This month Stamford Endowed Schools announced the launch of even more bursaries for the forthcoming school year. Harjit Gammon met David Moss-Bowpitt, the Schools' Marketing Director to get to grips with the details.

Additional fully funded bursaries will be available at Stamford High School (girls) and Stamford School (boys). Assistance will also be available for those not able to meet the full cost of the fees. The bursaries will be means tested. The assessment criteria include family income, assets and personal circumstances. ’We want to identify those children who genuinely need the support and could through no other means come to us’ says David Moss- Bowpitt. ‘The Schools pride themselves on a harmonious School community drawn from a broad social mix and we are keen to encourage families who may need financial assistance to take advantage of the excellent education that we have to offer.

The funding for these bursaries will come in equal measure from the Governors own Bursary and the Bursary Fund of the recently formed Foundation which has received funds from a variety of sources. Individuals who value what the School did for them or their children have agreed to fund three places in their entirety, a large number of other people who are helping in a smaller but still very significant way and finally a third group who value what the School does, but do not necessarily have very close contacts with the School.

The Schools would like to urge parents to apply. To qualify for consideration for a bursary:

• Your child must sit and pass the Entrance test- this will be held on Saturday 26th January 2008. Parents should register their child to sit the test by no later than Wednesday 23rd January. The application form may be obtained by contacting one of the Schools.
• Bursaries have NO residential requirement like the Lincolnshire County Council Scholarships (they are available to parents wherever they live) and hence offer an opportunity for those previously unable to consider the Schools as an option on these grounds or those not able to pay the fees in full.

Funding is for the full seven years once offered, although parents will be required to update their initial financial statement each year. Support for uniform, school lunches and trips is also available. David Moss-Bowpitt said ‘ At a time when the Lincolnshire County Scholarships are being reduced this is excellent news for parents.’

To get more advice on bursaries contact:
Dr Peter Mason: Principal of the Stamford Endowed Schools. Tel: 01780 750311
Mr Stuart Burns: Head of Stamford School. Tel: 01780 750311
Mrs Dyl Powell: Head of Stamford High

Business dinner is tough preparation for students

Kathryn White and Sir David Arculus present the Amsphere Trophy to the winning team (from left to right) Cameron Payne, Matthew Green, Bradley Felston, Bessie Rollins, Kathryn White and Sir David Arculus

Business leaders took part in an expert panel to grill sixth-form students of the Stamford Endowed Schools in preparation for a national competition run by the Bank of England and the Times Newspaper on setting interest rates.

The panel of regional business people was asked to asses the skills of two teams of students from Year 12 and Year 13 at Stamford School and Stamford High School in preparation for the main competition.

Sir David Arculus, Chairman of O2, said "An excellent evening and quite a unique approach to educating your business study students by exposing them to such an eminent group of local and national business leaders. Well done, and I wish the team well in the national competition".

Subsequent to this event, the team won its heat in Kettering and is now proceeding to the regional final in February.

Improving Communication

Lesley Nicholls been using Makaton for the last 17 years and have been a qualified Makaton Regional Tutor for the last 10 years.

Lesley Nicholls

"Put simply, Makaton is a unique language programme using speech, signs and symbols to aid communication and understanding in people who have a communication difficulty. This includes babies up to the elderly. Babies are unable to speak but are able to express their wants/needs via basic signs and symbols. Studies have shown using Makaton with babies actually enhances their ability to speak. I am now running Baby signing workshops which are validated by The Makaton Charity with certificates and count as evidence on NVQ courses.

"Makaton is really easy to learn, either a 6 or 12 hour workshop that can give you valuable communication skills for life. It also helps with children or adults with any degree of learning difficulties. Makaton has also been used in hospitals to help recovering stroke victims communicate effectively. It is so flexible it can be used in the short term or long term. Makaton is used extensively in the UK in pre-schools, schools, centres, hospitals, clinics and in the homes of people with communication and learning difficulties.

"You do not have to have 'Special Needs' to benefit from Makaton, as it simply gives you extra visual clues along with speech and symbols.

Anyone who is interested in Baby signing workshops or regular Beginner workshops should contact Lesley Nicholls: Tel: 01780 767766 or email lel.nicholls@gmail.com