Education
Funding: Long term financial support is an important foundation. For centuries Haberdasher schools have been supported by (mainly) 17th Century endowments. Today this funding continues to support strategic development and enrichment.
Governing: The Company sponsors multi-academy trusts and our members serve as trustees and governors for our trusts and schools. These business and professional leaders use their expertise to provide strong governance and strategic leadership.
Direct Programmes: We also use our ability to bring people together to facilitate direct programmes for staff and students. This includes the Character and Futures programmes for students and the Working Together programme for staff and leaders.
The Haberdashers’ family of schools is structured in four hubs: Haberdashers’ Academies Trust South, Haberdashers’ West Midlands Academies Trust, Haberdashers’ Elstree Schools and Haberdashers’ Monmouth School.
We are proud to include schools of all types and sizes in very different areas of the country within our family of schools. From a brand-new 11-18 state academy, like Haberdashers’ Borough Academy, opened in 2019 to serve the diverse and fast-moving population of Southwark in London, to a centuries-old state grammar and boarding school, like Haberdashers’ Adams in Shropshire, founded in 1656.
The Haberdashers’ Company has a tradition of school governance dating back to the 17th Century. Today at least 50% of governors on Trust Boards are members of the Company, sitting across the fifteen schools in the Haberdashers’ family – including independent school boards, multi-academy trust boards and local governing boards.
The benefits of the relationships are mutual – with successful and committed governors from schools regularly becoming members of the Company. Trust and school leaders serve as governors for other schools and may become members of the Company. School alumni may become Apprentices and eventually senior members of the Company.
Chairs of Governors are members of the Company’s Education Committee where they represent their school group in Company-level strategic decision making.
The relationship with the Haberdashers’ Company supports the schools in the three ways outlined above: through endowment funding, through the provision of governors and trustees from the Company membership and through the Haberdashers’ Advantage schools programme.
When we asked our school leaders (CEOs, Heads, Principals and Directors) what key words represent the impact of being part of the Haberdashers’ family of schools we were delighted with the top response – Opportunity – and other important words, such as – Connections, Excellence and Collaboration.
You can read more about what this looks like in practice in Haberdashers’ Advantage: Working Together.
WATCH
A multi-academy trust consisting of four secondary schools and five primary schools in South East London.
WATCH
Two independent schools on one co-educational campus in northwest London.
WATCH
An independent school with day and boarding facilities in Wales.
WATCH
A multi-academy trust consisting of two secondary schools and one preparatory school in Shropshire and Telford.
Our Geographies
These focus areas have been connected to Company life for centuries and can typically trace their roots back to locations in which Haberdashers lived and worked. The four areas often include the locations of Haberdasher schools, churches and historic almshouses, and today, we have also added charity partners to that list. This synergy, as well as the shared proximity between our overlapping areas of work, enables each part of the Haberdasher community to come together in support of our shared purpose of "empowering young people from every background to fulfil their potential through our schools and by supporting their communities."
Members of the Haberdashers’ Company have been funding schools since the 16th Century. Our first educational benefactor was Thomas Aldersey who in 1594 founded a school in Bunbury, Cheshire. This school is now Bunbury CE Primary School and still maintains its Haberdasher links, though it is not in a Haberdasher school group. In 1614 William Jones founded a school in Monmouth – now Haberdashers’ Monmouth. In 1656 William Adams founded a school in Newport, Shropshire – now Haberdashers’ Adams. In 1690 Robert Aske left funds to found a school in Hoxton, East London – now evolved into Haberdashers’ Elstree and Haberdashers’ Hatcham College.
The original intention of these benefactors was typically to provide free secondary schools for the sons of poor Haberdashers. They often also left funds to support almshouses for elderly Haberdashers or their dependents. This focus on mutual support and our community has been a long-term tradition for the Haberdashers’ Company – though today we focus exclusively on young people.
Today the schools associated with those original foundations educate 12,000 students, both boys and girls, aged 3-18. The independent schools are funded through fees from parents and the academies through state funding. However, the original endowments continue to provide permanent financial resources that are important strategically, and in terms of added value, to the modern-day schools. The total amount across the schools each year is over £4 million. The amount that each school hub receives depends on the total value of their endowment, any restrictions imposed by the charitable objects of each charity and the requirements of the school group. In recent years grants have supported campus capital investment projects, mental health and resilience initiatives, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) support, character education, school improvement strategic projects and arts funding.
This has been possible because of expert long-term stewardship by the Haberdashers’ Company of the charity estates and investments under their care. This began with an important figure, Jerome Knapp, who was Clerk of the Company in the 18th Century and set up enduring and robust structures. These funds are now maintained through the financial expertise of members of the Company’s Finance and Securities Committees. These members use their professional expertise to ensure the maximum benefit to both current and future beneficiaries of Haberdasher endowments.
A tradition of giving
Stewardship
Estates
Responsibility for oversight of the Haberdashers’ Hatcham College, Haberdashers’ Adams, Haberdashers’ Monmouth and Haberdashers’ Elstree estates is carried out by the Company’s Property Committee.
This group is made up of members of the Company who are real estate professionals across a wide range of charitable, education and commercial backgrounds. They advise on and approve campus strategic planning, capital projects and monitor estate condition over the long term to ensure the value of the assets is maintained for the benefit of future generations.
Estates
Helen Gough, Fourth Warden and Chair of the Properties Committee
Our programme is based on the core principle of community and the benefits of mutual support and shared values. The Company uses its ability to create connections, harness expertise and open doors for the benefit of students and staff.
Over 3,500 Haberdasher students take part in a Haberdashers’ Advantage event over the course of an academic year – including all Year 7s and half of Year 12s. This programme is strongly supported by members of the Company. They give their time and open up opportunities that would be otherwise inaccessible to many students.
