Shiplake College plays an active part of the local community in a number of ways, working with primary and secondary schools, offering its facilities to clubs and groups and by raising funds for other charities.
Charities
There is an active Charities Committee made up of pupils from across the year groups and houses, who decide on the year's chosen charities and agree how to raise funds. The Parents' Association will also often raise funds to support these charities or respond to other local needs.
The College has also been associated with the charity Gap Africa for over thirty years and every year each of the houses will sponsor a child in Kenya by raising the funds required for him or her to attend secondary school, which is not free in Kenya. Every other year there is a whole school sponsored walk, for which Gap Africa is the sole or main beneficiary.
Each year the College will raise around on average £10k for the various charities, thanks to pupils, parents and members of the Shiplake community.
Public Benefit
The Charities Act 2011 defines a charity as an institution which is established for a charitable purpose and provides benefit to the public. Educational charities, like Shiplake College and many other independent schools, must demonstrate that we are also operating for the public benefit. The College illustrates how it does this in the ISC Annual Census and it also completed the Economic Impact Tool, created by HMC in 2018, which illustrated that Shiplake is saving the Exchequer £5,434,000 per year.