Lucinda Holmes offers a deeply personal perspective on the Arnold Foundation, shaped by nearly five decades of connection to Rugby School as a pupil, parent, Governor, Chairman, and Trustee. Since its launch in 2003, the Foundation has embodied the School’s longstanding commitment to widening access to education, creating opportunities for talented young people regardless of background.

Drawing on her extensive experience within the Rugbeian community, Lucinda reflects on the Foundation’s transformative impact, highlighting its enduring importance in an evolving educational landscape.

'The Arnold Foundation is at the heart and soul of Rugby School. It was launched in 2003 on the very principles that the School was founded on some 436 years earlier – namely, the right to a good education available to all.  

I started my Rugby School life in 1978. Not quite the first cohort of girls but still just a scattering in the LXX, I had come from an all girls’ day school, and my parents had let me decide where to apply for, from a carefully curated list of three of the traditional great public schools.  

Aged 16, Rugby School was truly amazing to me in every way. Its history, the buildings and the opportunities, both academic and co-curricular, would have been unimaginable in my previous school. But what struck me most then – and still inspires me now – were the people. Rugbeians are welcoming, friendly and unpretentious.  

Forty-eight years later I can call myself an old (very!) Rugbeian, a past parent, a retired Governor, a former Chairman (2014 – 2020), and a retired Trustee of the Arnold Foundation. All of those roles have brought pride and, almost always, pleasure, and I have formed deep and lasting friendships in each of those positions – some of which have endured across them all.  

When we chose Rugby School for our four children, the Arnold Foundation and its ethos and importance within the School played a major part in our decision making.  It comes back to the people and their collective sense of community, unpretentiousness and inclusiveness.  

I am very proud of the impact that the Arnold Foundation has had, not only on the  School but also on the individual recipients of the bursaries (now numbering more than 185), and the ripple effect that many of them have had within their own communities.  Nothing worth doing is ever entirely plain sailing but the efforts put in by the whole Rugbeian community have been both immense and heart-warming, and I’m so delighted to see that the Arnold Foundation is thriving and that the endowment continues to grow.  

This is now particularly important as the entire education sector is buffeted by political and economic headwinds, and in a world where privilege is often seen as a badge of dishonour. Community, inclusivity and diversity are such an important part of today’s values, and these things are already deeply embedded in the Rugbeian ethos and the education provided to our students.  

Great care is taken in the selection of Arnold Foundation students, and then in nurturing them throughout their school careers. Rugby works with partner organisations across the country and seeks out students who will benefit from everything that a boarding school education can give them. Their bursary awards cover everything they need to thrive in the school community, and there are dedicated pastoral tutors and mentors to ensure that they are settled and happy in the school community.  

The greatest testament to the work of the Arnold Foundation  comes from the students themselves. They come back to the School, they mentor current students and they speak very openly about the positive impact that their education has had on their lives. 

The Arnold Foundation has been groundbreaking in its impact, and many other schools have modelled their own bursary programmes on its proven success.  

Determined to spread its ethos beyond Rugby School, the Governing Body partnered with McKinsey, resulting in Springboard (now Royal National SpringBoard Foundation) being created with other partner schools in 2012, with the mission of widening access to the opportunities available in state as well as independent boarding schools to a great education.  

So, wearing any of my various Rugbeian hats, I am very proud of Rugby School and the way it has developed its 16th-century foundations into a school open and inclusive to all, and offering a whole person education in this 21st century.  

That is indeed ‘the whole point’.'