There are three interlinked strands of the Haberdashers’ Advantage programme. The Working Together programme is about professional collaboration, the Character and Futures programmes are student-facing.
Working Together brings together staff, school leaders and governors to connect with each other, showcase school achievements, learn from inspiring external speakers and gain the benefits of a wider educational context than any individual school group can offer. This allows schools to have access to state and independent sector expertise – an unusual benefit in the world of education.
These cross-sector contacts are also important to the Character programme for students – contact with young people from very different backgrounds helps students to respect difference and value diversity of opinion. The activities for this programme are based on establishing a sense of community, providing cultural capital and character development opportunities.
The Futures programme for students is outward facing. We use our professional and business networks to provide careers and employability skills development opportunities for sixth form students, often hosting them in the stimulating professional atmosphere of Haberdashers’ Hall.
Programmes
HABERDASHERS’ ADVANTAGE
A programme of initiatives designed to promote confidence, broaden horizons and develop the life-skills and attributes that we want a Haberdasher pupil to walk away with when they leave one of our schools. It includes a trip to Haberdashers’ Hall to learn about our shared heritage, extra-curricular activities, festivals, competitions, performances and leadership development for our student leaders. This programme also seeks to recognise the talents of pupils and help them develop further.
HABERDASHERS’ ADVANTAGE
Members of the Haberdashers’ Company are drawn from a wide variety of professional backgrounds. Many are at the top of their fields with an extensive network of organisational and personal contacts. The Futures programme is intended to introduce our Sixth Formers to these professional worlds, increase awareness of different career paths, build confidence and enable students and alumni to access the broader Haberdashers’ community as they move into the wider world.
HABERDASHERS’ ADVANTAGE
In active partnership with our schools, Working Together is the support that the Company can offer by sharing ideas and best practice across our schools. Through communities of collaboration, school staff, leaders and governors meet throughout the year to troubleshoot, innovate and develop strategies to support individual school priorities. School groups themselves also host events and programmes of professional development responding to emerging needs and common themes.
WATCH
Over 12,000 young people are educated in Haberdasher schools, so it is incumbent on us as a Company to participate in this national debate about the future of education.
We are fortunate to have outstanding teachers, supported by excellent leadership teams, so we should be proud to share our views and our experience, particularly given our involvement in state and independent schools, secondaries and primaries, day and boarding.
The Company’s involvement in, and commitment to, our schools is strengthened by the quality of their governance.
The power to convene, to bring people together and create relationships for mutual benefit is a core Haberdasher strength. These partnerships unlock knowledge and practical opportunities through enabling expert training, workplace visits, mentoring relationships and tailored advice and guidance.
Our organisational partners and individual benefactors welcome our ability to provide a single, structured channel of communication with significant numbers of schools and large numbers of students from very different backgrounds. This allows them to reach large numbers of suitable young people and achieve their corporate social responsibility, philanthropic, research or recruitment objectives without wasting resources on excessive administration.
Our partnerships
Partnerships
In collaboration with the Old Bailey, this event connects Haberdasher students with legal professionals and gives them the opportunity to be immersed in a real court room and witness a live trial first hand.
Partnerships
Our ongoing cross-schools’ collaboration on mental health supported by the clinical and academic expertise of Dr Jacqueline Phillips Owen and the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust (SLaM) and King’s College London team.
Partnerships
Focusing on young women with the purpose of increasing their confidence, encouraging them to have high expectations and supporting them to apply to study at the University of Cambridge, and other highly selective universities.
Partnerships
Students who are interested in pursuing a career in the health sector joined us at Haberdashers’ Hall and St Bartholomew’s for a two day careers conference, including after-hours access to the hospital.
Partnerships
Sixth Form students from across the Livery network of schools step into the shoes of business leaders, competing to run a virtual company with the Worshipful Company of Entrepreneurs.
Partnerships
Students explored emerging trends in property, visited key sites across the City of London and King’s Cross and engaged in dialogue with experts across the real estate sector in London.
The team
Director for Schools and Estates
Arabella is responsible for connecting the Company with schools and developing and delivering the Haberdashers’ Advantage programme. With a background in business leadership and education strategy she believes that she now has the best job in education and feels privileged to work with so many expert and dedicated individuals across the Haberdasher community.
Head of Schools' Projects
Membership and Education Secretary
Helen is Membership and Education Secretary at Haberdashers’ Hall where she works on the administration and delivery of the Haberdashers’ Advantage programme and is the administration contact for the membership including arrangements for new members joining the Company.
Creative Education Specialist and member of the Freedom
Get involved
Your contribution could make a significant and lasting impact:
If you would like to explore this way of supporting the Company’s work, contact us here.
Our People
Our Place
Haberdashers’ Hall sits at the heart of our community. It is a meeting place for the entire Haberdashers’ community, including our students, our staff and our members, and it plays a crucial role in allowing the Company to deliver our goals.
All our year 7 students spend a living history day at Haberdashers’ Hall and through this are introduced to the Haberdasher community. We want them to feel at home in this unique and inspirational space which links us to our ancient past and looks forward to the future.
As Haberdashers, we value creativity and innovation and seek to cultivate these skills in the young people we support. The art display in our Orangery celebrates the creative achievements of students from across the family of Haberdasher schools in England and Wales.
Artworks rotate annually and are submitted each year to be considered for display. The chosen works from each school are exhibited in this gallery. Every year the art on show at the Hall is of extremely high quality, and displays the variety of talent at each Haberdasher school.
This is accompanied by a rotating exhibition of student self-portraits titled ‘Seeing Ourselves‘. This exhibition invites students to reflect on their place in the Haberdasher community and provides a visual invitation to them to feel welcome and included at Haberdashers’ Hall.