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1 Representatives of the United Reformed Church Related Schools met in London on 12 June 2000 and 11 June 2001, and plans are in progress for a more extended conference to be held at the Collegio Valdese, Torre Pellice, in June 2002.

2 Each of the Schools takes seriously the commitment to educate children of ordained ministers and missionaries of the United Reformed Church, maintaining the obligation assumed by their nineteenth-century founders from the Congregational Churches, and this spirit continues to inform their ecumenical Christian witness.

3 The Schools wish to record their continued appreciation for the bursaries awarded by the Milton Mount Foundation and the Leverhulme Trade Charities Trust.

4 Caterham School

Caterham has had another successful year, reaching optimum numbers of boarding and day pupils, at just over 700 pupils, including 135 boarders. It has been encouraging to see a number of United Reformed Church Ministers’ children who are joining the School. This is something we very much want to maintain as it is part of our foundation, making independent education available for the sons and daughters of the manse.

Academic progress has been made through the year, with our second highest ‘A’ level results, and twelve pupils have been offered provisional places at Oxford and Cambridge for the next academic year.

The vision of the School, which embraces high academic standards, all round ability, with interest in music, drama and sport linked to sense of values through our Christian beliefs, and the individual value of pupils and their mutual respect, involves the whole School. We are also fortunate in being able to expand our facilities. The new plan for our boarders, a new language laboratory and a most successful refurbishment of our hall, giving it real possibilities as a performing arts centre, are testimony to this continued development.

Our outreach programme and links with the community are ongoing and we are particularly pleased to have established good working relations with Tandridge Council and The Orpheus Trust.

The Revd Derek Lindfield has returned to pastoral charge after thirteen successful and committed years at Caterham and we have been very pleased to welcome Revd Dr Rick Mearkle, an American from Maidstone, who has settled in well to the life of the community.

5 Eltham College

The millennium year was a year of transition at Eltham College. Following the successful opening of the Mervyn Peake Library, which included the Porteous Reading Room named after a distinguished Headmaster, the College honoured the retirement of Malcolm Green and witnessed the arrival of Paul Henderson, the new Headmaster.

Before he departed, Malcolm Green accompanied the Cricket Tour to South Africa, where he was able to visit Michaelhouse School, one of his previous haunts. The Summer Term reached a climax with a most successful Millennium Reunion for the OEA masterminded by Stephen Smith, President of the Association. Over 200 Old Boys returned for a service in the college chapel, followed by a lunch and a tour of the school.

After ten years of outstanding service to the College, during which time Eltham was established as a leading academic school in South East London, Malcolm and his wife Sally retired to Dorset, near Warminster, another previous haunt. They will be remembered for their care for the whole community at Eltham: both were ever-present at Sporting, Music, Drama and Art Events, promoting the extra-curricular side of life, and were loyal supporters of the Eltham College Parent Teacher Association and the Old Elthamians’ Association. The College has thrived under Malcolm’s guidance.

One of the ventures promoted under Mr Green’s leadership was a video recording of the events of the Millennium. This is to be distributed to all members of the College. One adventure to feature is the Expedition to Nepal. Forty-four pupils, former pupils, staff and parents took part in it. Eleven of the party succeeded in climbing Mount Pisang, and subsequently the whole group spent some time assisting three village schools in the Chitwan Province. Links have now been established to enable follow-up work with financial support to these schools and visits for GAP students.

Since October, a Charities committee has been established to prioritise support within the College for various causes. A successful week of events raised over £2,500 for Children in Need. A Children’s Hospice in Kent was visited by some Sixth Formers, and a collection was made based on their recommendation. Carol singers raised £180 outside a Tesco Supermarket for the Royal Marsden Hospital, where a member of staff’s son is undergoing treatment for testicular cancer. Many more fund-raising activities are planned for 2001.

Two innovations took place in the Autumn Term. To celebrate Remembrance Day, a former OE President, Norman Edwards, addressed the College in Chapel before all the pupils processed outside to witness the laying of the wreaths and the sounding of the Last Post and Reveille. It was a very moving occasion. Secondly, a candlelit Carol Service was held at the end of term for all the pupils in the Sixth Form and Year 11, with their parents and staff. To see the Chapel lit only by 400 candles was a powerful and uplifting experience.

Sixteen Sixth Formers have been offered places at Oxford and Cambridge. Eltham College is thus a hive of activity. Its students live their school lives to the full, and are rewarded by their efforts.

6 Silcoates School

We enjoyed the wit and wisdom of our guests of honour at the Senior and Junior Prize Givings. The Revd Dr David Cornick, Principal of Westminster College, Cambridge, is to succeed the Revd Tony Burnham, OS, as General Secretary of the United Reformed Church. Mrs Alison Johnson chairs the Governors’ Junior School Committee.

A small scoop in the ISIS magazine: ‘A Wakefield school is currently quietly celebrating a unique contribution to the cause of independent education. The election to the committee of the Governing Bodies’ Association of Professor Clyde Binfield crowns a remarkable record for Silcoates School. Within little more than a decade, Silcoates has had a headmaster (John Baggaley) who was chairman both of the Society of Headmasters of Independent Schools’ Bursars’ Association, a chairman of governors (Peter Johnson) who led probably the most successful of all the Independent School Action Committees, and now a governor on the national GBA committee. Added to which, Old Silcoatian Guy Cliff is the current treasurer of the Association of Representatives of Old Pupils’ Societies.’

