The charity

Background

Heather McKissack wanted to ensure that her knowledge and experience of how independent and state schools could work together would be freely available to all stakeholders. Post retirement she had begun to build relationships across the State and Independent educational sectors and with universities to promote collaborative working. Heather was passionate about breaking down barriers and generating ideas to improve both educational opportunity and the wellbeing and attitudes of staff, parents and pupils from all social backgrounds. Social mobility requires that everyone, regardless of background and circumstances, gets the chance to fulfil their potential. Heather knew how to make that happen and had an impressive track record of setting up and supporting successful projects. The HMCK Charity will build on her legacy. The website was built by Sam Richardson, an ex-pupil of Heather's, whom she taught during his first year in the Senior School.

You can contribute to the charity through PayPal or with a credit/debit card. We use the low-cost Donations Manager software to process payments. To donate, please click here.

Aims for The HMCK Charity

We will work with donors and teachers who share our commitment and the charity welcomes new ideas for ensuring that pupils and staff can benefit from school partnerships.

We can achieve this by:

  1. Raising money so that we succeed in our ambitions

  2. In our first year, liaising with the Wimbledon Partnership (see link) and the Kingston Teaching School Alliance (see link) to see how our charity can help with what they are doing
  3. Funding, and then sharing, research into how school partnerships work best and making sure that everyone involved benefits from the wider expertise of organisations like the Sutton Trust (see link) and the Independent Schools Council's Schools Together project (see link).
  4. Encouraging new ideas on how to make social mobility happen through education
  5. Supporting schools already in partnerships by matching the funding for specific schemes they are running
  6. Working with higher education establishments to increase access to their activities and facilities
  7. Inaugurating an annual lecture by a high-profile speaker on the topic of aspiration and how to achieve your ambitions.