Dame Alice Harpur School welcomes applications for the Senior School from both existing and new parents who genuinely require some form of financial assistance, in order for their daughter to join us or remain with us, may apply for bursary support.

The school awards committee, which includes Trustee representation, has a finite sum available to award at their discretion, and many factors, such as a pupil's performance in the entrance assessment papers in January or her performance in the Junior School, are taken into account before deciding on the level of award to be made.

All awards are means tested, subject to verification and annual reassessment. The decisions on awards are made during the Spring Term and communicated to applicants on a provisional basis subject to final verification of their financial assessment details.

In order to give potential applicants an idea of the level of assistance that might be available, the Trustees have set a scale that could provide for up to:
- full fee assistance for assessable income of less than £15,000
- 90% assistance for assessable income of around £26,000
- 75% assistance for assessable income of around £32,000
- 50% assistance for assessable income of around £40,000
- 25% assistance for assessable income of around £45,000
- No assistance is available for assessable income levels above £50,000.

Please note that we attempt to help as many families as possible, and therefore full fee bursaries are relatively rare. In addition, the scale set by Trustees is a maximum award, and the individual awards committees may make the offer of an award lower than that indicated by the means testing process.

Please also note that the Bedford Charity operates a centralised assessment basis, and requires the completion of only one form, whichever school(s) is/are being requested to consider an application for assistance. The information contained in this form will be available to the awards committee of each of the relevant schools. These forms and instructions for completion can be downloaded by clicking below:

Bursary Application Completion Notes - Click Here
Bursary Application Form - Click Here

Alternatively, if you have any questions about the form or the application process, please contact the Fees Office at the Bedford Charity, on (01234) 369510.

These forms need to be returned to the Fees Manager at the Bedford Charity by Monday 12th January 2009 at the latest. Bursaries for the school year 2009/2010 can only be considered and allocated at this time.