School Awards

Commitment to Social Mobility Recognised

In the summer term of 2021, Bolton School was shortlisted for two awards that recognise the Foundation’s commitment to social mobility. The UK Social Mobility Awards 2021 shortlisted Bolton School in the School/College of the Year category. These awards, organised by social justice charity Making The Leap and now in their fifth year, provide an opportunity to recognise organisations who are making strides and creating initiatives to advance social mobility within their own workforce or beyond their own walls. The ‘SOMOs’ were the first national awards dedicated to social mobility, recognising the forward-thinking organisations that are working to progress social mobility. The Independent School Parents’ School of the Year Awards also shortlisted the school in their Social Mobility category. Providing social mobility is inter-twined with Bolton School’s history and it was Lord Leverhulme’s vision to offer an education for all capable children when he re-endowed the School in 1915. 42 pupils from the Class of 2020 left having received bursarial assistance for their education. Thirty-eight went on to university, 32 of whom secured places on courses at prestigious Russell Group institutions. 19 went on to study subjects in the medical sciences, including 12 pupils now studying Medicine. During the same academic year, the School community made pledges and gifts totalling £672,000 to the Bursary Fund for the next intake of students. This enabled 54 Year 7 pupils to join the two Senior Schools in September. Overall, the School spent £2.89m on means-tested bursaries, supporting 350 girls and boys across the Senior Schools: a proportion of one in five. One third of recipients, equating to 6% of the pupil body, received fully-funded bursaries. In the 2020-21 academic year, the school also began working in partnership with The Bursary Foundation, a charity which works to connect deserving young people in deprived communities in Greater Manchester with the best educational opportunities at independent and grammar schools across the region. It works with primary schools in deprived communities to identify gifted and talented pupils with the potential to thrive at an academically selective school, and supports them and their families through the admissions process and throughout their secondary school careers. The George Lancashire Fund at Bolton School was established in November 2012 to fund bursaries for children living in Eccles to study at the School. Following the School’s partnership with The Bursary Foundation, from September 2020 this allocation criteria will be widened to include children living in all areas of the Metropolitan Borough of Salford. Furthermore, any child from Salford who is awarded a 100% bursary from the George Lancashire Fund after engagement with the Bursary Foundation will also qualify to receive an annual ‘Extras’ allowance for the duration of their 100% bursary. This will provide funding for uniform, travel costs, equipment and other associated costs, in order that they can take full advantage of all the opportunities a Bolton School education offers.