A donation from a former pupil will offer the next generation of boys “transformational bursaries”, Bolton School Boys’ Division has said.
Four new sixth form bursaries will launch with the £100,000 donation from former pupil Adam Crook, who left in 1992.
Crook is a partner at the investment bank Goldman Sachs and arranged the donation through the bank’s Gives Fund.
From September 2021, and for the following three academic years, a bursary recipient will begin sixth form studies at the school, their fees paid in full by the Adam Crook/GS Gives Bursary.
Every child should have the opportunity to fulfil their academic potential, and that shouldn’t just be a function of where you grow up or whether your parents can afford it – Adam Crook, alumnus
Bolton School Boys’ Division chooses all bursary recipients considering their academic ability and familial financial circumstances, the school said. One in five senior school pupils receives financial support from the Bolton bursaries. Six per cent of the school’s pupil body receives a fully-funded bursary.
“Looking back at my own family history, it’s only really in the last couple of generations that there has been genuine potential for social mobility, through access to education and a broader more meritocratic society,” said Crook of his motivations to donate the six-figure sum.
“Education is transformational, and for my grandparents, growing up in Bolton, today’s opportunities were just not available. Every child should have the opportunity to fulfil their academic potential, and that shouldn’t just be a function of where you grow up or whether your parents can afford it.”
Crook said he would offer to mentor the recipients of the bursary.
The school’s headmaster Phillip Britton said: “These bursaries will make a difference not just to the young people who receive them but also to those in the communities they will be part of in later life as they live out the values that we promote here and use their talents for the greater good. There could be no better example of that than Adam’s own personal success leading to him giving these bursaries.”
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