It has wealthy backers, families fighting for a place for their children, and an enviable location not far from Windsor. No, not Eton College but the state school it is sponsoring, Holyport College, which opens tomorrow.
The first free school to take boarding pupils has cost £15 million of public money to build and is receiving substantial support from its world-renowned neighbour. Yet unlike Eton, which charges £35,000 a year in fees, the education at Holyport is free. Boarding costs £11,500 each year.
It is more than eight times oversubscribed for day pupils and three times for boarding pupils. Walter Boyle, the headmaster, will welcome 54 boarders to the school tomorrow evening, and 66 day pupils on Wednesday morning.
While Eton is not donating money to the project, Old Etonians have provided artificial grass worth £140,000 for the sports pitches and pupils will be able to use Eton’s famous rowing facilities.
The public school, which David Cameron attended, is also paying for an educational consultant to provide expertise to Holyport teachers.
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Unlike Eton, Holyport will be all-ability and co-educational. As a free school, an academy-style state school, it will be given freedom from local authority control. It will eventually provide up to 500 secondary places, including sixth-form.
Mr Boyle said: “We’re very grateful to the government for the amount of funding we’ve got. We recognise we did well out of the free school pot. The buildings are more or less finished and we will open on time.”
Many of the boarders are from the southeast, and a similar proportion are expat children, Mr Boyle said. Three receive bursaries and the school hopes to increase that number. Of the day pupils, five are in care, four have been given priority due to medical needs and four have special needs statements.
“The school will be a blend of traditional and innovative,” Mr Boyle said, adding that it was employing “graduate fellows”, recent graduates in the arts and sciences, to assist teachers.
Tony Little, Eton’s headmaster, said: “We look forward to sharing a number of our facilities and activities and developing educational initiatives for the benefit of pupils of both colleges.”