Bursaries
We need your help...
Please help Blundell’s to create life changing opportunities for talented and extraordinary Blundellians.
Blundell’s is committed to fostering a community of pupils that is both exceptionally talented and diverse, reflecting the highest standards in academic, musical , artistic and sporting achievement. To honour this commitment, we must provide enticing opportunities for the most qualified pupils to apply to Blundell’s many of who may otherwise be unable to pay the fees. Our aim is that these children not only benefit greatly themselves, but that they also create invaluable diversity within the student body and set a powerful example of endeavour for others to follow. We are often reminded that some of the greatest examples of accomplishment and progress – in academic, artistic, sporting and musical terms – come from those who, without financial support, would not otherwise be able to come to the School.
An important distinction exists between Scholarships and Bursaries. Scholarships are awarded in cases of particular academic, sporting, artistic, or all-round merit. In offering them, the School is able to attract pupils of a particularly high calibre. Bursaries are awarded in cases of financial need. They are typically awarded on top of Scholarships, to those where the cost of fees represents a particularly acute problem. They are vital in enabling the School to attract a genuinely diverse as well as talented body of Blundellians, regardless of their financial circumstances.
Fulfilling the promise of Blundell’s Bursaries programme will require significant commitment on behalf of donors. Blundell’s has no endowment fund and has only modest funding available to Blundellians and their families. The rest must be found from any school fee surplus and fundraising. Our most immediate goal is to raise £350,000 per annum to enable an additional 10 bursarial places per year. Donations of all sizes are encouraged to fund our growing Bursaries programme, and significant donations will provide for fully funded Bursaries in a variety of subjects and skills.
Blundell’s consistently achieves first class academic results but the benefits of an education at Blundell’s extend far beyond the classroom; we are making a difference for today’s pupils – the people of tomorrow who will go on to make their mark in the world.
Peter Blundell Foundation Bursary Award Provision
Foundation Awards have been an integral part of the School for many years now. These allow those who may not ordinarily be able to afford a Blundell’s education to do so. Blundell’s Board of Governors have agreed that bursaries are one of our highest priorities and it is their intention to extend this provision to ensure this opportunity is available for many future generations to come. We focus much of our activity in growing our ‘access to all’ by endowing bursaries under the ‘Peter Blundell Foundation Bursary Award Provision’ and other individually named bursaries across a range of entry options at Year 7, 9 and into the Sixth Form.
It is essential for us to provide our pupils with an environment to achieve their full potential. With your involvement and support, you will be certain of ensuring that pupils, past, present and future will appreciate and take pride in the ongoing success of the School. They too will develop loyalty and passion for the school, thus building on its long history; therefore perpetuating the original intentions of its founder, Peter Blundell.
As the cost of a Blundell’s education growing the number of requests for Bursarial support increases. As with many independent schools the levels of funding are simply unsustainable. This means that the Foundation must rely on the generosity of Old Blundellians, Parents and Friends for support to ensure a strong future for the School.
Though I am not myself a scholar, I will be the means of making more scholars than anyone else in England.
I am proud to be an Old Blundellian.
My family has been closely associated with Blundell’s across three generations, and the School gave me a flying start in life. Now I am delighted that I am able to give something back by supporting the bursary appeal of the Peter Blundell Foundation.
The quality of teaching and breadth of opportunity that Blundell’s offers, are a wonderful preparation for life in the wider world, with all its competitive pressures. Pupils leave with powerful academic results, a sense of self-worth, confidence, and the knowledge that their achievements are rooted in the support, encouragement and enthusiasm of the whole Blundell’s community.
If you share my feelings about the School and would like to help give a child the life-transforming experience of a Blundell’s education, please make a gift to the Peter Blundell Foundation or provision in your will. I hope you will join me in making this great opportunity a reality for a child for whom it must otherwise remain a dream. The effect of your generosity at whatever level, will last a lifetime.
John Beale
(Milestones 1956-61)
After leaving Blundell’s I spent time at Cambridge, Yale and Oxford universities to gain my medical qualification. I spent a few years living and working in London, initially in surgical specialities, then in General Practice, before I moved with my wife and growing family to Hampshire where I am now a partner in a busy practice near the coast. I’ve managed along the way to win a few prizes, do a lot of rowing, grow a small wine cellar, and perhaps against my better judgement, ran the London Marathon in 2006.
I feel a Blundell’s education gave me the ambition and opportunity to make the most of my abilities and I will always be in the school’s debt for the Foundation award I received.
James Reynolds
(Milestones 1988–93)
Old Blundellians, have over the last four hundred years, spread from the beautiful buildings of Blundell’s to all parts of the United Kingdom and the world. The confidence, breadth, and academic ambition imbued in pupils whilst at the school has led to Blundellians following high profile careers in commerce, academia, the arts and sport, among many areas.
James Bullock Memorial Fund
The JBMF has been established as an endowment fund known as the James Bullock Memorial Fund (the fund), in memory of James Bullock and his close association with and support for Blundell’s School. It is intended that the JBMF bursary provision be awarded to a pupil(s) leaving Blundell’s who is already a recipient of a Peter Blundell Foundation Bursary to support by providing financial assistance towards the first year costs of the pupil’s chosen University education.
Potential pupil recipients are identified from a pool of pupils who have been at some degree of financial disadvantage and selected by the Head as being worthy recipients of such an award. The administrators meet annually at the end of the spring term to select the recipient from this pre-identified pool of pupils. The Award(s) are presented annually on Speech Day to which the trustees are invited to each year.
Ted Crowe Memorial Fund
The former long serving Master and Secretary of the OB Club Ted Crowe died in 2008, the OB Club decided to set up a memorial fund in his memory for a local sports scholar requiring a Bursary. All scholars are selected by the Head. An annual report about the beneficiary is reported to the Peter Blundell Society who administer the financial aspects of the fund.
Inspiration
Peter Blundell had a vision for the future of local children, and through his benevolence, Blundell’s School was born. Since then, the benefits of his legacy to education in the South West of England have had a wider reach than he could have possibly imagined.
Those who have experienced Blundell’s themselves know the benefit of having a well rounded education, and we wish to engage their support to help others gain similar experiences, and enable them to take advantage of all that their years at Blundell’s would have to offer.
The Provision
As Blundell’s moves into its fifth century, how can we make a mark that will be felt by generations to come? You can help preserve this heritage for future generations of pupils who wish to undertake a Blundell’s education.
With the ever increasing rise in costs of education, the help which these awards provides to deserving beneficiaries is now more important than ever before. With your support, we hope that we will be able to continue to increase the provision, and to enable outstanding and deserving individuals to experience a Blundell’s education.
We currently support a number of pupils throughout the school and we wish to increase this year to year with an additional 15 pupils, which means raising £300,000 each year.
Peter Blundell’s ethos remains at the heart of this School. He founded the School to educate the youth of Tiverton. He wanted to give them the gift of an educational experience perhaps previously denied to them. The Governors and Head Master are determined to maintain Blundell’s as a School which emphasises a broad and deep experience for all.
In recognition of this, the School has for many years made available a small number of Foundation Awards, which allow parents who ordinarily could not dream of educating their children at Blundell’s to do so. It is our intention to widen the benefit to additional pupils and in doing so; we will require the kind, generous and thoughtful support of many from the wider Blundell’s community.
In this we include Old Blundellians who, we hope, will look back fondly at their school days and realise that without the encouragement of the School their lives would have been less interesting and, in many cases, less successful. Please help us realise our goals and make Blundell’s and even greater School.