We have record pupil numbers in all the schools of the Foundation. We started the academic year with 669 at Silcoates, an increase of twenty-seven over the previous September. At one end of the age range, we had three J1 forms for the first time. At the other, the numbers in the Sixth Form exceeded 100. Sunny Hill House School continues to be full and the numbers at St Hilda’s School reached a new high of 171.

Our A level candidates sat 157 examinations, passing in 142, i.e. 92%, which is one per cent short of the 1998 and 1999 pass percentages. The destinations of our Upper Sixth leavers are as follows: university degree courses: 80%; art foundation courses: 14%; HND: 2%; drama school: 2%; other training: 2%. The GCSE grades fell short of one record but gave us another. Grades A* - C were 89%, down on our best of 92%, but we have never had such a high proportion on strong grades: 67% were A*, A or B - and that bodes well for the new Lower Sixth Class of 2000, the AS/A2 guinea pigs.

The highlights of the Autumn Term were a penetrating and moving production of The Crucible and an infestation of fifteen inspectors for a week. They have since produced their report. It could not have been more glowing, but no modern school dare rest on its laurels.

7 Taunton School

October 1999 saw the first full HMC Inspection of the Senior School. The Inspection was a rigorous process from which the School emerged with great credit. The team based their findings upon documentation and statistics we had provided beforehand, the views of a number of parents and interviews with staff. During the five days they were with us they also had the opportunity to talk to a large number of pupils about their work and other matters. Amongst the main findings was the comment, ‘Taunton is a fine school in which the excellent quality of human relationships provides the foundation on which all else is built’.

Our academic results this year were pleasing. Although the overall pass rate at A level was slightly down at 95%, the percentage of passes graded A or B went up to 48%. Seven students achieved three or more A grades and all six of our candidates entered for Oxford and Cambridge were successful. The vast majority of our other A level candidates were accepted by their first choice universities. The GCSE pass rate was similar to last year, 90%, but significantly the number of examinations graded A* or A just exceeded 50% - an indication of the quality of pupil we have coming up through the school.

Cultural activities continue to thrive and there is an increasing involvement amongst our pupils. A number of our artists had their work displayed at an Independent Schools’ exhibition in the Mall. The Music Department recorded a choral CD, the performers encompassing the whole age range of Taunton School, the Jazz Band played at EuroDisney, Paris, amongst other less exotic locations. They also performed on West Country television, and we had many concerts - both formal and informal - in the School. We were once again fortunate to have a visit from St Andrews’ School Choir, Argentina and the Central Band of the RAF. Drama is going from strength to strength too. The Cherry Orchard was superbly acted, as was the student production of the Marat/Sade; we were treated to a delightful interpretation of The Sound of Music at the end of the Summer Term and then there was the staff pantomime…..Public speaking is vibrant and well supported. In one week in January twenty pupils represented the School in Debating and Public Speaking Competitions, the ESU Public Speaking Team won through to the National Finals and at the World Debating and Public Speaking Competition in Cyprus one of our students won the ‘Impromptu Speaking’ and was placed seventh overall.

We continue to produce some fine sports teams. The 1st XV had a highly successful tour in Canada winning all six of their matches; the girls’ 1st XI hockey lost only one match (Millfield); the girls’ U15 XI were unbeaten as were the School swimming team. Individual performances were outstanding. Two pupils represented Wales at Hockey and three represented England at Rounders. At various age groups County representation was strong across the entire sporting range.

It should not go unrecorded that once again our three Ten Tors Teams completed the event. Taunton School has the unique record of never having a walker, let alone a team, drop out at any stage.

To conclude the year we welcomed Miss Sue Lyons, Managing Director - Defence (Europe), Rolls Royce, as our guest at Commemoration. We also bade farewell to Mr Roger Priest who had served the School for thirty-three years. He joined the staff in September 1967. In his time at Taunton he was the Housemaster of a Day and Boarding House, Head of Classics, editor of The Tauntonian, Common Room Secretary, directed the Summer School, ran the Burke (the school debating and public speaking society) and coached cricket, rugby and hockey, latterly the Corinthians - the 3rd and 4th teams.

8 Walthamstow Hall

The start of the Two Thousands has been marked at Walthamstow Hall with great energy. This year we have achieved several targets towards which we have been working, as well as having some less-expected successes and accolades.

Our Millennium Charity was a year-long effort to raise the amount needed to pay the annual salary of a nurse at the hospice we support in South India. With many imaginative schemes - a ‘slave’ auction, a quiz, and Upper Sixth pantomime, staff adjuring the sending of Christmas cards and donating the money instead - we in fact raised enough for two nurses.

