Welcome to Anthony Gell School a Specialist Sports College.

About the Anthony Gell School Foundation

The Foundation is a Charitable Trust (Charity No. 527178) responsible for administering its property and investments for the benefit of the School and its students. A 1910 Scheme was updated and approved by the Charity Commission on 25 May 2005 with new objects being :

The provision of items, services and facilities for Anthony Gell School
The promotion of the education of persons who are in need of financial assistance in the following order of priority:
1. persons who are attending the school; and
2. persons under the age of 25 resident in the Parish of Wirksworth, and the surrounding villages.

It is important to note that our help to School is for additionality in education provision and services, but not core funding.

Foundation is separate from the Governing Body of the School although there arerepresentatives from the Governors at Trustees meetings. Foundation is made up of:

6 Trustees John Thompson (Chairman), Michael Hall (Vice Chairman),Anna Bristow, Rosemary Rennie, Nick Payne and Steve Clamp The scheme allows for appointments for up to 4 years which can be renewed.
5 Governing Body representatives and Dave Baker, the Headteacher and Brigid Farnan from the Senior Leadership Team.
3 Voluntary Advisers Chris Loeber (Legal) and Peter Jones (Financial) and Richard Needham (Property)
Sharen Thorpe as Clerk

Richard Needham's term of office ended on 25 May 2008. He gave outstanding service as a Trustee over 13 years and as Vice Chairman especially in relation to property, planning and business matters, and this was greatly appreciated. He secured £10,000 from Severn Trent for installation of their access road. He kindly agreed to be our Property Adviser on a voluntary basis after ceasing to be a Trustee. He was succeeded by Steve Clamp who lives locally, has previously taught at Anthony Gell School and elsewhere and now has an Advisory role in the Derbyshire Education Department. He has been a Councillor on both Wirksworth Town Council and Derbyshire Dales District Council. He has had two daughters through the School and his knowledge, experience and skills are proving most welcome and very positive.

Mary (Muff) Wiltshire's term of office ended on 25 May 2009. She became a Foundation Trustee over 17 years ago and was a Governor at School and its Chair before that. Since she joined the Trust her contribution has been immense and so much has happened on property and investment matters in support of School and students. Indeed amongst other things she very kindly secured £10,000 from a charity for Access improvement works. Muff was succeeded by Anna Bristow who also lives locally. She became a Parent Governor at Anthony Gell School in 1997 and was Vice Chair from 1999 to July 2008. Her two daughters attended the school. Whilst on the Governing Body Anna was Governor Link to the Special Needs Department and advised on accessibility issues. Professionally, Anna has been Vice Chair and Trustee of the Council of The British Association of Occupational Therapists and sat on its Audit Committee. She has experience of working with local authority social services and housing departments, of working for a national charity and of undertaking research projects concerned with social care. Anna has a particular interest in renewable energy systems and sustainable building through her husband's involvement in this work.

PROPERTY

Property owned by the Foundation used to be in and around School and some land elsewhere. Now it is the land and buildings at the School and the Hannage Playing Fields, plus School’s half of School House. The Trust owns the land which School is built on and is used for Education purposes by Derbyshire County Council. Over the last few years, the Foundation has reviewed the its property with the first priority being achievement of maximum benefits to School. It has sold or leased some areasfor development with the funds being protected and used for the improvement of School facilities and resources:

Sold half of School House with the garden.
Sold adjoining land in the croft for housing.
Granted a long-term lease of the Leisure Centre and car park to Derbyshire Dales DC as a wonderful addition to School and Community facilities.
Sold land for Hannage Brook Medical Centre and car park.
Sold Hillview as a house formerly used as a Caretaker’s house but no longer needed for that purpose by the School.
Sold land by the Learner Pool off Water Lane with outline consent for Housing. This has subsequently received approval for 5 industrial units.
Planning to sell a plot off Canterbury Terrace for a house having got outline planning consent early in 2008.

Our use of funds from bequests, donations and property sales were modest at first but have grown following property disposals and with leasehold rent. Income for the All Turf Pitch is invested for eventual renewal of the surface. Since 1988 support given to the School, projects and students has amounted to £289.050, but most the of this has been since the beginning of 1996. This has helped make projects happen, topped up School funds and attracted external funding.

Special Projects supported include:

Sixth form accommodation - £16,000.
Community Sports and Leisure Centre - £11,000 initially and contributions of £5,300 towards the emergency access road ,and £5,094 towards an improved Sports Hall surface, both provided by Derbyshire Dales District Council.
Science block improvements - £10,000.
Access for all improvements with charity support - £10,000.
Computer Network Improvements - £16,000.
Floodlit All Turf Pitch (ATP) - £70,000 toward £250,000 total. We have funded maintenance to the tune of £3,022 and paying £1,200 for new divider nets.
Improvement of Pitches and a new Changing Room block- £30,000 towards a major School project estimated at £463,000 with the Football Trust and others e.g. - the District/Town Councils and local Sports Clubs. This opened in September, 2005.We are paying £4,000 towards £5,000 costs for School to replace some fencing.
New screen, projector and DVD in the main Hall in 2006 -£5,000.
Surface improvements at the front of Gell Block costing £5,500 so far with a commitment working with School for a further £6,500.

We have two amounts of funding currently for special purposes - for use in relation tomusic and for special needs pupils and purposes. The Foundation would welcome thereceipt of donations and bequests for spending by the charity in accordance with itsobjectives. A Financial Spending Strategy is in place and areas of future support basedon advice from the Headteacher and according to available funds are planned as forStudents, Departments, whole School projects, Sports facilities and improvements toProperty and the Environment.