Scholarships

Our scholarship scheme forms part of our Access and Participation Commitment to make our activities at National Centre accessible to those who may be unable to attend our sessions without support.  

This scheme funds one full year of Youth or London Youth Circus classes, from September 2025 until July 2026*.

*This year due to funding changes we will be piloting a new model for the scholarship programme. We will be introducing a part funded scholarship alongside the fully funded offer that we currently provide.  

Our scholarship scheme is for participants on our youth programmes:

• Primary Circus (Yr1 -2)
• Junior Circus (Yr3- 6)
• Youth Circus (Yr7 – 12)
•  London Youth Circus

Everyone is welcome to apply; however, our priority eligibility is steered by the requirements set by our funders.  We use the following guidelines or a combination of them as part of the allocation process.  

• Families who are living in POLAR4 (Quintiles 1&2) postcodes. See if your postcode sits within these priority areas
• Families who have a combined total annual income of less than £42,875
• Young people of Global majority  (previously referred to as BAME)

The first round on the application process is to complete the online form. In order to ensure your application is accepted please complete all the sections and ensure the information you provide is accurate.

We will then process all the applications and create a shortlist of provisional places.

If you are awarded a provisional place then we may contact you to request additional evidence for the information you supplied in your application. This may also include a short informal conversation with you and your young person.  

We aim to contact all applicants by the end of May to inform them of the outcome of their application. Those who are successful will then be booked onto their preferred class day/time by the team at National Circus.

As part of the scholarship agreement we ask all successful applicants to observe the

• Attend more than 80% of their classes
• Be passionate and committed to learning circus  
• Show exceptional behaviour in class, be determined to learn and act as a role model for others
• Participate in providing us with feedback about their classes.

By taking part in the scholarship scheme you should be aware that poor attendance, behaviour or commitment may result in the scholarship being withdrawn.

Applications close April 20 2025.