Bolton School Launches Transformational Bursary Campaign

On Tuesday 6 May, Bolton School launched its Open Futures Bursary Campaign which aims to restore the growth of the School’s bursary scheme to eventually support one in three pupils at the School. 

The campaign was formally launched by Philip Britton, MBE, the School’s Head of Foundation, at a Centenary Dinner held at the School last Friday to mark the legacy of its founder, Lord Leverhulme, throughout the past century. He said: 

“For generations, Bolton School's socially diverse pupil body - with its mix of fee payers and funded pupils - has been key to what makes the School so special. 

Throughout the decades, the School has built a ladder of social mobility which has benefited young people and their families in Bolton and beyond. This was made possible historically through the Direct Grant and Assisted Places schemes, and more recently through the bursary programme which the School established in 1997 to replace that government funding, and which currently supports 1 in 5 children in the two Senior Schools.

“Until the addition of VAT on independent school fees, the School was well on track to achieve its long-standing ambition to grow that bursary programme even further, to begin to offer funded places to 1 in 3 pupils by the end of this decade. Instead, because of the choices required to ensure the School remains affordable for all following that policy change, by 2030, 100 children who otherwise would have joined us will be denied the opportunity that would – and should - have been available to them.

We are intent that the growth of our bursary scheme must continue towards supporting one in three pupils throughout the senior pupils – changing the lives of up to 250 more bursary children than are in the School presently - with as little delay as possible, and we are proud to be launching the Open Futures Bursary Campaign in order to achieve that goal.” 

Ian Riley, Chair of the Bolton School Governing Body, added: “Since its re-foundation 110 years ago, the Bolton School Foundation’s ethos has been that the School should be accessible to every bright child with potential, regardless of their family’s circumstances. 

Since then, successive generations of pupils have enjoyed every opportunity a Bolton School education provides; 1000s of whom – including myself, a good number of my School friends and many of my fellow Governors – received a funded place to do so. 

To be educated at Bolton School is a privilege that the Governing Body believes should be open to all. Every gift to the Open Futures Campaign, of any size, will help ensure that can be the case, and we hope that the entire School community will join us in our mission and support the campaign however they can.” 

Learn more about the Open Futures Campaign, and watch the campaign video

Pledge your support to the Open Futures Campaign