Sillywoman, for information, those scholarships were funded by the old ILEA, and they ceased in 1970 when that authority (which ran all the schools in the inner London boroughs) decided not to pay for places at non-state schools. There were at least 30 of those free places in any one year I think. Similarly, others could attend the school (until the direct grant was abolished in 1976) and only needed to pay what they could afford, based on their parents' incomes/outgoings. This covered the rest of the pupils in any one year. So the "only" thing that applicants had to do was to pass the entrance exam. If their income was low, they'd pay no fees at all. The government funded these costs by the direct grant. After these free places ceased, the school had little choice but to go Independent from 1976. As far as I am aware, Alleyn's had no desire to become a fully fee-paying school. It was forced to do this effectively by the Labour government in 1976. That was when the school also decided to become co-educational, which has made it today probably the top fully co-ed school in the country. Quite a credit to good old ED really!