History - Northgate Foundation

A concise history of the Northgate Foundation

by Bill and Ruth Serjeant

Foreword

In its present form the Northgate Foundation, an Education Charitable Trust, is 40 years old. But, as this concise history shows, its roots go back to the 15th century. Through the years the am of the bodies and benefactors involved has been to help young Ipswich people who would find it difficult, if not impossible, from their resources to pursue projects, further themselves educationally or receive training to improve heir work prospects.

This history mentions some projects supported by the Foundation and the nature of grants given to individuals. In the last two years some 150 youngsters at schools in Ipswich have received grants to take part in activities which their families just could not afford.

The Foundation knows, however, that there are many other youngsters in Ipswich who could be helped. Schools are regularly reminded that the Foundation exists only to provide help. The co-operation of schools in spreading that message is vital and we hope will rapidly grow.

The Governors of the Foundation are most grateful to Mr and Mrs Serjeant for their painstaking work in producing this history. As current Chairman, I would like also to record gratitude to all Governors who have given freely of their time and talent over the years, and to the staff of Suffolk County Council who administer the work of the Foundation with skills and dedication. May the past be but the prologue to an even more successful future.

Michael Hyde
Chairman
The Northgate Foundation
November 2000

The Northgate Foundation

The Foundation, named at first the Northgate Schools Foundation, came into being early in 1960, its purpose and its responsibility being to govern and administer those charitable funds of Ipswich which have been dedicated to general educational objects. To all appearances then, it is a young creation, and its story might seem to belong to the study of contemporary history rather than to the longer-term history of good works in this ancient borough.

This would be only partly true, because appearances, as so often, are deceptive, and any exploration of the background to the setting up of the Foundation soon reveals it to be, in fact, the most recent chapter in a very long running story, whose origins go back some four centuries and more. It can and indeed it should be seen as the third chapter of this story, and one that cannot be properly understood or fully appreciated, without some knowledge of what went before.

There are accordingly three parts to this study. The first is a brief account of those charitable bequests and municipal actions which over the centuries accumulated funds and facilities for education in Ipswich. The second relates to the period, mainly of the nineteenth and of the first half of the twentieth centuries, when public funding for education became an accepted principle. This important change in thinking, welcome as it was in widening educational opportunities, did set up a need to find ways of marrying charitable beneficence and public funding, and to do so has proved a somewhat prolonged, laborious, and sometimes painful endeavour. Some of the charitable element in the funding of our Ipswich educational provision became absorbed in the creation and support of the school system itself. The rest survived to be available as a source for the funding of special help for those situations which, however caring and careful public schooling may seek to be, can still and will always arise. It was to manage and distribute these resources that the Charity Commissioners, by their Scheme of 1960, set up the Northgate Foundation and opened the third chapter of this very human story.

Educational charity and endowment

The worthy, burgesses of our chartered boroughs were, by and large, a shrewd and hard-hearted lot, with the natural priority of making th best of their way in the world. If it was part of the way of that world that it should contain a considerable number of the poor and disadvantaged, they could not be expected to worry unduly from day to day over that. At the same time, a borough was very much a total community, jealous of its independence and conscious of its obligation to look after its own.

It was also by no means forgetful of being a Christian community. The entrepreneurial instincts of its citizens were consequently mellowed by a combination of communal pride and individual piety, and records of boroughs are commonly dotted with evidence of charitable gifts and endowments for the good of the town, including the well-being of its less fortunate inhabitants.

Ipswich is no exception to this pattern of thinking and of conduct, and has its own lengthy tally of such bequests. Among them is a group which includes some gift of funds for educational purposes and not least for the schooling of poor children. It is in these that we have the forerunners on the long, long, trail which wound its way fairly tortuously to the creation of the Foundation.

An early example is the benefaction of Richard Felaw (a name still current today with its Ipswich echoes), whose will of 1482 gave his house “to be forever a common school house and dwelling house for a convenient schoolmaster” and left other property to provide for the master’s maintenance. This bequest has been presumed to be intended to benefit the grammar school, of whose existence there is evidence in 1477, and even perhaps as early as 1412. A little later a notable Tudor benefactor to the town, William Smart, left part of the income from his estate for the benefit of the grammar school. In the seventeenth century Richard Martin left money to provide scholarships to Cambridge University, and William Tyler for the teaching and apprenticing of poor children. By the eighteenth century there had appeared Blue Coat, Grey Coat, Red Sleeve and Green Sleeve charity schools for poor children of the town, supported by a combination of subscription and endowment.

In parallel with this individual benevolence the Corporation as a body was collectively aware of a civic obligation to make provision for education. A charter to establish the grammar school on a better and firmer footing was obtained from Henry VIII, and renewed and improved in a further one from Elizabeth 1. Rather later, Christ’s Hospital, established (also in Tudor times) for the care and good order of the poor, including the old and the very young, was given a specific educational role for poor children. As the nineteenth century moved on, the Corporation applied the funds of a number of charitable bequests to educational purposes. By the middle of the century there was an almost bewildering profusion of charity schools, funded by subscription or endowment or a combination of the two, and by now, as already hinted, the concept of public funding by local or national taxation was entering the equation. It was clearly high time to rationalise and systematise both the school arrangements and their funding. This proved to be rather easier said than done, and it is here that our second chapter begins.

The Ipswich Endowed Schools Foundation

In common with those of many of our old chartered boroughs, the governing body of Ipswich had, by the late eighteenth century, become a self-perpetuating ‘close corporation’, inefficient, unrepresentative of the changing town, and tainted by corrupt practices and conduct. When the condition of English boroughs was examined in the 1830s the commissioner who visited Ipswich condemned it as an ‘ill-regulated republic’ and ‘an oligarchy of the worst description’. Its conversion, by the Municipal Reform Act of 8135, into a municipal borough, with a form of local government structure which, notwithstanding much later change and modification, is broadly one with which we are familiar today, had become very necessary.

One by-product of this important change was the appointment of the new Borough Council of a body of twenty-one trustees to supervise the municipal charities and ensure a better and more principled management than they had sometimes enjoyed in the declining years of the old corporation. A significant aspect of this new attention was a concern for that part of the charitable endowments dedicated to educational purposes and the growing Victorian interest in popular education ensured that good arrangements for this charitable contribution were given serious study. It culminated, in 1881, in the granting of a Charity Commission scheme which provided in great detail for the future of educational endowments and the arrangements for endowed schools. Although there have since been numerous modifications and adjustments to the provisions of the 1881 Scheme, of which the one which established the Northgate Foundation is among the latest, this document stands today as a key stage in the educational history of Ipswich, and its content accordingly demands due notice.

