Helping bright children attend some of the best independent schools in the UK

Founder of the Record Scholarship Trust

Neil was born and raised in Oxford. When Neil was seven, his father, a university administrator, died suddenly of a heart attack, leaving him and his older brother Richard to be raised by their mother, an English teacher. Both Richard and Neil won 11+ places at Magdalen College School, Oxford, then a Direct Grant school, giving both of them a high-quality education without cost to their family (a cost which the family could not have borne).

The ending of the Direct Grant system, and the abolition of most state Grammar schools in the 1970s, has deprived generations of academically able children of the same opportunity to be fully stretched at schools with cultures which encourage learning and academic success.

Today, Neil intends to offer that opportunity to other bright children whose families would like them to study at outstanding independent schools. The Record Charitable Trust's scholarship programme is an attempt, in a very small way, to provide additional social mobility at a time when, for far too many children, the wealth of their family predetermines their own success in life.

Director of the Record Scholarship Trust

Andrew attended a large comprehensive school in Birmingham before reading English at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He was Master of Magdalen College School, Oxford, for ten years before becoming Head Master of King's College School, Wimbledon, for over thirteen years. He is currently Honorary Principal of King’s College School, Bangkok, and an educational consultant focusing on school improvement. His interests include researching the life and works of Charles Dickens and he has given lectures on Dickens in the UK and the USA. He has a broad interest in UK education and, in 2020, he was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List for services to education.

Julie was a teacher then head of two co-educational, day and boarding prep schools. She led education and training for IAPS for five years and has run the Independent Schools Council since 2015. ISC is a representative body working with a range of organisations promoting the independent education sector. ISC’s three priority areas of activity are: research, communications, and policy/public affairs. Julie advocates working together for the benefit of children in all schools. She is a trustee of the School Partnerships Alliance and a school governor at a state school as well as an independent school in London.

Sue is an experienced Head, Principal of The Grammar School at Leeds since 2016 and before that, leading The British School of Brussels. An English graduate with a Masters in Educational Leadership, she has taught in maintained and independent schools, in co-educational and single sex schools and in selective and comprehensive schools. As such, she has a wide knowledge and experience of the educational sector stretching over 30 years. Sue is an experienced school governor, serves as an ISI Inspector, is involved in several partnership projects and has recently been elected Chair of HMC for 2023-24.

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Alex is the Head-Elect of Bancroft’s School and currently a member of the Senior Leadership Team at North London Collegiate School, having previously been Head of Wolverhampton Grammar School. A modern languages graduate from Cambridge University, he started his teaching career at Trinity School, Croydon, in the mid-1990s and saw the great benefits to pupils and school alike of the Government Assisted Places Scheme. Since the demise of the scheme, he has maintained a significant commitment to the identification and promotion of bursary pupils through his roles as Head of Modern Languages at Hampton and Deputy Head (Academic) at Mill Hill, and as a defining feature of his career in Headship. Alex has also been a state school governor and serves as an ISI Inspector.