Bursar’s Review Impact Report 2022

8 Impact Report On 26 April 1932, a group of eight bursars met at Epsom College and founded the Public Schools Bursars’ Association. Their aim was to establish a not-for-profit organisation which would stand side by side with schools and provide bursars with exceptional support and proactive counsel. For 90 years these activities have been at the core of what ISBA (as it became known in 1983) has delivered. Our business is helping bursars and senior managers perform their roles as e†ectively as possible and embodying a reliable source of guidance, professional development and community. In the decades since 1932, the Association has built on our founders’ original vision to grow and deliver extraordinary impact for a sector which now educates more than 532,000 pupils in ISC member schools – the third highest level since records began in 1974. As we anticipate celebrating our 90th anniversary this year, the challenges we have overcome and the achievements made by the Association and our members cannot be overstated. I feel I am safe in saying that the last two years of the global COVID-19 pandemic have delivered turmoil, upheaval and uncertainty exceeded only in our organisation’s history by the Second World War. The ways in which ISBA has responded to the pandemic and has consistently risen to meet the changing needs of our members, detailed in this report, together with the undoubted excellence of our schools throughout this crisis are cause for great pride. In 2021 the Independent Schools Council reported in its annual census that more than a quarter of new pupils joining our schools in the previous year moved from state schools, demonstrating the enduring appeal and resilience of our sector. In this (our third) impact report, we’ll explain how we invested the income we received from membership fees and other sources over the past two years and detail the services we developed for schools between January 2020 and January 2022. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the ISBA team for their hard work, responsiveness and professionalism, particularly over the past two years, and express my appreciation for our member schools – we pledge to continue to provide you with the highest level of training, guidance and support for the next 90 years! David Woodgate Chief executive, ISBA Message from the chief executive, David Woodgate