The Scheme declared itself, within the context of the endowed schools legislation of the day, to be concerned with three elements. These were Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School; the Christ’s Hospital Foundation; and the other relevant endowments. The genesis of the first two has already been touched upon, and to some degree that of the third. But the Borough Council and the trustees for the borough charities had evidently given more thought to the third, and the Scheme now included in it, as well as the disposition of Smart’s, Martin’s and Tyler’s bequests, the transfer of the endowments of three further early charities – Burrough’s, Allen’s, and Scrivener’s, and in addition the funds of the Lending Cash Charity. All these elements were now to be held by, and governed by, one foundation which was to be named “The Ipswich Endowed Schools Foundation’. It would have fourteen governors and its composition underlined the purpose of the Scheme as being educational; it was to comprise four governors appointed by the Borough Council, seven by the Trustees of the Municipal Charities, and one each by the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and London.

Amid a wealth of detailed requirements and explanations, the essential ones to be noted are the closure of the Christ’s Hospital schools and the future provision of three endowed schools. These were to be Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, an Ipswich Middle School for Boys, and an Ipswich Middle

School for Girls. The division of property and investments between the schools was stipulated; there were to be new premises for the Middle Schools in due course; and the new Foundation would be allowed to receive donations or endowments for objects consistent with their trust, as approved by the Charity Commission.

From the time of this first scheme, amendments, modifications, and new schemes have followed at intervals. In the late 1890s the Grammar School, now known by the name of Ipswich School, was given its own separate governing body, the ‘Ipswich School Foundation’. The next important scheme, that of 1906, replaced the Ipswich Endowed Schools Foundation with a new ‘Ipswich Municipal Secondary Schools Foundation’, to be administered by the Education Committee of the County Borough Council (as it had now become). The governing body now comprised ten Council appointees, two members appointed by the Trustees of the Municipal Charities, and one by Cambridge University. The property of the new Foundation included the Boys’ School in Bolton Lane, the Girls’ School in School Street, and the funds now specified to be a one-third part of the net income of the recently hived-off Ipswich School Foundation, and was to be held by the County Borough Council in trust for the Foundation. The name of the schools was to change from ‘Middle Schools’ to ‘Public Secondary Schools’, one for boys and one for girls. So – a step perhaps, (and certainly appropriately timed) towards a twentieth century secondary educational pattern, but one which contained potential for future complications about funding and about the place of endowment income in an increasingly statutory educational structure.

Three amendments to this Scheme followed. That of 1932 took a step closer towards the eventual appearance of the Northgate Foundation. The Public Secondary Schools of the 1906 Scheme had relocated in 1931to a site acquired by the Education Authority in Sidegate Lane. The 1932 Amending Scheme accordingly provided that they should ‘be maintained … in suitable buildings’ as the Northgate School for Boys and the Northgate School for Girls. The School Street building had already been given up, and it was specified that the Bolton Lane site and buildings should be held in trust by the Council for use in elementary education.

This 1932 Amended Scheme is the last of its kind to precede the setting up of the Northgate (Schools) Foundation in 1960. There was statutory change in the interval in the shape, particularly, of the major post-war Education Act of 1944. This included the designation of the Northgate schools as Voluntary Controlled Schools, which status they duly assumed in September 1946. The Ipswich Municipal Secondary Schools Foundation continued to function nominally in respect of the control and disposition of charitable endowments but a report to the Education Committee of the County Borough indicates just how nominal its activities had now become. It stated that because the Northgate schools were now Voluntary Controlled Schools for whose maintenance the local education authority was responsible, there had been no recent call on the old Foundation for the payment of fees and scholarships. As a result, its funds had not been devoted to any specific purpose but had been received in payment of normal expenses in operation the schools.

The report went on to say, not perhaps surprisingly, that the Ministry of Education considered that this situation needed to be rectified and the Foundation’s income used for special needs, as intended in the 1932 Scheme. If that presented problems, there should be an amended scheme. The Education Committee accepted this view and promptly recommended application for an amended scheme. Accordingly, on 12 April 1960, yet one more amending scheme, this time issued by the Ministry of Education, was sealed. It changed the name of the Foundation to ‘The Northgate Schools Foundation’, and marks the commencement of the history proper of this latest body set up for the care and administration of charitable benefactions for the furtherance of education in Ipswich.

The Northgate Foundation (sometimes The Northgate Schools Foundation) Beginnings

The Scheme of 1960 (see Appendix) had as its main purposes a measure of reconstitution of the governing body from that which had applied to the now replaced Ipswich Secondary Schools Foundation; the re-identification/ confirmation of the property and income at the disposal of the Foundation; and much more precise and detailed specification of the purposes to which income can be applied. The new body of Governors was to number fourteen, of whom ten were to be appointed by the County Borough Council, one by the Trustees of the Ipswich Municipal Charities (thus retaining a vestigial link with the bequests of much earlier times), one by Cambridge University and two by the Governors of the Northgate Schools. They were to be appointed for a three-year term, and need not be members of the appointing bodies.

The property of the Foundation was identified in a schedule to the document as comprising the site and buildings in Bolton Lane and the site, buildings and playing fields of the two Northgate Grammar Schools (as the document names them). The main source of income is confirmed to be the one-third part of the net income of the Ipswich School Foundation, as stipulated in the 1906 Scheme, and the schedule gives a figure for this income in 1958 as having been £1562.16s.9d.

The most important element in the new Scheme is the clauses dealing with the ways in which the Governors can apply this income. The document does not, of course, explain its motives, but the implications are that it aimed to resolved the two problems which had become more apparent since the issue of the 1932 Scheme. One of these was an increased public awareness of the need to draw a distinction between educational facilities and benefits which should be seen as the responsibility of the Education Authority and the more exceptional needs or benefits which did not fall within the Authority’s brief and so were dependent on alternative – in this case, charitable – funding. The other was the risk of too narrow an interpretation of the permitted scope of the Foundation’s distribution of its funds, and the indications are that there had been since 1932 a concentration of help on the Northgate Schools and their students to the exclusion of other Ipswich children.

Certainly the new Scheme included provisions which could be expected to rectify any such problems. It authorised the Governors to apply not more than £800 annually for the Foundation’s schools ‘in providing benefits of any kind not normally provided by the Local Education Authority’. (This came to be called the ‘special benefits’ element of the disposable income). Going on from this it identified the other ways in which the Foundation’s annual income could be applied. These included – scholarships, bursaries, or maintenance for further education; the provision of clothing, books, equipment to help entry into a trade or profession; funds for educational travel aborad; and provisions of, or financial assistance towards, education in sports, physical education, music and other arts. All these kinds of help were to be available on the basis of special need and/or family income to students under the age of 25 who were residents of Ipswich or who had attended any country or voluntary school in the County Borough for not less than two years. In a final clause the Foundation was allowed to accept additional donations or endowments either for its general purposes or for special objects if they were consistent with those of the Scheme.

