Students at Bolton School

New fee assistance for 'squeezed middle'

Bolton School to offer help with fees for high-performing children in lower family income brackets

Posted by Stephanie Broad | May 22, 2016 | Law, finance, HR

• #bolton-school
• #fee-assistance
• #bursaries
• #middle-income-families
• #independent-schools
• #school-fees

Parents applying for their childrens’ entry into year seven in Bolton School Girls’ or Boys’ Division in autumn 2017 will enjoy new levels of fee assistance which are aimed at benefiting middle income families.  

The awards will be made after assessing the performance of pupils in the school’s January 2017 entrance assessments and after a review of family income. The new sliding bursary scales mean that any family with assessable income up to £80,000 may be eligible for some level of assistance, if their child has performed well enough to be awarded a bursary. Full fee remission will be given to such girls and boys with assessed family income of less than £20,000 per annum. Assessable income of around £30,000 per annum would generally require a parental contribution of only 15% and assessable income of around £40,000 per annum would generally require a contribution of 30%. Furthermore, if the family is paying Bolton School fees for siblings of the bursary child, these may be used to reduce assessable income and so create a more generous bursary award.    

Clerk and Treasurer at Bolton School, Cathy Fox, explained the new scales: “We have always had full fee remission for those families that need it and this will remain. However, we wanted to provide additional help to middle income families by making the school fees more affordable to them, too. We hope this will enable more families to apply who have not previously been able to because of affordability worries.” 

The Entrance Assessment Day for entry into year seven in September 2017 will take place on 19 January and includes tests in English, maths, verbal and non-verbal reasoning. Candidates’ performance at interview also plays a significant role in the awarding of bursaries.   

The school will continue to grant scholarships which are awarded irrespective of financial means; which are often more modest in amount and are not means tested. Scholarships are offered to those candidates who perform best in the entrance tests and interviews and who will offer a significant contribution to the wider life of the School through, for example, music, sport, drama or outdoor pursuits.

www.boltonschool.org