foundation. City of Liverpool College Board member and Chair of Audit.
Sue Yates – Director of Operations and Trustee
Former head of Blacon High School, the founding school for the HOT initiative in the North West.
David Owen- Trustee
Barrister 1984-2013. Consultant, Trainer, and Independent Investigator since 2011.
Colette Wilkinson- trustee
The first project manager for HOT.
Colleagues
Sue Tedford, Project Manager – Part Time
Robin Oldman, Project Manager
Clare Hamm, Finance Manager - Part time
5. Some highlights from 2021 22
In 2021-2022, the financial contribution made by Springboard to HOT along with the membership contributions from our member schools for the financial year has enabled the Hope Opportunity Trust (CIO) to continue:
Supporting Students:
HOT has supported fifty students from Year 12 and 13 / and students moving from Year 13 into university places or gap years. In addition, we support Year 10 / 11 students who are preparing to apply for places, and this is usually about twenty students.
In year 10 and 11, the support covers, one to one mentoring, group sessions on pertinent topics, guidance on securing grades, preparation for interviews, liaison with key personnel in boarding schools, accompanying students on visits and exam preparation and revision. Our programme managers have devised and delivered a planned programme in schools to support and build the confidence of our potential bursary students.
In the last year, seventeen students have secured bursary places.
In Year 12/ 13, the support includes mentoring from a student who was previously on the bursary programme. The programme rests on three weekly meetings focused on a carefully crafted personal development plan. The mentors and mentees are trained and receive ongoing help and guidance. They also provide feedback which has informed changes and amendments that we have made to our mentoring programme.
In the last year, fourteen students have been mentored though this programme and fourteen students have been trained to begin mentoring next year. (See reviews of the programme shared with Springboard three times a year)
In addition, our programme managers contribute to the work to support students, identified through the STEER process.
Our alumni are also supported. We maintain a directory of our alumni and make direct contact each year to maintain our links and to ensure that our profiles of our students are maintained and accurate. This year, we have linked with sixty-three alumni and added their progress this year to our directory.
Supporting parents/ carers and families
We offer a planned programme of support and guidance for our parents/ carers. This year, Sue Tedford has led this, one of our programme managers. Sue has delivered sessions on relevant topics but also has led a parents’ What’s App group. This has been very actively used and has supported parents/ carers with any questions or issues they have experienced. It has also been a vehicle for celebrating achievements and building resilience and confidence.
Our programme managers are the link between students, parents, and boarding schools. They provide uniform and financial information from the boarding schools to parents and with boarding schools arrange travel at exeats and half terms for example, as well as providing support as and when appropriate to students and parents. The impact of this aspect of the programme facilitates the transition of the student from home state school to the boarding environment. It also builds bridges between the student, parent/carers, and the boarding school to improve the likelihood of a more successful bursary for all involved.
Supporting our schools
This year, Sue Tedford has strengthened the role of the school co-ordinators. She has shared good practice across our family of schools and from this she has crafted a process that will ensure that all schools have a strong and efficient process in identifying and supporting potential bursary students.
This year, we have worked directly with five partner state schools.
Operationally restructure
To restructure our internal operational structure to deploy the financial support given as cost effectively as possible increasing the support to students, families, and schools, ensuring that the bursary programme continues to meet its overarching objective to provide astonishing educational opportunities to students in less advantaged situations.
The funding has enabled us to extend our staffing to have two programme managers and to secure a leadership structure in the charity that will enable us to action our future development plan and build greater financial independence. This will ensure that our students, families, and their communities are supported more directly, and this will extend the impact of our work even further.
John
John Denny
CEO and Trustee
6. Audit Certificate
As a CIO HOT has a gross income above £25K but below £500K therefore only requiring an independent examination, the certificate for which is given below.
Further financial details are available upon request.
Contact:
John Denny CEO at, john.denny2013@gmail.com