For work to begin the first requirement was the appointment of the governing body. These first Governors to be appointed were – by the County Borough Council, Mrs J Keeble, Mrs L Lewis, Mrs M Whitmore and Messrs A J Colthorpe, H R Davies, J W Hazell, A A P Jacobi, R K Lewis, W M Morfey, C G Skinner; by the Trustees of the Ipswich Municipal Charities, Mr S A Notcutt; by the Governors of Northgate Schools, the Ven. T R Browne, Archdeacon of Suffolk and Mr B A Jennings; and by Cambridge University, Mr K E Fisk. They met for the first time on 6 July 1960 and elected as their Chairman Mr H R Davies. They could not have made a better or more judicious choice than Hugh Davies, who continued in that office until his death in 1987, at all times an inspiration and a tower of strength to the Foundation.

The early meetings were necessarily exploratory ones. At first the Town Clerk, as Clerk to the Governors, told them that available funds amounted to £19,168 and recommended that there should be public advertisement to invite individual applications for help from the Foundation. On the disposition of the sum of up to £800 to the Northgate Schools they agreed to be guided by recommendations from the School Governors. They also provisionally agreed to meet twice a year – in March to consider applications from the Northgate Schools and in July to consider applications arising from their wider responsibilities. In the event they met four times in the first incomplete year of the Foundation’s existence, which ended in March 1961, and although the frequency of meetings came to vary according to perceived need, a pattern of four meetings a year evolved as the most usual one. The information in these first explanatory minutes is supplemented by that in a series of appendices to them which showed that they would not lack for an agenda.

The Schools’ Governors, for example, were (via their two head teachers) quick off the mark. They had ventured to hope that the new Scheme would apply all its income to their schools, as had effectively been the case under the workings of the previous Foundation. Undaunted by this disappointment, the head of Northgate Boys, Mr Armstrong, submitted a formidable shopping

list for the Foundation to choose from. It seems worthwhile to itemise this first approach to the Governors, both for its intrinsic interest and as an indication, presumably, of expenditure on benefits ‘not normally provided by the Local Education Authority’.

It included the following:-

clothing, books and maintenance for two disadvantaged boys
help for three students to study in Spain and France
equipment for the school camping club
purchase of musical instruments to encourage school orchestras
help for funding a workshop to make stage equipment for the school dramatic society
library furniture
pictures for classrooms
trees and plants for garden and playing fields
squash and fives courts and hard tennis courts
covering and heating of swimming pool

Mr Armstrong acknowledged that this list far exceeded what could be got for £400 and offered it rather as ‘indicating the kind of things which is done by other voluntary schools’. Even so it must surely have made the Governors blink a bit and one could imagine that they may have been more comfortable with the application of the Girls School, who limited her appeal on this first occasion to one for financial help for five girls from poor families and for three others to study in Spain or in Germany.

Other representations included one from the Chief Education Officer, Mr J T Hill, suggesting help towards a lecture/ recital series at the Civic College (now the Suffolk College), and visits by the Arts Council’s ‘Opera for All’ team. Presumably pro,prompted by this, the Governors at their third meeting offered £500 in support of activities covered by those clauses of the Scheme which provided for assistance to the study of music and the arts. The Education Committee responded quickly to this offer by submitting a detailed list evidently expanding on Mr Hill’s ideas as follows:

a visit by (say) the London Mozart Players

a concert/lecture by a string quartet

lecture/recitals by a flautist, a pianist and a violinist

a visit by ‘Opera for All’

a lecture/recital featuring jazz

The Governors of the Foundation were from the start very conscious of the importance of the clauses of the Scheme permitting the award of scholarships, bursaries, and financial assistance in individual cases. At their second meeting they fixed a scale of maintenance allowances related to parental income which they would be prepared to pay as appropriate to supplement that paid by the local education authority, and the revision of these scales was subsequently carried out at frequent intervals, as will be noted more fully later. They also considered at this meeting their first eleven applications for support – a very modest beginning for what was soon to become a major demand on their time and judgement. On this occasion six of

the eleven were refused, three grants were made, and two were deferred for further consideration. At their third meeting, in addition to the offer of £500 to promote musical education, grants were made in response to three individual applications – one to pursue studies at a drama school, one to attend a field studies course in Ireland, and one to study for three months at the University of Innsbruck. To round off this first year, grants of £400 each were allocated to the Northgate Boys and Girls Schools, following as promised the specific recommendations put forward by the School Governors. These included help towards the purchase of instruments for orchestras, library books, pictures for classrooms, boats for a sailing club, and the creation of a biology pond.

By 1962/63 the Governors were getting into their stride with help for group access in the fields of music and drama. They had supported lecture/recitals by such notable and varied figures as Frederick Grinke, Phyllis Sellick, Wilfred Smith, Johnny Dankworth and Carl Dolmetsch; and performances by ‘Opera for All’ and the Macnaghten Quartet. In the drama field they had assisted student attendance at performances at the Ipswich Arts Theatre of David Copperfield and Henry V. The Foundation’s accounts for 1961/62 show it to be up and running, even if the figures show, as could be expected, that these were still early days. Of a total income of £7,347 the main allocations were £616 as ‘special benefits’ ie to the two Northgate Schools, £224 for music and £741 in individual awards. Of the unallocated income the Governors agreed to add £3,000 to the fund’s capital, leaving around £2,700 available to be distributed.

The Foundation was thus fairly launched, its work carefully begun, and the broad shape of its activities established. These core elements have remained the bedrock of its work, as the Scheme provided that they should, but as the records show, the Governors over the years have constantly endeavoured to develop its scope and potential, and to welcome and respond to suggestions as to how this might be done. Although they have from time to time given thought to and made occasional formal decisions on policy, they have mainly and wisely allowed it to evolve out of experience. The enormous changes in educational, social, and economic ways and means in recent years amply validate this empirical approach, and have the great advantage of allowing them that flexibility of approach to their responsibilities which has stood them in such good stead and kept their work both relevant to the times and situations in which they operate.

