Since 2019, progress in reducing the educational attainment gap has stalled in the early and secondary years and the gap has widened in Key Stage 4 (Years 10 and 11). We all know that a high-quality education and attainment helps to combat social exclusion and drives social mobility for children from disadvantaged backgrounds; it is also linked to better health, wealth and happiness, and should, therefore, be available to everyone.
While policy initiatives can address the growing economic inequalities – creating jobs, building houses, improving social infrastructure and so on – independent schools have an important role to play in enabling and widening access to life-changing high-quality education.
Bursaries and scholarships are not new. A significant number of grammar schools were established in the Middle Ages using bequeathed funds to provide free of charge schooling for the less affluent in the community. Our founder, Dr Stephen Perse, a fellow of Gonville and Caius College at the University of Cambridge, recognised the role of education as an enabler of social mobility. He firmly believed that education should be a right, rather than a privilege and, when he died in 1615, he bequeathed land to establish a ‘Grammar Free School’, which later also led to the establishment of Perse School for Girls, as we were previously. Today, as the co-educational Stephen Perse Cambridge, we still rely on the support of donors, benefactors and local businesses to achieve our model of modern, inclusive education for academically-able children and young people, striving for equality of access.
Bursaries and scholarships are essential
Through financial support from donors, schools such as Stephen Perse Cambridge can offer places to children and young people from a breadth of different socio-economic backgrounds, as well as taking teaching and resources out into other settings in the community. While every child has potential, not all have the opportunity, guidance or life chances to unlock their potential. Stephen Perse Cambridge has always sought to offer a first-class education to academically able and determined students, regardless of their circumstances and in this city, which is the most unequal in the UK, we believe we have a moral imperative to continue with this mission.
Currently, almost 40 per cent of Stephen Perse Cambridge Senior School and Sixth Form students receive some form of financial support. Despite the challenges posed by the introduction of VAT on school fees in January 2025, we remain steadfast in our commitment to maintaining and expanding this support. In 2022/2023, the Stephen Perse student community included 156 students with bursary or scholarship awards, rising to 262 in 2023/2024. In 2024/2025, we anticipate approximately 400 students will benefit from financial support, including in-year hardship awards granted before the year end.
Alumni gifts can change lives
Following their own academic journeys, alumni are often inspired to ‘give back’ and provide crucial financial support enabling independent schools to offer a range of bursaries, scholarships and grants. Many of our own alumni are former scholarship or bursary recipients. At Stephen Perse Cambridge, the Guild Opportunities Fund was launched in 2023, coinciding with the 120th anniversary of our alumni association, to increase the level of support that we can offer to our students and their families. Gifts of all sizes have a positive impact on our students whose families may be facing financial difficulties—£12 funds a full pencil case for a new student, while £1,600 provides a week of term-time counselling services across our schools. The Margaret Saunders Fund, established 14 years ago in memory of alumna Margaret Saunders, helps fund the purchase of school uniforms, while our community of donors ensure students can access ‘rare breed’ instrument loans and lessons to encourage them to develop their orchestral skills. Financial support from our schools goes beyond fees support; it enriches our students' experiences while they are in school, so that they can engage with the full breadth of experiences we offer.
Local partnerships are key to unlocking support
In addition to our general bursary scheme at Stephen Perse Cambridge, we also offer fully funded places at our Sixth Form to local state school students. Funded by donors, including significant support from Cambridge-based Costello Medical, the scheme enables students from North Cambridge Academy (NCA), our state secondary school partner in Cambridge, to access educational opportunities with Stephen Perse Cambridge. NCA’s community context means that it has the highest numbers of students registered as Pupil Premium (PP) in the county.
Through this independent-state school partnership, supported with multi-year funding from Costello Medical, we are raising aspirations and ensuring students from all backgrounds can access a post-16 education that optimises their pathway to higher education.
Currently, 20 NCA alumni have benefited from the partnership and, having successfully completed Sixth Form, moved on to university and training opportunities in Maritime Engineering, Politics and International Relations, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biomedical Engineering, Physics, Astrophysics, Nursing and more.
Alistair, who previously attended NCA, benefited from a fully funded place to study A Levels at Stephen Perse Cambridge. After studying History, Maths, and Politics at A Level, Alistair secured a place at Bath University to read Politics. He explained: “The partnership gives you the ability to pursue and partake in programmes, activities and opportunities that you might not be able to do otherwise.
“It has opened a whole new perspective for me. The range of opportunities that has been offered to me has led to a wealth of experiences, which have been both fun and beneficial to my academic journey. I am grateful for the partnership and for the school’s support that helped me to secure a place at university.”
Our state secondary school partnership goes far beyond financial support. Members of our Senior Leadership Team continuously work with their counterparts at NCA to raise students’ aspirations across all age groups by enhancing their educational experience. Not only are there regular visits between both school sites, but our teaching staff provide additional teaching resources and support for the academic offering at NCA in science, maths and languages.
Support that goes beyond local needs
We recognise the role that schools can play in humanitarian crises and have a long history of supporting children and young people displaced by global conflict. With philanthropic support from donors, Stephen Perse Cambridge introduced its Conflict Bursary in 2022, which awards fully funded places to those displaced by conflict, providing not just access to education, but much-needed support and normality through times of crisis. We have two Ukrainian students currently studying at Stephen Perse Cambridge on fully funded bursary places, while a former Conflict Bursary recipient is now reading Maths at the University of Warwick.
Stephen Perse Cambridge’s evolving approach to ensuring access to a high-quality education emphasises its profound commitment to social mobility for children and young people. Schools such as Stephen Perse Cambridge have adapted to changing societal needs, forging partnerships with state schools and expanding opportunities through robust bursary, scholarship and grant programmes to continue to break down barriers and provide pathways for disadvantaged children and young people to reach their potential. Whilst great progress has been made to address inequality in education since those first charitable schools were established, there is still much work to be done. Harnessing the experience and networks of charitable schools, and the best of state school practice, ensures that the least well-resourced in society have access to better opportunities while strengthening education provision for all.
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Social mobility: a modern approach rooted in history
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