Funding your bursary programmes

“I quickly learned that what’s valued at Epsom is your attitude, not where you come from. The school put their faith in me and I wanted to prove they were right to do so.”

This was Sixth-Former Kioni Wynter speaking in an interview for the Independent School’s Magazine about her Royal National Children’s Springboard Bursary at Epsom College. It captures the transformational experience that bursaries can offer students from disadvantaged backgrounds and highlights the way they encourage young people to make the most of all that’s on offer, inside and outside the classroom.

Many of the schools that have engaged us also run outstanding bursary programmes. They aim to foster academic excellence, whilst promoting equality of opportunity amongst local pupils who might otherwise never have access to the rich curricular and extra-curricular offering an independent school provides.

Recently, at Wakefield Grammar School Foundation, where a £10 million capital campaign for a new campus is underway, a seven-figure endowment fund has been established thanks to the generosity of the female alumnae. A similar vein of ‘giving back’ is emerging from donors to the capital campaign, a number of whom studied at the schools in the era of Direct Grants, and feel that other, less fortunate children should have access to the same exceptional educational facilities that they benefitted from decades ago.

If your school is about to step-up its bursary programme and you’d like to know more about our consultancy services at Gifted, please get in touch with one of our directors