5x

How much more likely Britain's most influential people are to have gone to fee-paying school.

£14,000

The average annual fees for an independent day school.

1%

The proportion of pupils at independent schools who received bursaries which fully cover the fees.

How can we implement Open Access?

Building the scheme

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Building the scheme

Building on the success of the seven year pilot at the Belvedere School in Liverpool, the Trust is continuing to develop its Open Access programme as a means of democratising access to the country’s leading independent day schools. All places in the schools would be available on merit alone, with parents paying a sliding scale of fees according to means. Under the Belvedere pilot, academic standards went up and the social mix of the school became more diverse: 30% of pupils were on free places, 40% paid partial fees and the rest paid full fees. It was also a happy place to teach and learn.

The Trust proposes that this model be extended to 100 or more leading academic day schools, with state funding, as a means of boosting mobility at the top and opening the pipeline of talent to leading universities and the professions. Because of the partnership with parents, the cost per head to the state for Open Access would be less than the cost of the average state school place. Over 80 independent day schools – half of the leading independent day schools in the country – have backed Open Access and we are working with a number of Heads on their further development.

Government policy

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Government policy

As well as discussions with government, we are working with a number of policy experts on positioning Open Access with a view to it being included in party manifestos.

See below for some of our past research reports.

Ten top independent day schools, such as Westminster, St Paul’s and Manchester Grammar have agreed to take part in a ‘trailblazer’ Open Access programme, benefitting up to 1,000 pupils per year whose parents could not afford fees.

Medium term – and learning the lessons from the trailblazer – Open Access could be rolled out more widely to 100 leading independent day schools, benefitting 40,000 young people.

Related research

research

Open Access
research

Open Access: A Practical Way Forward – New Developments
research

Open Access: Democratising Entry To Independent Day Schools
Opinion

80 top independent day schools back open access

80 top independent day schools have called on the Government to support the Sutton Trust's Open Access scheme, which would enable talented pupils from all backgrounds to enter the country’s highest performing independent day schools.

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Opinion

First Open Access Cohort tops high ranking independent school’s previous best results

The first group of Open Access Students at the GDST's Belvedere School in Liverpool to take their GCSEs has delivered the best results the School has ever had with 63.2% of all examinations passed with A*/A grades and 88.1% at A*-B.

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