It was noted earlier how the modernisation of local government in the 1830s caused a drastic recasting of the organisation of Ipswich charities. The local government changes of 1974 ended the educational responsibilities of the borough of Ipswich, and they were assumed by the Suffolk County Council. The Foundation had naturally shown concern as to how it might as an educational charity be affected by this change. Happily, the County Council saw no need to disturb its structure or way of working, and the only immediate change was in the attendance at future meetings, by invitation of a representative of the Chief Education Officer. The County Council was, indeed, evidently quite content with the administration of this Ipswich charity and allowed it to continue to be conducted by officers of the Borough Council until as late as 1989, when it was eventually taken over by the officers of the County Council. Post 1974 there were Governors nominated to serve by the County Council, but they did so side by side with familiar names from the earlier period.

Growth, change and progress
The funding and finances of the Foundation are considered in more detail below, but the summary given above of the annual accounts for its first complete year of 1961/62 is indicative of the very real challenges with which the Governors were confronted. The first of these was that of contriving to spend all or a very substantial part of the income at their disposal. This might seem to be a challenge to be welcomed, but it was – and is – by no means as simple as it sounds. A great difficulty for a new body with a new unfamiliar brief was that of spreading the word of its existence and of its potential for giving support to the schools of Ipswich and to individual students and young people of the town. So the Governors were and have continued to be confronted with a real need for the Foundation and its work to become better known.

The second and often no less difficult challenge has been that of making judgements about what financial assistance comes legitimately within its brief under the terms of the Scheme which established it. It will be recalled that a key factor in the setting up of the Scheme was that the charitable funds at the disposal of the former Ipswich Endowed Foundation had come to be used for general school expenses. So the Governors were faced on at least two levels with deciding what applications they could legitimately respond to. What ‘extras’ of a group or school nature should the Education Authority properly provide and which would warrant assistance from the Foundation’s funds? And what requests for financial help from individual students could similarly be directed to the Foundation rather than to the Education Authority? Beyond this, to what extent would ‘half and half accommodations between Authority and Foundation be justified and permissible? And for that matter, who is, or is not, an Ipswich student? The Scheme, on the face of it, defines this clearly, but as often with clear definitions there occur grey areas to confuse and frustrate Governors and applicants alike.

A third challenge, which arises almost inevitably from the first two, is to maintain a consistent and continuous exploration of how the allowable range of help can be expanded: how flexible and adventurous the Foundation can be within the authority conveyed by the Scheme, and even – as will be touched on later – whether there is a case for revision of its terms.

In a sense, therefore, the Governors were ‘thrown in at the deep end’, because although they constituted the latest stage in a historical progression, they inherited little or nothing in the way of precedents for their guidance. Approaching the landmark of a forty-year existence, they have been on a continuous learning curve. Concerned always for the quality no less than the quantity of their work they have with the support successively of the Ipswich and Suffolk local authorities, accomplished a great deal, and more than justified the hopes inherent in the setting up of the Scheme. An account such as this can do no more than provide some glimpses into the extent in both range and scale of the Foundation’s contribution to the encouragement of educational opportunities. With nearly forty years of ‘decisions, decisions’ to contemplate it is difficult to know where to start and where to stop. The method it is proposed to adopt is to consider the separate areas of concern to the Foundation, give some overall background to them, and provide some indication of what was done in each area over the five-year period 1991 to 1995. It seems useful to preface this approach with a note of the budgeted expenditure for 1995/96 which was as follows:-

musical instruments £2,850
grants to individuals £3,700
Forest Challenge £5,100
Ocean Youth Club £3,600
Hugh Davis Memorial £2,000
Suffolk Dance £500

Drama/Arts
There was, again, early and ongoing support for children and young people both to attend and to take part in dramatic performances and support of special visits as, for example, the Royal Shakespeare Company. Emphasis has tended to move in the more recent period and in 1986 ‘Drama appreciation’ as a category for aid was widened to ‘Performing Arts appreciation’. Grants have been made, as the budget above indicates, to Suffolk Dance, and in 1991 assistance was given to participants in a study visit of performing arts students to Berlin.

Help granted

for travel costs in attending a London theatre school

for attending a National Youth Theatre Summer School in London

for costs on two occasions of visits to Barcelona to study Catalan art and culture

for attending a Suffolk Dance Summer School

for attending a Royal Ballet School Summer School

for cost of art materials for a Suffolk College Art and Design course

for cost of art and photographic materials for a course at the Norwich School of Art and Design

for cost of ballet shoes for a student at the Royal Ballet School for final year costs of attendance at the Ballet Rambert School

(this last ballet student must have been another source of special satisfaction to the Governors. She presented a very impressive CV of study results and public dance performances and had been selected to join the National Youth Dance Company)

Outdoor/self-reliance activities

Starting with modest support for Outward Bound courses, this aspect of the Foundation’s work had by the 1980s become centred on two major and regular activities, as the 1995/96 budget figures demonstrate. These were the Ocean Youth cruises enrolment for which they began to support in 1983, and the Forest Challenge outdoor education residential courses, which started in 1989. Both became to be viewed as important projects to be supported on an annual basis if possible.

Ocean Youth Club

This club was established to provide sailing ‘adventure training weeks’ using in the East Anglian area when the Foundation first became involved a ketch called The Master Builder. More recently its ship has been the ketch Spirit of Britannia. Support is given to a mixed crew of 12 youngsters for a week’s cruise in the North Sea and across to and into the waterways of the Netherlands. It is usually the first experience of the young people of working a ship, and doing so in whatever conditions nature dictates. Their performance, reactions, and ability to cope and to work together are reported on by their officers/trainers, and they are also required to write about their own reactions to the experience. These reports make enjoyable and interesting reading and demonstrate what a worthwhile venture these voyages are to the participants. This is, however, a costly activity and in 1998 the Foundation decided not to support it in 1999 but to investigate less expensive alternatives.

Forest Challenge

This was a specifically Suffolk initiative and a new one in outdoor education. It was from the outset supported by the Foundation. The courses are residential five-day ones for 24 young people, and include a variety of forest and river- based activities designed to develop social, communication and problem solving skills. They work in groups of 12 under the supervision of a teacher, the course being headed by the County Outdoor Education Adviser and a teacher experienced in outdoor education. The Foundation’s involvement is to support participation in Forest Challenge by Ipswich young people and the project has proved a great success and grown accordingly. In 1995 seven Ipswich schools and a total number if 79 Ipswich pupils went on the courses in June or July of that year, at a cost to the Foundation of £4,900. Visits by Governors to see and report on the range of activities have paid tribute to the success and value of these courses.

Sport/physical training

Although there has been occasional help of a general nature such as the funding of special equipment or facilities in exceptional circumstances, the Foundation has been mainly concerned to give help to promising young people in these areas. The range of this help has been very wide and varied over the years and the selected period can only give a small indication of it.

