The Wellington College Arts Fund
Schools shouldn't charge parents to hear their children perform in concerts. Or should they?
Most productions (drama or musical theatre) have a charge to cover the costs and indeed many arts events might have a retiring collection. I am aware that some schools give proceeds to local charities so I thought I would explain a little bit about a process that I setup at Wellington College.
We believe that parents shouldn't pay for tickets to see their children perform but we decided to attach an optional charge of £5 for every ticket (parents can pay more if they wish). The idea was that all the proceeds would go to a fund, an Arts Fund, to give to arts initiatives in the community, specifically in local schools.
We had just built a large theatre/ concert hall and a significant proportion of the money donated for that project came from a fund that was very involved in community projects. My thought was that the events in the theatre should continue to give back to the community.
We were acutely aware that one of the main issues for the Arts in schools was money, so we thought we could help schools by going directly to the teachers (and not the management).
We created a trio of fund administrators and developed a simple grant application form for local teachers of the Arts. This would fund equipment or projects, giving away grants of usually £1,000 at a time to schools every term.
The Wellington College Arts Fund (WCAF) has been active for 5 years and has donated £140,000 to over 80 local schools (primary and secondary). Projects have included instruments, computers, staging, lighting, costumes, workshops and trips.
Of course, the spin-offs are numerous.
The WCAF is much more than just a grant - it is the gateway for other arts-related community engagement with local schools. We invite partner-schools to join in arts events at Wellington with joint art exhibitions as well as performances.
We host Arts 'Teachmeets' where local arts teachers meet to share ideas and we invite pupils from local schools to see our productions and concerts for free. We also have a group of parent ambassadors who fundraise and support the Arts Fund.
I would be more than happy to share the process with other independent schools if they wished to do a similar project.
We receive fantastic feedback from our partner schools:
'
We have been able to start a small (but burgeoning!) wind band. We're delighted with our progress and are hugely thankful to the WCAF for making this possible'.
Ash Manor School, Guildford
'Yesterday we received the percussion instruments we purchased using the arts grant. Reception class wasted no time in delightedly opening the delivery and playing with the instruments'.
Hatch Ride Primary School
Simon Williamson
Director of the Music and the Arts Wellington College
April 2026