BRISTOL OLD VIC THEATRE SCHOOL LIMITED

Registered charity 900280 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as BOVTS

Provision of education and training for actors and technical skills for the media industry.

Objects

TO PROMOTE, MAINTAIN, IMPROVE AND ADVANCE EDUCATION PARTICULARLY BY OPERATING A VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING ESTABLISHMENT OT FURTHER THE EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF ACTORS, ACTRESS, STAGE MANAGERS, CARPENTERS, ELECTRICIANS, SOUND TECHNICIANS, COSTUME DESIGNERS, PROPERTY MAKERS AND DIRECTORS AND BY THE PRODUCTION OF EDUCATIONAL PLAYS AND THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF THE ARTS AND TO FORMULATE, PREPARE AND ESTABLISH SCHEMES THEREFORE PROVIDED THAT ALL OBJECTS OF THE COMPANY SHALL BE OF A CHARITABLE NATURE.

Area of benefit: NOT DEFINED

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: Education/training · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Bristol, City of, South West, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity reported a net loss of £807,383 for the year ended 31 July 2025, with total funds decreasing to £5,425,163. Per the trustees' report, the school secured a £2.5m loan from the University of the West of England to assist with cashflow and stabilize undergraduate delivery during a pause in new student recruitment. The auditor confirmed that the use of the going concern basis of accounting is appropriate with no material uncertainties identified.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Corrigan Accountants Limited. Discloses 6 of 6 completeness components.

Year-over-year changes

• Employees paid over £60,000: 2 (FY2024) → 1 (FY2025).

Comparing this charity’s FY2024 and FY2025 accounts as analysed by this site.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Investing charity funds policy and procedures
• Investment
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Annual return filing dates (Charity Commission record)

Of its last 5 annual returns with a recorded received date, 1 was received after the due date: year ending 31/07/2024 (received 30/07/2025, 60 days after the 31/05/2025 due date).

Due and received dates as recorded in the Commission’s annual-return data; the data does not say whether an extension was agreed. Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House 02430025
• Trading subsidiary: BOVTS PRODUCTIONS LIMITED Companies House 02528810
• Trading subsidiary: BOVTS COMMUNICATIONS LIMITED Companies House 05598315

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (matched by registered charity number).

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Tom Beasley — Charity CEO (source)
• Stuart Harvey — School Principal (source)
• Paul Eccleson — Chair of Trustees (source)

Listed on the charity’s own website when we last crawled it; roles may have changed. Pay-band disclosures above are anonymous statutory disclosures and are not attributed to any named individual.

Company officers (Companies House)

Current officers of the charity’s own company per the Companies House register, cross-checked against the Charity Commission trustee list by name. A director not on the trustee list is usually a timing or naming difference between the two registers — check both records before drawing conclusions.

• MURPHY, James Robert — director, appointed 30/03/2026not on trustee list
• THIARA, Maanuv-Vir Singh — director, appointed 30/03/2026not on trustee list
• HUGGINS, Jilly — director, appointed 30/03/2026not on trustee list
• HARRIS, Suzanne — director, appointed 16/12/2025not on trustee list
• TAIT, William Matthew Humphries — director, appointed 08/12/2025not on trustee list
• WILSON, Karl Michael — director, appointed 24/03/2025on trustee list
• ROBINSON, Lynn — director, appointed 16/09/2024on trustee list
• THOMAS, Anthony Edward — director, appointed 20/06/2024on trustee list
• LLOYD, Faye — director, appointed 11/12/2023on trustee list
• JAMES, Robert Michael — director, appointed 11/12/2023on trustee list
• ECCLESON, Paul Brendan — director, appointed 31/01/2022not on trustee list
• FROST, Brian Jeffrey — secretary, appointed 08/11/2025

Official officers record.

Property (HM Land Registry)

4 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (2 freehold). All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook · instagram

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/07/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~12.8 months of spending — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (94% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 0.0% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.3%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Anthony Edward Thomas · trustee of 1 other charity
• Karl Michael Wilson
• Lynn Robinson
• Maanuv-Vir Singh Thiara
• Paul Eccleson MSc FICA
• Robert James
• Suzanne Harris · trustee of 1 other charity
• William Matthew Humphries Tait
• philip alan tanner

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Bristol City

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with THE OLD VIC ENDOWMENT TRUST.

• THE OLD VIC ENDOWMENT TRUST income £106k
• THE OXFORD SCHOOL OF DRAMA TRUST income £1.7m
• BRISTOL OLD VIC AND THEATRE ROYAL TRUST LIMITED income £7.6m
• BRISTOL BAPTIST COLLEGE income £659k
• BRIGHTON THEATRE GROUP income £207k
• THE BURTON MUSICAL THEATRE COMPANY income £74k

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.