Protect Tenison's charitable funds to help schools and young people
The Issue
Please help! The Department for Education has drafted an Education Endowment Order which would move funds from our charity, Archbishop Tenison’s School Foundation, to trusts overseen by the Southwark Diocese. The deadline for responses is 18 November and more than £5 million is at stake - funds intended to support schools and young people in London.
Our charity, and its predecessors, originated when Thomas Tenison endowed schools and a library to benefit under-resourced communities in inner London over 300 years ago. We have supported skills and opportunity for generations of young people. Today we provide grants to support education, pastoral care, facilities and equipment, enhancing school experience for pupils and staff and contributing to improved academic and wellbeing outcomes. The proposed transfer of our Charity’s funds to the trusteeship of the Southwark Diocesan Board - changing the area of benefit and governance arrangements - does not seem to consider the best interests of the young people the funds were established to serve.
In addition, charity independence matters. Any decision to intervene in the assets or governance of an active and regulated charity should be necessary, proportionate, and in the public interest.
We’re asking the Secretary of State for Education to decline the Order. This would:
- preserve education funding for public benefit, in the care of the regulated charity committed to serving the inner London under-resourced communities it was set up for;
- value the trusted role of established charity governance;
- respect the stewardship of long-standing public-benefit assets.
Archbishop Tenison's School Foundation is a grant-making charity with a history of supporting schools to widen opportunities and help young people thrive. The services we fund are particularly valuable when schools face financial pressures and many children need additional support. We want to build on this work:
- reaching more schools and developing new partnerships,
- supporting opportunities for more young people, particularly in lower resourced communities in London.
Our plans and future grants are at risk.
PLEASE SIGN TODAY AND SHARE, to ask the Secretary of State for Education to decline the draft Education Endowment Order, so that Archbishop Tenison’s School Foundation can continue its valuable support for schools and young people in London.
Email for more information: contact@tenisons.org.
488
The Issue
Please help! The Department for Education has drafted an Education Endowment Order which would move funds from our charity, Archbishop Tenison’s School Foundation, to trusts overseen by the Southwark Diocese. The deadline for responses is 18 November and more than £5 million is at stake - funds intended to support schools and young people in London.
Our charity, and its predecessors, originated when Thomas Tenison endowed schools and a library to benefit under-resourced communities in inner London over 300 years ago. We have supported skills and opportunity for generations of young people. Today we provide grants to support education, pastoral care, facilities and equipment, enhancing school experience for pupils and staff and contributing to improved academic and wellbeing outcomes. The proposed transfer of our Charity’s funds to the trusteeship of the Southwark Diocesan Board - changing the area of benefit and governance arrangements - does not seem to consider the best interests of the young people the funds were established to serve.
In addition, charity independence matters. Any decision to intervene in the assets or governance of an active and regulated charity should be necessary, proportionate, and in the public interest.
We’re asking the Secretary of State for Education to decline the Order. This would:
- preserve education funding for public benefit, in the care of the regulated charity committed to serving the inner London under-resourced communities it was set up for;
- value the trusted role of established charity governance;
- respect the stewardship of long-standing public-benefit assets.
Archbishop Tenison's School Foundation is a grant-making charity with a history of supporting schools to widen opportunities and help young people thrive. The services we fund are particularly valuable when schools face financial pressures and many children need additional support. We want to build on this work:
- reaching more schools and developing new partnerships,
- supporting opportunities for more young people, particularly in lower resourced communities in London.
Our plans and future grants are at risk.
PLEASE SIGN TODAY AND SHARE, to ask the Secretary of State for Education to decline the draft Education Endowment Order, so that Archbishop Tenison’s School Foundation can continue its valuable support for schools and young people in London.
Email for more information: contact@tenisons.org.
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Petition created on 19 October 2026