Kildare Trust Donation to Bursaries

The King’s School Worcester is delighted to announce that a major donation has been received from the Kildare Trust towards supporting an enduring bursary programme for new pupils joining the School. The donation of £1 million will provide two fully funded places indefinitely, for children whose families would otherwise have been unable to fund an independent school place. The idea behind this grant for enduring bursaries is that they will provide the opportunity of an education at King’s Worcester for children attending local primary schools, who would not otherwise be in a position to consider such an education.

Each Kildare Bursary at King’s Worcester will provide a child with seven years of funded education and these bursaries present a unique opportunity to benefit from everything on offer at one of Worcester’s leading independent schools. In addition, the Kildare Trust is providing a further grant of £100,000, which will go towards meeting the extra costs for any bursary child; this means that all children at the School will have the potential to enjoy any co-curricular activity or trip, without being restricted by financial means.

Nick Clark (H 88-90), Chair of the King’s School Worcester Development Trust, said of this donation, “Trustees of the King’s School Worcester Development Trust are both delighted and grateful for a donation of just over £1 million from the Kildare Trust. It will significantly enhance the work of The King’s School’s Trust in its ability to grant bursaries to children whose families are without the means to access a King’s School education, and yet would benefit from the School’s all-round excellence. The gift will become part of the Enduring Bursary fund and so will be used to help children who will benefit over many years to come. All at the King’s School Development Trust are hugely appreciative of this life-changing gift by the Kildare Trustees.”

The Headmaster of The King’s School, Gareth Doodes, has been in ongoing discussions with the Kildare Trust regarding this generous donation to King’s School, about which he said, “Our pupil bursaries are incredibly important in enabling bright children whose families do not have the financial means to attend our School. King’s has a strong history of providing educational opportunities and we are very proud of this legacy. Having a bursary to come to King’s makes a huge and long-lasting impact on the lives of these pupils and I would like to extend my personal thanks to the Kildare Trust for their generosity in this regard, and their appreciation of the importance of our Bursary Programme.”

Those who are interested to find out more about the King’s Bursary Programme are encouraged to contact King’s Worcester Registrar, Mrs Peckston on 01905 721742.

Ian Smith, Chair of the Kildare Trust, says of the grant, “The benefactors of the trust were particularly keen on providing educational opportunities to children from all backgrounds that would not otherwise be able to benefit from a school such as King’s. As one of the benefactors was educated himself at King’s, the Trustees wanted to fund two of the target of forty full funded places for the 500th anniversary of the School. They also wanted to support the Outreach programme to find children and their families or guardians who might not even be aware of such potential support.”