Bursary Campaign Raises Millions

The Bursary Fund at Bolton School is £5 million richer after the School’s hugely successful 100 Campaign for Bursaries reached its target, with the monies raised enabling deserving children from across the region to study for free or at reduced costs at the fee-paying independent day school. Watch a short film celebrating this outstanding achievement online. 

The fundraising encouraged former pupils and friends of the School to donate to the campaign, which launched in April 2015 in honour of the School’s centenary. A hundred years earlier in 1915, upon creating the Bolton School Foundation, Lord Leverhulme’s intention was to provide an excellent education for every child of ability, irrespective of financial means. 

Headmistress of the Girls’ Division at Bolton School, Sue Hincks, said: “Support for the 100 Campaign has come from right across the School community, including Old Boys and Old Girls, Charitable Trusts, current and former parents and other friends of the School as well as from our Parents’ Associations, who raised money through a Family Foundation Festival and two spectacular School Balls. The funds raised will help us to honour Lord Leverhulme’s founding ethos and build a firm foundation for the next 100 years in the School’s history.” 

Philip Britton, Headmaster of the Boys’ Division, reflected:

Our means-tested bursaries allow children from families that earn £20,000 or less to potentially enjoy a free education with us, and enjoy all of the opportunities that provides. Currently more than 300 pupils - or one in five children attending either the Girls’ or Boys’ Division Senior School - receive assistance with their fees and, of these, half have all their fees paid in full. The astonishing generosity shown by donors during this campaign will prove transformational in the lives of bright, deserving young people who wish to study here. This has a positive benefit to both the School community and also on local and wider society as these students leave school and make a positive impact in the world.

Chairman of Governors, Mr Michael Griffiths, said: “We are delighted with the success of this campaign. Our vision for the future is to be the school that any talented child can come to, regardless of their parents’ ability to pay the fees. With the continued support of the School community, we know that this ambitious target will, one day, become a reality.”

Learn more about applying for a bursary at Bolton School online.