Now it’s my turn to pay back some of that opportunity, in the hope it inspires others to nurture talent wherever it can be found.
A bursary isn’t a substitute for hard work and determination but it’s a helping hand you can’t put a value on until later in life.
Ciaran Nelson, KES Direct Grant Recipient (1989 – 1996)
A community is the sum of the stories it tells. And, what is important is that the stories continue to be written; that the chapters unfurl but that there is always more to come.
Through a combined three centuries at our heritage schools, we have had more stories than most, and these are increasingly set in the context of an ever more challenging world. Across the Fylde coast, throughout Lancashire and beyond, individuals and families are facing the realities of a difficult economic situation, exacerbated by the lingering effects of COVID and spiralling household costs.
The strapline of our school is ‘Change your world’: our hope is that our students will leave us with the ability and inclination to change their world for themselves and others. Our heritage schools shared a fundamental moral purpose of providing educational opportunities for children in the area, combining academic rigour and character education with a spirit of service within their communities and beyond, a core thread that runs through the school as it is now.
With our Bursary Appeal, we wish to focus support on those individuals across our community, continuing the mission of the heritage schools in making a real, sustained and tangible difference for young people. There are many individuals who would benefit from the exciting, globally-minded education we seek to offer, whose presence would enormously enrich the school community. It is a full circle back to the core purpose of our schools, and of education itself.
We are thrilled to invite you to join us in penning this exciting, latest chapter and, through supporting our Foundation, to help set the scene for the stories ahead.
David Harrow, Headmaster Chris Dickson, Chairman of the AKS Lytham Foundation
Our Vision... to create a legacy enabling young people to change their world through AKS Lytham
The history of AKS Lytham spans 300 years across the three heritage schools: Arnold School, King Edward VII School and Queen Mary School. During the period 1999 to 2004, King Edward and Queen Mary schools merged to form KEQMS. AKS Lytham was subsequently formed following the merger with Arnold School in 2012.
Our heritage schools shared a fundamental moral purpose of providing educational opportunities for children in the area and many benefited from the Direct Grant Scheme and Assisted Places Scheme with a free place at our feepaying schools.
The Assisted Places Scheme was a government initiative providing means-tested free places to fee-paying independent schools – based on the child’s results in the schools entrance examination.
By 1995, the scheme supported 6,000 students a year and replaced the Direct Grant Scheme which operated between 1945 and 1976.
Between 1981 and 1997 an estimated 80,000 children participated in the scheme, costing over £800 million. By 1997 there were some 34,000 pupils and 355 schools participating including Arnold School in Blackpool and King Edward VII and Queen Mary Schools in Lytham.
Arnold School
Queen Mary School
King Edward School
Our ambition is to help transform the lives of local children who might otherwise not be afforded the chance.
When Arnold School in Blackpool merged with KEQMS in 2012, Blackpool was ranked the 6th most deprived authority in England under the Indices of Deprivation 2010. In 2019, Blackpool ranked as the most deprived area in the UK with 8 out of the 10 most deprived neighbourhoods nationally being in Blackpool (The English Indices of Deprivation, 2019).
Many people were already in poverty in 2019, and the recent cost-of-living pressures are having the biggest impact on this group, who need to spend a greater proportion of their incomes on household essentials. It is also affecting people on low and middle incomes, often surviving by having several jobs, who are being pushed into poverty.
We are particularly keen to seek out talented young people where accessing an education at AKS could not be imagined but the opportunity to do so would be life changing.
Our mission is to provide an exceptional and rounded education to those young people that would benefit the most, regardless of their background and financial means.
We have always worked hard to help those without the financial means to access an education at AKS and we currently provide some bursarial support to a number of pupils.
We believe that replacing the Direct Grant and Assisted Places schemes with our own philanthropic drive, creating opportunities for more children with ability and determination, is a full circle back to the core purpose of our heritage schools and is central to the ethos of AKS today.
The first aim of the AKS Lytham Foundation is to provide 10 transformational bursaries. This would mean that an AKS Lytham Foundation Bursary would cover not only tuition fees but all associated costs such as uniform, curriculum trips and lunches.
NEW PUPILS 10
Transformational Bursaries 110% Support for from Senior School through to Sixth Form
£1.3m
Need to raise over the next few years
This ambition will require us to raise £1.3 million over the next few years.
Unlike many schools who benefit from an endowment, we are building an entirely new fund to achieve our ambition for this first bursary appeal. We encourage the whole alumni and school community to support this important campaign.
Leading the Change Their World Campaign are donors who effectively sponsor individuals, particularly at Sixth Form level. This is an opportunity to support young adults with talent and determination, who understand that their place is offered with philanthropy and who recognise the relationship between the donor, school and their own family.
Within two years, a donor can see the difference their gift can make in transforming a 16-year-old with ambition, into a young adult ready for the world. Donors can support 110% of fees for a Sixth Form student either individually or as part of a group.
We welcome single gifts of any amount. Donors of £50,000 or more may, if they wish, have their name inscribed on a recognition wall in the entrance to the Senior School. Donations of £2,000 or more will be entered into our Benefactors’ Book displayed in our Senior School foyer. The first 50 donors will be recognised as Founding Donors of the Foundation. Please contact our Director of Development for more information.
Donors are encouraged to give regular amounts to support children throughout the school. Though a gift of any size is appreciated, we welcome £20 a month as a starting point. Collectively giving like this means that the whole AKS community can take part and share the benefit of giving children the opportunity to be educated at AKS.
Leaving a legacy gift to the AKS Lytham Foundation in your Will is one of the most powerful and lasting gifts that can be made. Please talk to our Director of Development for more information.
*UK tax-paying donors may be eligible to include Gift Aid on their charitable contributions.
To find out more about the Change Their World Campaign to support young people through bursaries, please get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.
Sarah Walton Director of Development Development Office,AKS Lytham
T 01253 784100
E sarah.walton@akslytham.com