Private school bursaries

[KennyRogers]

Does anyone know anything about these?

DCs have been at private school for several years, prep school so not rich and no real bursaries.

However I've read about senior schools and it seems that some are very rich indeed and give bursaries to almost everybody.

Our income situation is unusual, to say the least.

Our taxable household income is under £20k, which barely covers the rent.

However I make a comfortable living on online poker, which covers the rest. (This is not a salary, just winnings.)

I was just reading this:

www.christs-hospital.org.uk/prospective-parents/bursaries/bursary-table/

and one example they give is a family with no other DCs, with the father earning around £100k gross and the mother over £30k gross, (so both very substantial incomes) and spending only £9k on rent, getting a 15% bursary.

Anyway, not sure how our situation might be addressed. I'd never really considered it as we are anything but poor, but if they are giving out bursaries to families with tens of thousands of pounds in disposable income, it sheds a bit of a different light on it and makes me think again. I am certainly not making so much money that school fees are an irrelevance!

[Knowsabitabouteducation]

Christs Hospital is a special case.

[middleclassonbursary]

No Christs is not a special case! There are other schools which offer generous bursaries not attached to scholarships: St Pauls Boys Winchester, Eton and (although only 50% is guaranteed to non scholars at the moment ) and there will be others many schools may only offer i-2 a year others more you need to read websites and speak to the bursar of the schools your interested in. You would have to declare you winnings as they would seen as an income. As Christ's website states look on St Pauls boys as well they used to give examples and probably still do a lot of people have good earning and are still getting a bursary from boarding schools as the fees are approx £32 000 a year so you need to on a a substantial income to be able to afford it. In fact I've heard Christ's aren't as generous as they used to be and friends who applied got nothing out of them. The biggest stumbling block to bursaries and the main reason why people don't get them is assets primarily property and saving shares pension saving etc.

[scaevola]

Several schools in the UK have the stated aim of "needs blind" entry, but none can yet guarantee a particular level of bursary to every single applicant on a particular income, simply because none have the massive underlying investments that would be required for that.

So you need to take published information as illustrative of what they can do, not a specific guarantee that it will happen.

If you are considering applying for a financial assistance, you need an early conversation with the bursar about your circumstances and how the school would consider them.

[middleclassonbursary]

scaevola your right but many of the big names are exceedingly committed to the concept and as every year goes by will have more and more children receiving substantial bursaries. Things cannot change over night money has to be raised. IMO the biggest difficulty is that more people know about bursaries so more are apying probably at a higher rate than an indiviual schools can increase its bursary fund thus the amount offered to each individual will be less or fewer will receive a bursary.
But I am optimistic in 10 years time I think many well know names, Im less convinced about the unknown names, will have a significant proportion of their children on substatial bursaries.

[conorsrockers]

Online poker. Genius

[scaevola]

You're right - the stigma of reduced fees has almost entirely evaporated and there are far more people talking about applying.

Large numbers of substantial bursaries have however always been available, though of course take-up was also somewhat lower in the assisted places era, and pre-2003/4 (when the NI-driven hikes in school fees happened, and the affordability of fees/earnings balance changed hugely reinforced by many years above inflation fee increases).

[mumzy]

So a child whose parents are genuinely on a low income may not get a bursary because OP has a " hideable" income and so her/his child could also qualify. Just because you know someone else is abusing the system doesn't mean you also have to join in

[derekthehamster]

CH is academically, very hard to get into, and priority will go to 'children in need'.

You also need to submit bank/savings/mortgage statements, as well as tax returns if you're self employed as an online poker player. It's not as simple as it looks

[middleclassonbursary]

mumzy Im unsure who your comment is aimed at but I clearly stated that the OP would have to declare his winnings.

[PiltdownWoman]

Like the OP, I am somehwat taken aback by the figures in the Chrsist's Hospital bursary table, but I wonder whether they might be a little misleading?!

Until fairly recently I had a DC at this school, and from personal experience I have to say that the bursaries were nothing like as generous as suggested here! In fact I've taken a quick look at the CH Unofficial Forum (usually a useful measure of the vox pop among current parents), and it seems that some families have actually questioned the assessed fees that they are paying which seem high compared to the published table, and been told that the published rates apply only to new entrants in 2012. All sounds distinctly odd...

[mumzy]

Middle from the OP it does imply that his application for a bursary will be based only on his taxable income. I can't see how a school could possibly find out about online poker winnings.