Fees & Bursaries

Financial assistance: The Bursary Fund

Please note that the bursary application process for August 2025 entry will close on 7th January 2025.

From its inception in 1641 by the two brothers Hutcheson our charitable purpose has been clear “a commodious and distinct house by itself for educating and harbouring twelve male children, indigent orphans, or others of the like condition and quality, sons of burgesses”.  Since 1876 our education has been for girls too and our charitable purpose is nowadays more simply recorded with OSCR (the Office of the Scottish Charities Regulator) as “the advancement of education”.

The charity is very much larger now and relies on the support of former pupils and parents to enable the high quality education provided by Hutchesons’ to be extended to those who are not able to afford the fees.

We offer two levels of support, as required by OSCR:

• Transformational bursaries – where 100% of the fees are paid for.
• Fees assistance bursaries – where some fraction of the fees are paid for by the family, with the remainder, up to 100%, paid for by the school

The school is working extremely hard to provide more and more bursaries every year, for example in a typical year, we are enormously proud that around 125 youngsters are in receipt of bursary support.  This is about one pupil in seven in the senior school.  Should you be interested in supporting able and aspirational youngsters, please follow this link to the Giving and Supporting Hutchesons’ page page. We should be keen to hear from you.

Secondary 1 Bursary Applications:

It should be noted that despite our extensive fundraising we have a limited bursary pot.  For entry into S1 we warmly welcome bursary applications from those who are truly in need.  Regretfully, we are not able to offer bursary support to those joining us in later years, nor in Primary.  Those who perform better in our S1 entrance test will be prioritised alongside their financial need as we decide who receives a bursary offer, and whether it is transformational or to the level of fees assistance.

Following bursary application, a careful and thorough set of checks is made on the detailed evidence provided on the application form. We are unlikely to be able to help parents whose combined income exceeds £65,000 or where there are significant assets.

We are clear in our mission to target our support to those who need it most.

If you would like your child to be considered for a bursary place, please tick the box in your online application.  When the bursary application process opens in October you will be asked to provide detailed evidence in support of your application. The deadline for bursary applications is 7th January 2025. Late completed bursary applications will not be considered.