Help granted 1991-1995

for tennis coaching

for clothing and coaching in karate

for fees for joining an athletic club to enhance training levels

for attendance of a student member of Torwood Gymnastic Club team at Gymnastradas in Liverpool and Inverness

for expenses of a trip to the USA as member of the GB National American Football Team to play two games in Milwaukee (the young Ipswich player had left school but was on day-release study at Suffolk College while working as a trainee carpenter/joiner)

Other FE/professional/trade pursuits

Help granted 1991-1995

for students at Suffolk College:-

for clothing and equipment for NVQ Catering course (five grants)

for equipment for NVQ Beauty Therapy course (two grants)

for equipment NVQ Hairdressing course (two grants)

for clothing and equipment NVQ Practical Engineering course

for Nursery Nursing course

for a Medical Secretary’s Diploma course

for books, etc. for National Diploma in Performing Arts course

for the preparation of a portfolio and necessary adjuncts for a BA (Hons) graduate of the College in Arts and Design to show to potential employers

for courses in horticulture at Otley Agricultural College (two grants)

for a BA(Hons) degree course in Advertising at Manchester Polytechnic

for travel costs of a Cambridge undergraduate studying Chinese to attend a Summer School at a Taiwan university

for books and travel for an undergraduate of the University of Central England, Birmingham, taking a BA (Hons) in Visual Communication

for fees and expenses for attending an Army Cadet Course

for travel to Heathrow Airport for work experience in air hostess duties

Other help to young students, 1991-1995

for language/cultural study visits to France, Germany, Switzerland (numerous) for geographical field trips/wild life studies to the Orkneys, Shetlands, Cairngorms, North Yorkshire, the Peak District, South Wales, France

for visit to Bavaria for the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme

for a classical/historical tour of Greece

for taking part in a disabled young people’s exchange scheme with Polish counterparts

for purchase of a computer printer for a pupil with muscular dystrophe

for purchase of special glasses for a pupil with a rare sight impediment

for books for GCE and other Suffolk College courses (numerous)

This may well seem a rather long ‘brief’ insight into the work of the Foundation, but even so it can hardly begin to reflect the very large number of requests for help which the Governors have had to examine and decide upon since 1960. Each requires some measure of scrutiny, often from several angles – whether the applicant qualifies under the terms of the Scheme; whether and if so what support is justified by the applicant’s circumstances; whether the applicant’s abilities warrant help for a particular project or activity; whether it can be expected to further the applicant’s education or career; and so on, and so on. Support for group projects or for public performances can sometimes involve their own difficult decisions. All that said, the records of the Foundation’ accomplishment makes fascinating reading and leaves no doubt that for all its understandable and praiseworthy ambition to do more, it has made a new and significant impact in respect of charitable encouragement of education in Ipswich.

Funding and finances

As noted earlier, the Clerk to the Foundation at the first meeting of the Governors in 1960 reported that the funds at its disposal amounted to £19,168. This was its capital, inherited from the predecessor body, and it was the interest on that sum, plus the one-third share of the net income of the Ipswich School Foundation, that made up the amount at the Governors’ disposal from year to year. The latter element had varied in recent years between £1,445 and £2,453. The Clerk in his report elected to estimate that the available annual income might be in the region of £1,000 but it is evident that he was erring very much on the cautious side. Thus, in their first incomplete year of working the Governors transferred £3,249 to capital and in the following full year a further £3,000.

This probably unexpected situation was no doubt a welcome and an unwelcome one to them, and it must have owed much to two factors. On the

one hand they were at this stage still feeling their way into their duties; on the other the ongoing problem of making known the existence of the Foundation and the opportunities it offered must have been at its most difficult at this starting-up time. From the long term point of view it would nevertheless be advantageous to build up the capital element in the funds and thereby increase the annual income potentially available to be spent, and although the funds distributed from year to year increased steadily and substantially over time, the Foundation’s capital resources, its ‘accumulated fund’, also improved greatly as income usually more than kept pace with expenditure. Even after making allowance for the high levels of inflation which have prevailed at times since 1960, it must surely be reckoned good husbandry that this accumulated fund, from its modest beginnings at £19,168 in 1960, stood in the §997/98 accounts at £178,850.

In addition to the two principal sources of income identified above, there are three others that require to be recorded. The Governors in the early 1990s agreed, with the approval of the Charity Commission, to accept the holding and administration of two bequests – the Evelyn and Hayter bequests. These and the Governors’ management of them will be described later. In funding terms, they added capital sums of £5,000 and £4,000 respectively to the Foundation’s funds. It will be remembered also that the property of the Foundation listed in the schedule to the 1960 Scheme included the land and buildings of the Bolton Lane School. As long as these had continued in educational use by the Education Authority no income accrued to the Governors, but on the Authority ceasing – again in the early 1960s – to have a use for them, the Foundation’s ownership came into play, and arrangements to leave the premises to Suffolk College produced for a period a substantial increase in the Foundation’s income from this source. In 2000 the premises were sold and the income from the capital received became available to the Foundation.

Just as the Foundation’s income increased substantially as time went on, so did the scope for that increased expenditure on educational facilities and opportunities that is the purpose for which it was created, and this increase is observable in the records of its work. In the first ten years or so the total annual expenditure was in a range from a little over £2,000 to a little over £3,000. In the early 1970s the range increased to between £3,500 and £5,000. The annual accounts for much of this period are not traceable, and we are dependent on such points about them as are made in the minutes of meetings, but the indications are that most years included transfers to reserves. The efforts of the Governors were focussed on trying to stimulate demand and make their existence more widely known, and preparing budgets would have served little useful purpose.

By the 1980s they were in a better position to contemplate a budgeting approach to their finances, and a decision minuted in the year 1983/84 provides a helpful glimpse into their position then. They estimated total likely income as some £13,000 and decided to budget for a maximum expenditure of £10,500. This they proposed to allocate as follows:-

Special benefits (= Northgate Schools) £800

Music appreciation £100

Musical instruments £2,500

Drama appreciation, theatre sponsorship, concessions on tickets £1,000

Outward Bound schemes £1,500

Civic concerts £1,000

Administration charges £400

Distribution to individual applicants £3,200

In October 1983 there is an interesting illustration of the Governors’ major difficulty, when the minute record that only £190 of the £3,200 available to students seeking financial assistance for their studies had been spent to date, and the need is again stressed to publicise the Foundation more widely and effectively. Although, as already indicated, this need remains a problem, the Governors have nevertheless been able to increase the total amount of their annual expenditure steadily since that date, and by 1997/98 it had reached £28,375. It is noteworthy that in this year expenditure marginally exceeded income, and although this is in part due to there being no income from the now unused Bolton Lane premises, it does suggest that the Governors’ efforts to make the Foundation’s work more widely known were having a positive effect on applications.

