Ensuring that talented and academically gifted girls from all backgrounds have access to education at Notting Hill & Ealing High School is integral to the school’s vision and ethos. Our students, staff, current and former parents and alumnae represent all backgrounds and reflect the culture and community of our school. We know bursaries change lives and benefit the whole school community. At NHEHS, we have a long history of providing bursary awards and our bursary pupils have contributed hugely to the diversity and endeavour of the school.

However, each year we turn away many talented applicants, currently we have around 6% of our students on bursary awards but our ambition is to do much more.

In 2023/4 we will be celebrating our 150th anniversary, such an important milestone feels like the right time to extend our bursary programme to anyone with the ability and potential, regardless of background of wealth.

Over the summer we will be sharing some stories from our alumnae and their families showing what a difference a bursary can make. Hear below about John Quinnen, his daughter Francesca Scarles and her daughters, also NHEHS alumnae, about their own NHEHS story which spans three decades.

‘My father, John Quinnen, sent all six of us to NHEHS. He was chairman of the NHEHS Committee of Parents and member of the Board of Friends of the Girls’ Public Day School Trust for 19 years. I tried to follow in his footsteps and was on the OGA Committee for nearly 25 years. 

My father’s mother died in the Spanish Flu in London and, as his father was a serving soldier and couldn’t look after him, he was sent to a Barnardo’s Home at the age of six.  Some years later his father re-married and then Norman joined his father and stepmother.  From this difficult and lonely beginning, family became very important to my father, indeed to both my parents, and they went on to have six daughters and two sons.  From humble beginnings he trained as an accountant, and, as a result of hard work, was eventually promoted to the board of a major company. 

All six of us daughters went to Notting Hill spanning twenty-seven years (and the boys to St. Benedict’s).  My parents strongly believed that the best gift one could give one’s child was a good education which would last them a lifetime.  Not only did it provide an excellent start in life enabling us to make the most of every opportunity; Notting Hill also provided life-long friendships. In a tribute to him in the 1986 NHEHS OGA magazine, Miss J. Hendry, headmistress of NHEHS 1960 to 1974 wrote, ‘The essential goodness of the man made itself felt by all those around him….The school was blessed in having such a steadfast friend and I feel truly privileged to have known him.’

Following his active support of school during his lifetime, John generously left a legacy to NHEHS in his will. We thank him and his family for their continued support.  

If you would like to learn more about our Bursaries & Assistance Fund, read more on the GDST website. If you wish to donate, please click here. Thank you.