A Celebration of the Generosity of the Bolton School Community

Annual Giving Report, 2024-25

As the Spring Term begins, Bolton School is delighted to publish its annual Giving Report, which documents the generous philanthropy and committed voluntary service of the School community during the previous academic year, and celebrates the significant impact that support has had upon the School’s continued success.

During 2024-25, an exceptional £2.28m was donated to Bolton School and to the Bolton School Bursary Foundation (BSBF). This collective philanthropy supported the continued growth of our bursary scheme, provided extra-curricular and ancillary funding for bursary pupils, developed the School’s sporting facilities, enhanced the activity infrastructure at Patterdale Hall and funded prizes and scholarships for pupils and recent leavers.

In addition, during that same period 294 Alumni, parents, former parents, Friends, Governors, Trustees and others volunteered their time, talents and expertise to benefit the School and its pupils, past and present. These volunteers ensured the School’s careers and enrichment programmes and Alumni mentoring schemes continued to thrive, enabled the Friends of Bolton School to raise substantial funds to enhance our pupils’ experience and ensured the continued good governance of both the School and BSBF.

Reflecting on the publication of the Giving Report, Philip Britton MBE DL, Head of Foundation, said:

“I am hugely grateful to all of those who chose to support the School philanthropically and voluntarily during the last academic year. Thanks to the generosity of so many Alumni, parents, Friends, Charitable Trusts and others members of the School community, over £2m was raised and many hundreds of hours were given in voluntary service, all of which will improve and enhance the lives and educational opportunities of every pupil in the School, most particularly through the continued growth of our nationally-renowned bursary scheme.

“The success thus far of our Open Futures Bursary Campaign – launched in May last year to bring the achievement of the School’s ambition to move to providing bursary funding for 1 in 3 pupils back into view – has proven that the School community shares our award-winning commitment to social mobility. We were delighted by the initial response to the Campaign, which in its first four months alone raised over £500,000 in new gifts and pledges to the bursary scheme, and are resolute in our determination that that success must continue in the years ahead.

“As the Open Futures Campaign gathers pace, I would be delighted if every member of the School community would consider joining me in supporting the growth of our bursary scheme this year. Every gift, of every size, will help ensure that a Bolton School education remains an opportunity open to all who would thrive here.”

During the Autumn Term, Bolton School was honoured to receive two awards for social mobility, when it was named as the School/College of the Year at the 2025 UK Social Mobility Awards (SOMOs), and as the Independent School of the Year for Contribution to Social Mobility at the 2025 Independent School of the Year Awards. This public recognition of the School’s sustained and systematic work to enable social mobility in Bolton, and of its leadership of this work in the independent schools’ sector, was a moment of significant pride for the School.

These two awards acknowledge the life chances Bolton School has given to so many young people over the decades, which have made an enormous difference to each of those individuals and their families. They also recognise the impact of the philanthropy of the School’s many supporters, whose charitable giving to our nationally-leading bursary scheme has allowed generations of students to receive the education that made that difference, and whose generous support is documented in the 2024-25 Giving Report.

Download Bolton School’s 2024-25 annual Giving Report

Learn more about the Open Futures Bursary Campaign, and how you might offer your own support