There is an interesting little sidelight in the records on the general context in which the Foundation was operating. From the first the Governors undertook to provide aid to students supplemental to that provided by the Education Authority where parental income was below a certain level. Already in 1960 they had drawn up a graduated scale for such help for students whose parents’ annual income lay between £225 and £345. This policy continued, the income levels coming to be related to successive official statistics for national average income. By 1975 the ‘cut-off income above which there would be no assistance had reached £4,000. By 1981, it was £9,000 and in 2000 it stood at £17,000. A very striking example of how the records of a modest local organisation can contribute a neutral and very pertinent comment on the vagaries of the national economy.

One further point calls for notice in this section. An earlier section has described how in 1881 the charitable funds and endowments of Ipswich dedicated to educational objectives were directed to be divided between the Grammar School and the other secondary institutions, the two new Middle Schools, and how following the separate schemes of the late 1890s for the Grammar School and of 1906 for the other two schools, the annual income of the latter was specified to include a one-third part of the net annual income of the Grammar School (now Ipswich School). This provision has continued for upwards of a century, but in 1989 Ipswich School put forward proposals for changes in the arrangements provided for by the old schemes. The Governors of the Northgate Foundation, as successor to the obligations and responsibilities for the generality of Ipswich schools and further education students, are of the view, upon careful consideration, that the proposals were not equitable to them and to their part of what is in origin a mutual trust. On being consulted, the Charity Commissioners have indicated a parallel

uneasiness with the proposals. There have been since 1989 ongoing attempts to arrive at an accommodation over this unhappy issue, so far without success. It seems likely that the history of these benefactions, and the clear intent of the 1881 Scheme to provide impartially for the borough’s two elements of secondary education, has been in some measure lost sight of, and it must be hoped that the spirit of the Scheme will ultimately, and preferably soon, prevail.

Special funds and allocations

The Hugh Davis Memorial Event

At his death in February 1987, Hugh Davis had served as Chairman of the Foundation since it came into existence, and so had given 27 years of assiduous and dedicated service to the charity. His fellow Governors were desirous of paying suitable tribute in commemoration of his contribution to the arts and education in Ipswich by promoting some form of annual cultural event, and they agreed in July of that year to allocate £1,000 to a ‘Hugh Davis Memorial Arts Programme’.

The Governors sought the advice of and discussed the idea with the appropriate staff of the Education Authority and it was decided that this first event should take the form of a contemporary dance workshop. It duly took place successfully in October 1987 and set a pattern of school or school group workshops or other activities of an active participatory kind. Subsequent events included a music and drama interpretative venture, puppetry workshops and displays, multicultural music making performance and a competition for children to compose and present a story in audio form. In 1993 the Foundation joined with the Performing Rights Society, the Eastern Arts Board, and the Britten-Pears Foundation in an ambitious interdisciplinary project involving a composer, a ceramicist, a dancer and a group of schools to make and play instruments and choreograph dance, culminating in a performance at Snape Maltings as part of a four-day County Council ‘Celebration of Schools Music’. In 1997 the Foundation gave support to the work of and a performance by the Ludus Dance Company.

The scale and organisation of projects and events have almost inevitably become more ambitious as both training and talent have progressed impressively, and although the Governors continue to favour the idea of a memorial event, they realise that an annual event may not always be feasible. But they remain committed to the Hugh David Memorial Event as an opportunity to offer something special involving notable participatory contributions by children in music, drama and the arts at large and are prepared to give substantial financial support from year to year as earnest of that commitment.

The John Evelyn Fund

The final clause of the 1960 Scheme allowed the Foundation to accept donations and endowments for its general purposes or for any special objects consistent with those purposes. Two such endowments have since entrusted to the Foundation. The first was received in 1990, when the Ipswich Port Authority donated £5,000 in memory of the late John Evelyn, who had been

its long-serving Chief Executive and who was a former pupil of Northgate School. They expressed the wish that the gift should be used to fund some event, bursary or sponsorship at the Governors’ discretion, and after due consideration they decided to establish a ‘John Evelyn Fund’ the income from which would be applied to the improvement of environmental areas at school sites in Ipswich by such means as landscaping, paving and the provision of plants, seating, fencing etc. The proposals which they set out in a paper in December 1990, envisaged one larger and one smaller project annually, each to have an opening ceremony when completed and to be marked by a plaque.

Suggestions were invited for projects to benefit from the new Fund and the first to be approved was a ‘Wildlife – Garden Nature Project’ for Whitton County Primary School, which set aside a small area of rough land to create a natural habitat for wildlife and flora which would become a place of study and recreation allowing children direct access to a natural environment and encouraging them to develop care and consideration of wild life. An excellent brief was prepared, the programmes put in hand and the project was brought to completion early in 1993, and visited by the Governors.

Meantime a project was given the go-ahead in September 1993 for the development of an existing quadrangle at Morland County Primary School as an outdoor classroom. Other schemes that have gone forward or which have been offered support are for environmental improvements at Rosehill County Primary, Springfield Infants, Raeburn Infants, Clifford Road Primary, Whitehouse Infants and Ranelagh Road schools, so that this is evidently an improvement programme where help is welcomed. The cost of requests so far made exceeds what could be met by the funds from the Evelyn bequest, and the Governors have been prepared to assist from their general resources. John Evelyn’s widow, Dorothy, served as a Governor from 1982, and at her death in 1998 it was agreed to acknowledge her contribution to the work of the Foundation by renaming the fund as the John and Dorothy Evelyn Fund.

The Ethel Hayter Fund

Ethel Hayter was a school teacher who at her death in 1990 left a bequest of £4,000 for the advancement of the musical education of children and young people and to benefit as many children as possible, not just the most gifted. Although the bequest was made as a Suffolk, not a purely Ipswich one, it was suggested that the Foundation would be a very suitable body to administer it, and the Governors accepted this responsibility.

Miss Hayter had taught in a small rural school and it was therefore felt that it would be appropriate to try to support such schools by way of funds for musical instruments. An exception to this policy was a grant of £100 to the Suffolk Youth Jazz Orchestra to enable its range of Latin American rhythm instruments, but over the period of the bequest grants have been made or approved to Mendham County Primary, Old Newton VC Primary, Great Whelnetham V C Primary, Gazely CEVC Primary, Thurlow VC Primary and Elveden VA Primary schools. After a quiet start this bequest is also being put to good use.