But we have not neglected our work for other good causes such as the community in Peckham, who inner-city problems were highlighted by the tragic death of little Damilola. For over a hundred years Walthamstow Hall has sent gifts to the people of Peckham and invited them down to school for a day out in the summer. We have also continued to support the school in Mozambique for which our Christian Fellowship leaders have inspired us to raise funds and collect equipment.

The three sixth-formers took what we had collected to Africa in the summer and worked in the school. We were proud that their enterprise and compassion were recognised at both a county and a national level. They were awarded a unique Millennium Travel Award by the Kent Leney Trust, and also the top three awards in the nation-wide competition run annually by the Independent Schools Travel Association trust.

Recognition has come at county level to our lacrosse-players too, of whom twenty-one were selected for Kent teams, including one captain. They have continued their busy programme of fund-raising for their Spring 2001 tour to the United States.

Trips abroad in 2000 included our regular exchange and work-experience in France, a new German exchange as a result of Sevenoak’s twinning with Rheinbach, a visit to a Christmas market in Germany, history trips to Berlin and Prague and the First World War battlefields, and a geography field-trip in the Cévennes. We continue to welcome students from France, Germany and the Collegio Valdese in Italy.

With the generous help of our Old Girls, who matched the sum in our slowly mounting Piano Fund, we have at last been able to buy a piano worthy of our Ship Theatre. The magnificent new Bösendorfer was welcomed at an evening of piano music from every age group and section of the school community. The music department has been extraordinarily busy all year with recitals, concerts, and visiting groups of musicians from India and Germany, and our choir joined that of Tonbridge School for a Remembrance Sunday concert in their chapel.

The Ship Theatre has hosted drama ranging from Oedipus Rex to Blackadder. The major production was Twelfth Night, with real twins in the roles of Viola and Sebastian. The Junior School’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream was a modern, musical take on Shakespeare.

Examination results were good: especially notable was the 70% of A* and A grades gained in the Religious Studies GCSE taken a year early by the whole Lower Fifth, though alas, it distorts our league-table position to enter girls out of year. We were delighted that the excellent results and strength of character of one of our Advanced Level candidates were acknowledged by a Recognition of Achievement award, one of three made nationally by the OCR examination board. She had fought bone-cancer with astonishing fortitude and cheerfulness and is now reading medicine at Cambridge.

Our Guest of Honour at Prize Giving was Ann Widdecombe, Shadow Home Secretary. At the ceremony, we used for the first time our new School Prayer, in the creating of which, for the new millennium, every girl was involved.

Five daughters of missionaries and five ministers’ daughters are educated at the School, from Anglican, Baptist and Overseas Missionary Fellowship backgrounds as well as from the United Reformed Church.

9 Wentworth College

Last summer our fifth form achieved our best ever GCSE results. Of the total 284 subject entries: 47.2% were graded A or A*, 93% were graded A* to C and 99.3% were graded A* to D. One girl gained A* in each of her ten subjects; and three girls each gained seven A* and three A grades. The nineteen upper sixth students entered for a total of fifty-eight Advanced levels in sixteen subjects and between them achieved an 86% pass rate. Two girls were especially successful with passes in four subjects, one of whom, with four at grade A, is now studying law at Robinson College, Cambridge.

Once again, girls at Wentworth have been busy and productive. Task Force, our whole school project linking us to the Victoria School (for the physically disabled), is in its sixth year. Friday afternoon canoeing sessions with their pupils are still popular (in our pool in winter and on the river in summer) and we all look forward to the Friday sailing expeditions in the summer term in Challenger. Girls have also been involved in the afternoon tea parties to entertain guests in support of ‘Contact the Elderly’.

Charity Week in November saw monies raised for Rotary International, the British Heart Foundation and the BBC Children in Need Appeal. In addition, Wentworth College participated in the Millennium Christmas Tree Festival at Iford United Reformed Church in December and raised further funds for the British Heart Foundation.

The music department flourishes - currently over half the girls learn one or more instruments in school - and this year harp teaching has been added. Our most recent musical event was a very popular supper concert, Songs from the Shows, in November. The girls thrilled us with excerpts from The Lion King and other shows, and gave a splendid encore.

At the Annual Science and Technology Dinner in November the Chief Constable of Dorset entertained parents and guests with a talk on forensic science.

The outdoor education department, too, has been busy. There are sixteen girls preparing for the Duke of Edinburgh Award and Bronze (walking) and Silver (canoe) expeditions took place during the summer holidays. Most of these girls have opted to continue to Silver and Gold respectively. In October and again in March girls enjoyed caving trips to the Mendip Hills.

Also in October thirty girls departed on the Paris 2000 - Art & Language Tour. In January twenty girls enjoyed a skiing course in Switzerland, and another group visited Berlin in February on a combined history and German trip. School teams have been winning the majority of their matches. Seven girls have been selected for county netball teams and three girls are in the county badminton team.

The Advent Service was held at Richmond Hill United Reformed Church, led by Senior Teacher Tim Meachin (NSM candidate), and Revd Dr Donald Norwood.

Last summer Revd Frank Cochrane took over as School Chaplain. The retiring Chaplain, Revd Brian Rawling was invited to join the Board of Governors, and this January he succeeded Mrs Jennie Williams as Chairman of Governors.