Windmill House Trust
The Trust
Following the closure of Windmill House School in Uppingham in 2009, the trustees worked with the Charity Commission to enable the remaining funds in the trust to be used for the educational benefit of children in the Uppingham area. Amendments were made to the existing Trust Deed and the 'Windmill House Trust' was formed with the aim to fund projects for primary school children promoting art, drama, languages, music and nature study.
Current trustees give their time voluntarily and the Trust incurs minimal running expenses.
Background
The Uppingham PNEU School was founded in 1939 by Mrs P F Saunders in Lorne House, Uppingham with around 8 pupils, solely for the children of schoolmasters at Uppingham School. By 1967 the School had grown to 25 pupils and began operating on a non-profit making basis under a Trust Deed administered by parents of the pupils. The principles of the School were based on the philosophy of Charlotte Mason whose motto "I am, I can, I ought, I will" stood for the principles of an integrated education “education is an atmosphere” and who particularly encouraged appreciation of art, drama language, music and nature study.
In 1989 an appeal was launched to raise £200,000 to enable the School to move to Windmill House in Stockerston Road. The School then flourished for many years, providing primary education for children aged 3 to 11 years, at its height the School had almost 90 pupils and extensions were added to the building.
During 2008 it became apparent that rising costs, increasing bureaucracy together with a decline in numbers with the recession meant that the school was no longer viable. The difficult decision to close the school was taken at the end of the summer term 2009.
Projects
In 2011, the Trust was able to begin funding local projects and initiated a series of subsidies for courses run in the holidays by the Uppingham Summer School.
The Trust funded the Uppingham Children's Choir which under the leadership of Lesley Ffrench won numerous National awards and performed at the Llangollen Eisteddfod in 2016.
Spotlight Dance. The Trust has supported the Spotlight Dance Festival since 2012 enabling over 300 young people from 20 schools in Rutland to perform on a professional stage to a public audience keeping their passion for dance and performance alive.
The Rutland Children's Theatre Project continues to ensure that children in Rutland have the chance to see free live theatre performances in a fully equipped purpose-built theatre. In cooperation with Uppingham Theatre, the funding received ensures that a programme of professional performances, ranging from puppetry to plays is available to primary school children in the area. Recent performances include:
- Lewis Carroll's Hunting of the Snark
- Michael Morpurgo's King Arthur
- Sarah and Duck's Big Top Birthday
- Judith Kerr's the Tiger Who Came to Tea
- Edward Lear's The Dong with the Luminous Nose
- Julia Donaldson's The Smartest Giant in Town.
Warning Zone. The Trust has for the last 6 years funded a visit to this important educational safety experience in Leicester for all year 6 students in Rutland.
Root and Branch Out. in 2016 the Trust funded this Forest School project to run a pilot with primary schools in Uppingham. We continue to fund this programme which has expanded to run Forest School experiences for numerous schools in Rutland.
Uppingham Tree Trail. Brass plaques for leaf rubbing were funded for the children's trail - an Uppingham in Bloom project.
Brass Project. The Trust funds individual music lesson tuition for pupils in 4 local schools.
Curtain Upp. The Trust funds some music and dance in several local pre-primary schools.
