Fifty-two years ago, David Game founded a small college in London with a straightforward belief: that the right education, delivered well, could change a young person’s life. Half a century on, that belief has taken a new and ambitious form, with a programme of 100 banded scholarships offering awards of up to 110% of fees, designed to ensure that financial circumstance is never the reason a talented student misses out on the best educational opportunities.
The timing of this new arrangement is important for its focus. Since January, VAT has applied to independent school fees for the first time, pushing costs higher at a moment when many families were already stretched. David Game College’s response has been to go further than most, not just absorbing some of that pressure, but building a scholarship structure that, for students from the most disadvantaged situations, covers more than the fees themselves.
Awards are structured across three bands: 20 scholarships at 80% fee remission, 30 at 50%, and 50 at 30%, split equally between GCSE and Sixth Form entry. Students coming from government-funded schools qualify automatically for 100% scholarships. For those eligible for pupil premium or free school meals, awards extend to 110%, a recognition that the costs of attending an independent school can go well beyond the standard fees.
“Our 50th anniversary gave us an opportunity to reflect on our purpose,” said David Game, Founder and Co-Principal. “These scholarships are about giving back, but also about looking forward. We want to support bright students from all backgrounds and ensure they are equipped to succeed in a future shaped by innovation and change.”
Alongside its scholarship programme, and as a compliment to a conventional academic curriculum, David Game College has spent the past two years pioneering something with no direct equivalent in British education: a teacherless classroom
The Sabrewing programme, launched in 2024, in collaboration with David Game College, replaces whole-class teaching for core GCSE subjects with AI-driven adaptive learning platforms, supported not by teachers in the traditional sense but by learning coaches, recruited through a rigorous process that tests cognitive ability, verbal reasoning and emotional intelligence. Students work through their subjects at their own pace in the mornings, with afternoons given over to a co-curriculum covering debating, financial literacy, entrepreneurship, critical reasoning and Socratic thinking.
Writing about the programme in Independent Schools Magazine, Co-Principal John Dalton described the logic plainly: “Personalised, adaptive learning is one of the most effective ways for a child to grasp and master key concepts. Students can learn at their own pace in a non-judgemental environment, with the AI system quickly identifying what they understand and where they need further support.” The system, he explained, replicates the qualities of excellent one-to-one teaching, without the fatigue, bias or feelings of judgement that can sometimes creep into a conventional classroom.
It is this same thinking that underpins the scholarship scheme. Both initiatives reflect the College’s broader commitment to students who have not always been well served by conventional education, whether that means removing financial barriers to entry, or offering a mode of learning built around individual needs rather than a class average.
“Education should be as innovative as the technology that shapes our world,” David Game has said of the Sabrewing programme. That instinct now runs through the scholarship scheme too. The assessment exam focuses on STEM subjects, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry and Physics, reflecting the College’s view that these disciplines are the ones most essential for students entering the workforce of the future.
John Dalton put it directly: “It is essential that more students have access to an education that prepares them not only academically, but for the realities of a rapidly evolving, AI-driven world.”
Scholarship assessments take place on Saturday 23rd May and Saturday 30th May 2026. The programme is open to students seeking GCSE entry in Year 10 or 11, or Sixth Form entry in Year 12 or 13, who qualify for home fee status.
Further information is available at www.davidgamecollege.com.
