Independent schools have to prove how they provide a public
benefit if they wish to retain their charitable status.
Schools must show that they offer bursaries or share their
facilities with the local community and benefit people on low
incomes, as per recommendations laid out in a consultation
paper from the Charity Commission published in March 2007.
In July 2009, The Charity Commission published its long awaited
assessment of the 'public benefit' of five independent schools, and
as widely predicted, the emphasis on the need to provide
means-tested bursaries was at the centre of the assessment
criteria.
I am confident that we meet the requirements that the Commission
is looking for. Currently 286 of
our pupils receive bursaries, many of them receiving full
fee assistance, indeed, across both senior schools, over 15% of our
pupils come from families whose annual income is below the national
average. Ever since the School was re-endowed by
Lord Leverhulme in 1915, we have sought to offer an education for
all able pupils, irrespective of their financial circumstances.
The School is also comfortable that it is able to
demonstrate that its facilities and expertise benefit the local
community. The sporting facilities are used for local and
county-level clubs and activities in athletics, cricket, football,
lacrosse, netball, rugby, tennis, swimming and water polo. We open
up our facilities to local children in other schools through an
annual Sports Festival for local primary schools and an annual
Science Festival, hosted at the School; both events attract over 25
schools and hundreds of children. Equally popular is our
annual football 5-a-side tournament for primary school boys
and girls. We also host Bury FC's Football
Academy, the Andrew Flintoff Cricket Academy and a summer
camp Sportsweek. We are also delighted to have been chosen as
one of only eight Football Focus schools in the country and we will
offer our expertise and facilities in this area to local
schoolchildren. Similarly, we have launched a water polo
school of excellence.
In February 2010 we were delighted to celebrate the culmination
of the first
SHINE: Serious Fun on Saturdays project at Bolton
School. Over 11 term-time Saturdays, 38 Year 5 pupils
from local primary schools utilised our facilities and were given
expert tuition in a host of subjects, ranging from the traditional
to more unusual topics such as Japanese and Martial
Arts. The School was only the second school outside London to
run the programme, which is co-funded by ourselves
and Shine.
The School offers expertise and shares best practice in many
academic subjects; teachers and groups visit the local community
and the School also hosts a variety of subject related events.
There is an online Maths Challenge for Year 6 pupils and, new in
2009, is the Annual Modern Foreign Languages
Festival, which will be open to local primary schools. Pupils will
be able to sample taster courses in French, Russian, German,
Spanish and Japanese, make use of the School's resources and
receive expert tuition from experienced language teachers.
We have recently been engaging more with local community
groups on a number of campaigns and hope to further open up our
facilities to local residents.
The School also continues to undertake a huge amount of charity
work - both in terms of time and money - at a local, national and
international level. The web pages within this section of our
site will give you a flavour of the benefits we offer.
Clerk & Treasurer