Foundation Awards

Foundation Awards

Widening access - The Foundation Awards Programme

In 2005 Tonbridge reviewed its whole approach to scholarships and bursaries. The result was a reduction in the fee-remission for traditional scholarships (now set at 10% off the fees) and the creation of the Foundation Awards.

These awards provide a new gateway to the school for talented and deserving boys who are not equipped to take the traditional scholarship exams (typically because the majority of candidates approach us from state primary schools). All of the awards are means-tested, with many families receiving 100% fee-remission. Our aim is to make a first class education available to boys who show real promise. Running alongside this aim, we see the awards as a way of enriching the whole school community.

Because Tonbridge is such a house-based school, it has made sense to develop individual schemes for each house. But we have a General Foundation Awards Fund as well, which gives us flexibility and allows us to look after the houses which are still too young to sustain their own schemes (Whitworth, Cowdrey and Oakeshott).

In the case of Foundation boarding places, our aim is particularly to support boys from socially-disadvantaged backgrounds - boys for whom the secure and stable environment of a boarding house will be especially valuable.

Bright Futures

Over the last five years, the Foundation Award programme has achieved much, and we thought it would be a good idea to share with you how we seem the scheme working. As a result we have published the booklet Bright Futures (PDF, 1016.4 KB) which can be downloaded in PDF format.

House Awards

You can find out how you can donate to the Foundation Awards programme, or you can donate online.