I am sorry to inform you that we are unable to accept students who have attended an independent school at any stage in their educational journey.
As a charity, we carefully consider our criteria to ensure we use our funds to support as many young people as possible. Since our programmes are vastly oversubscribed, we have to prioritise targeting certain groups of students. This does mean that we have to make difficult decisions and draw boundaries as we cannot support everyone to attend one of our programmes, as much as we'd like to.
The Sutton Trust UK Summer Schools are for high achieving students who have only ever attended state schools, including primary school. Even if you attend a private school with a scholarship or bursary, you will not be eligible.
Our eligibility criteria are based on evidence which shows that students who have attended a private school during their educational journey have improved outcomes, improved access to the top jobs in society, gain access to better support regarding university admissions and aspiration raising activities in comparison to those that have always attended a state-maintained school or college.
We appreciate this response does not change the outcome that your child cannot apply to the programme, but we hope it provides you with some explanation as to the rationale.
We would encourage you to look at university websites directly as many of them run programmes without these criteria. Alternatively, the UCAS website has information about taster courses that are open to all students. You can also find similar opportunities through UK University Search.
Apologies again not to be able to offer our Summer Schools to your child, but we nevertheless wish them all the best for their future.