Looking forward

The Governors at all times continue with efforts to make the availability of the charity more widely known. They have done this in the past by means of advertisements in the press, by articles in the press and in publications, by radio interview. More recently they have ordered the preparation and publication of leaflets/brochures setting out the terms of their trust and inviting applications, and endeavoured to circulate them as widely as possible to potential beneficiaries. The first such brochure was produced and sent out in 1992 and new versions have since been produced to increase impact. The Governors are very well aware that wider publicity remains a priority element in their future activity.

Their desire to achieve the maximum flexibility and scope within the existing Scheme and give help in as may ways as possible has already been referred to and the Governors have taken their hopes and ambitions a stage further in this direction by raising the question of the desirability of a revised scheme. As early as 1972 they were expressing concern over what they spoke of as ‘the narrow scope of the Scheme’, and submitting amendments to the Ministry of Education as its creators. The issue continued to be raised from time to time – in 1990 they asked the Clerk to look into the history of the charity as a possible means of making a case for amendments in what they called the trust deed, namely, the 1960 Scheme. In 1991 the Clerk submitted ideas for its variation. Some of these were routine updating. The more significant ones included powers to increase the £800 limit on funds for the Northgate Schools, a reduction of the qualifying period of attendance at an Ipswich school for individual applicants from two years to one, and the allowing of the Governors to apply income in ways to benefit groups of students as opposed to individuals, as they already could for the Northgate Schools. They authorised the Clerk to ask for a new scheme along these lines.

The application was made to the Charity Commissioners, not to the Ministry, since the Commission was clearly now the competent body for such matter and in 1993 the Commission duly put forward for the Governors consideration a new draft scheme. The key points of change were as follows:-

The name of the charity to be changed to ‘The Northgate Foundation’ and the title ‘Governor’ to ‘Trustee’

The ‘area of benefit’ under the scheme to be the area of the former Ipswich County Borough

The beneficiaries to be young people under the age of 25 who are attending or who have attended as a pupil for at least one year at a county, voluntary, or grant maintained school in the area of benefit

Suffolk County Council to be the Custodian Trustee of the charity ie to hold and manage its resources

The Trustees body to be made up of 12 nominated members, ten nominated by the County Council, one by the Trustee of the Ipswich Municipal Charities, and one by the University of Cambridge, plus two co-opted members.

The term of the nominated Trustees to be four years and of the co-opted one five years.

A number of clauses prescribe the conduct of the Foundation’s business.

On the major issue of the application of income, the Commissioners now added a sub-clause empowering the Trustees to apply income ‘in or towards providing such items and services or special benefits for which provision is not made from public funds for any country, voluntary or grant maintained school in the area of benefit’. That is, they would have power to give aid on a school or a school group basis. An additional clause reinforced the prohibition of the direct use of charitable funds in relief of rates, taxes or other public funds.

It is to be regretted that by reason of the failure to reach an accommodation with Ipswich School acceptable to both parties, this desirable new scheme remains at the time of writing still unachieved but it is to be hoped that the Governors (or Trustees) will find themselves in a position to take their work forward on the broader basis for which they have long wished.

They have been reluctant to let this hitch stop all progress, and in 1995, stimulated in part by the increased income accruing from the lease of the Bolton Lane premises, they set up a small working party to report on how best to further the aims of the Foundation. The Chairman, Michael Hyde, reported on its findings, which recommended:-

that the name ‘Northgate Foundation’ should be adopted

that a much fuller, more attractive publicity leaflet should be prepared, that application forms for assistance should be more explanatory for both applicants and Governors, and that there should be direct personal approaches to relevant head teachers

that there should be a Foundation Scholarship for award to a young person who would not otherwise be able to benefit from university or other appropriate further education

that expenditure on grants for books, equipment, special aids, etc. should be increased and support given to vocational guidance

that more be done to support longer visits abroad, including for post-16 work experience related to language courses

that the advice of the Local Education Authority be sought on the possibilities for more support for sport and physical training

At their ensuing meeting the Governors, in a series of resolutions, accepted these recommendations although, mainly on cost grounds, the idea of a Foundation Scholarship was eventually not pursued.

It is plain that the Foundation is not resting on its laurels, but is on the contrary very aware of how much thee is to be done, and how much can be done both now by doing all that can possibly be permitted under the present Scheme, and in the future when a new version comes into force and frees it to do even more. This latest chapter in the long history of Ipswich educational charities is far from complete and the signs are that its continuation promises to be a hopeful and satisfying one.

Bill and Ruth Serjeant

Appendix

Scheme made by the Minister of Education under the Charitable Trust Acts 1853 to 1925 (sealed 12 April 1960)

The Foundation

1 In this Scheme the expression “the Foundation” means the Foundation called the Ipswich Municipal Schools, in the County Borough of Ipswich, now regulated by a Scheme of 14 June 1906 made by the Board of Education, altering a Scheme of 29 November 1881 framed under the Endowed Schools Acts, as altered by Schemes of 28 June 1910, 31 January 1922 and 28 January 1932 and by Articles of Government made by the Minister of Education under Section 17 (3) of the Education Act 1944 on 21 April 1947 of which the Corporation known as the Mayor, Alderman and Burgesses of the County Borough of Ipswich

Repeal and Substitution

2. The clauses of the said Scheme of 29 November 1881 set out in the First Schedule to the said Scheme of 14 June 1906, in so far as they relate to the Foundation, and the provisions of the said Scheme of 14 June 1906, as altered as aforesaid, are hereby repealed and the provisions of this Scheme substituted therefor.

Title of Foundation

3. The Foundation and its endowment (including the particulars specified in the Schedule to this Scheme) shall be administered under the name of the NORTHGATE SCHOOLS FOUNDATION

County School

4. The site and buildings of the Ipswich, Christchurch County Secondary School for Girls, being the property specified in Part I of the Schedule to this Scheme, shall be held by the Trustee in trust for the purposes of the Education Acts, 1944 to 1959

Schools of Foundation

5. The Schools of the Foundation, being the Northgate Grammar School for Boys and the Northgate Grammar School for Girls, shall be conducted as voluntary schools within the meaning of the Education Acts 1944 to 1959 or any substituted provisions, in the premises specified in Part II of the Schedule to this Scheme or in other suitable premises in or near the County Borough of Ipswich

Governing Body

6. (1) There shall be a Body of Governors of the Foundation (hereinafter called “the Governors”) which shall, when complete, consist of fourteen persons, to be appointed

