About Us
The Marjorie Willis charity makes grants to individual students and to the school for support and equipment that is not provided from educational funding.
We are an established registered charity, that has been supporting Alderbrook School for over 50 years.
The charity is managed by four Trustees including a senior member of staff and the head teacher.
The charity exists to raise funds for the school and the trustees can award grants for any appropriate educational purpose.
In practice this is used for items that are not provided through normal educational funding.
In the past the charity has paid for minibuses, water fountains and support for individuals to take part in activities.
More recently the charity has awarded grants including stage equipment, models for art, STEM equipment, reading pens, a breakfast, music lessons, basketball nets, a kiln, subsidised theatre and educational trips.
As a registered charity, we benefit from the Gift Aid scheme, which means we can claim an addition 25% of donations from taxpayers.
We are signed up to the fundraising regulator, which means we are committed to good practice in how we operate.
The accounts and reports are available on request.
The Charity has four trustees:
- Annette Scott (Chair)
- Tom Beveridge (Head Teacher)
- Tim Stent
- Roger Leitch (Secretary/Treasurer)
In March 2017, Richard Holt and Roger Leitch were appointed and William Sedgwick stepped down.
In September 2017, Dr Smith became Headteacher of Alderbrook School
In May 2020 Tom Beveridge became Headteacher of Alderbrook School
In January 2021 Richard Holt resigned.
In September 2021 Tim Stent was appointed
Our Story
Alderbrook is an 11-18, mixed comprehensive school serving the area of south Solihull.
It was formed in 1974 from an amalgamation of Harold Malley Boys’ and Harold Cartwright Girls’ Grammar Schools.
Miss Marjorie Willis was the head teacher of Harold Cartwright Girls’ Grammar School.
When the change to comprehensive schools took place, five Grammar School Head Teachers including Marjorie, were no longer required and most took early retirement.
The charitable Trust was set up in 1974 in her name by friends of Harold Cartwright Girls’ Grammar School, with the aim of supporting the education of pupils at the school.
We are looking for information about Marjorie Willis.
The files inherited by the current trustees contained very little information about Marjorie Willis, all we have is from some old newspaper clips.
(The photo is from a newspaper clipping in 1967 and is not very clear).
If you have any information about Marjorie or a better photo, then please get in touch.
Marjorie Willis Wrote a Book
This appears to have been written after Marjorie left the school.
There were 4 print runs and copies still exist in libraries around the world.
The following are excerpts from a review of the book:
- School teachers are frequently confronted by a child who is unwell, either with an acute illness or from an accident, and many have in their class a child with a chronic disability. What do they do?
Here is a book to which they can refer in all such cases and which has been written specifically with their needs in mind. - Succeeding chapters describe the ordinary medical problems of childhood; how these can affect the child at school; what the teacher needs to know, and what the teacher should do if anything goes wrong.
- Not forgotten are the difficulties encountered with children who smoke, drink or take drugs.
- This is a book which school doctors can recommend to their teacher colleagues…
