400 years ago, a jeweller and goldsmith left all his money to found a school, in an extraordinary act of philanthropic kindness. George Heriot's wish was to educate the poor, fatherless children of Edinburgh and so George Heriot's Trust was born (it remains probably the oldest Trust in Scotland today).

Between 1836 and 1885, George Heriot's extended this philanthropic heritage by founding 13 juvenile and 8 infant Free Schools to provide the children of Edinburgh’s poorer citizens with basic education, with a peak roll of nearly 5,000 pupils. Separately, the School has educated over 5,600 Foundationers (children who have lost a parent) since it opened, and given bursaries to many hundreds of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The 2024 We are all George Heriot campaign seeks to extend Heriot's vision of harnessing the transformative powers of education by raising funds to create new six-year bursary places at the School.

We hope you will join our campaign and help us to extend the School's philanthropic reach.

Visit the Get Involved page and find out how you can support the campaign.