TEN by the Ipswich County Borough Council

ONE by the Trustees of the Ipswich Municipal Charities

ONE by the Council of the Senate of the University of Cambridge

TWO by the Governors for the time being of the Schools of the Foundation appointed in accordance with an Arrangement made by the Local Education Authority under Section 20 of the Education Act 1944

(2) A Governor need not be a member of the appointing body

(3) Every Governor shall be appointed for a term of three years

First Governors and Meeting

7. (1) The first Governors shall be appointed as soon as possible after the date of this Scheme, and their names shall be notified to the Town Clerk of Ipswich on behalf of the Governors

(2) The first meeting of the Governors under this Scheme shall be summoned by the said Town Clerk as soon as conveniently may be after the date of this Scheme or, if he fails to summon a meeting for two months after that date, by any two Governors

Declaration by Governors

8. No person shall be entitled to act as a Governor, whether on a first or any subsequent entry into office, until he has signed a declaration of acceptance and willingness to act in the trusts of this Scheme

Governors not to be personally interested in the Foundation

9. Except in special circumstances, with the approval in writing of the Minister of Education, no Governor shall take or hold any interest in any property belonging to the Foundation, otherwise than as a trustee for the purposes thereof, or receive any remuneration, or be interested in the supply of work or goods, at the cost of the Foundation.

Determination of Governorship

10. Any Governor who is absent from all meetings of the Governors during a period of one year, or who is adjudicated a bankrupt or who is incapacitated from acting, or who communicates in writing to the Governors a wish to resign, shall thereupon cease to be a Governor.

Vacancies

11. (1) Every vacancy in the office of Governor shall as soon as possible be notified to the proper appointing body and any competent Governor may be reappointed.

(2) A governor appointed to fill a casual vacancy shall hold office only for the unexpired term of office of the Governor in whose place he is appointed.

Meetings of Governors

12. The Governors shall hold ordinary or stated meetings at least twice in each year and a special meeting may at any time be summoned by any two Governors upon four clear days’ notice being given to the other Governors of the matters to be discussed.

Quorum and Voting

13. There shall be a quorum when five Governors are present at a meeting and every matter shall be determined by the majority of the Governors present and voting on the question.

Religious Opinions of Governing Body

14. Religious opinions, or attendance or non-attendance at any particular form of religious worship, shall not in any way affect the qualification of any person for being one of the Governing Body under this Scheme.

Application of Income

15. After payment of any expenses of administration the net income of the Foundation shall be paid by the Trustee to the Governors to be applied by the Governors in the manner and to the objects hereinafter prescribed.

Special Benefits for Schools

16. The Governors may apply yearly sum of not more than £800 in providing such special benefits of any kind not normally provided by the Local Education Authority, for the Schools of the Foundation as may from time to time be agreed upon between the Authority and the Governors.

Other Educational Benefits

17. (1) The residue of the net income of the Foundation shall, after the payment thereout of the expenses of administration incurred by the Governors, be applied by the Governors in the following ways:-

(a) In awarding to beneficiaries Scholarships, Bursaries or Maintenance Allowances tenable at any School, University or other place of learning, approved by the Governors

(b) In providing financial assistance, outfits, clothing, tools, instruments or books to enable beneficiaries on leaving school, a university or any other educational establishment to prepare for, or to assist their entry into a profession, trade or calling’

(c) In awarding Scholarships or Maintenance Allowances to enable beneficiaries to travel abroad to pursue their education;

(d) In providing, or assisting the provision, of facilities, of any kind not normally provided by the Local Education Authority, for recreation and social and physical training, including the provision of coaching in athletics, sports and games, for beneficiaries who are receiving secondary or further education; and

(e) in providing financial assistance to enable beneficiaries to study music or other arts

(2) Within the limits prescribed by this Scheme, the Governors shall have full power to make rules for the award of Scholarships, Bursaries, Maintenance Allowances, or other benefits, including rules as to the value and period of tenure of the awards, and the qualifications, and method of ascertainment and selection of beneficiaries

(3) The Governors shall consult the Local Education Authority as to their general action under this clause and, if occasion requires, as to the educational qualifications of candidates for benefit,

(4) In this clause the expression ‘beneficiaries’ means persons of either sex who have not attained the age of 25 years who are resident in the County Borough of Ipswich or who have for not less than two years at any time been in attendance at any County or Voluntary School in the said County Borough, and who, in the opinion of the Governors, are in need of financial assistance with a preference, other things being equal, for beneficiaries who are, or have

for not less than two years been, in attendance at either of the Schools of the Foundation.

Savings of Interests

18. Any Scholarship, Exhibition or other like emolument awarded on or before the date of this Scheme shall be maintained and held, as nearly as may be, as if this Scheme had not been made.

Religious Exemptions

19. A scholar shall not by reason of any exemption from attending prayer or religious worship, or from any lesson or series of lessons on a religious subject, be deprived of any advantage or emolument out of the endowment of the Foundation to which he would otherwise have been entitled.

General Power to make rules

20. Within the limits prescribed by this Scheme the Governors shall have full power to make rules for the management of the Foundation and for the conduct of their business, including the summoning and chairmanship of meetings, the deposit of money at a proper bank, the custody of documents, and the appointment as Clerk or Secretary (to hold office at their pleasure) of one of themselves without salary or some other fit person at such salary, if any, as may be approved by the Minister of Education

Minutes and Accounts

21. The Governors shall provide and keep a minute book and books of account and proper accounts in relation to the Foundation shall in each year be made out and certified in such form as may be approved by the Minister of Education.

22. The Trustee may accept any additional documents or endowments for the general purposes of the Foundation and may also accept donations or endowments for any special objects connected with the Foundation not inconsistent with, or calculated to impede the due working of the provisions of this Scheme.

Surplus Cash

23. Any sum of cash at any time belonging to the Foundation and not needed as a balance for working purposes shall (unless otherwise directed by the Minister of Education) be treated as capital and invested by the Trustee.

Alteration of Scheme

24. The Minister of Education may in the exercise of his ordinary jurisdiction under the Charitable Trust Acts, 1853 to 1925, frame Schemes for the alteration of any portion of this Scheme, provided that such alteration shall not be contrary to anything contained in the Endowed Schools Acts 1869, 1873 and 1874.

Questions under Scheme

25. Any question as to the construction of this Scheme or as to the regularity or validity of any acts done or about to be done under this Scheme shall be

determined conclusively by the Minister of Education upon such application made to him for the purpose as he things sufficient.

Interpretation

26. The Interpretation Act 1889 shall apply for the interpretation of this Scheme as it applies for the interpretation of an Act of Parliament.

Date of Scheme

27. The date of this Scheme shall be the day on which it is established by an Order of the Minister of Education.