Sports scholarships

[arpo]

Our DS is very sporty and fairly academic. We have it in mind to aim for sports scholarships for the 2021 year 7 admissions processes.

Can anyone advise how much difference a successful recommendation from the sports staff makes to an application?

We are looking at schools in SW London and are trying to calibrate to the right target schools.

For example, with a super-selective school like KCS, he’d presumably still need to do very well in their exams even if excelling in the sports scholarship assessments.

Whereas for schools that are less selective, they might overlook fairly average test results.

[Frostyskies1223]

OP, you would do better to post in the secondary education section but others will join this conversation so say sports scholarships are hard to achieve & you need to achieve the pass mark in the entrance exam to be invited to attend the sports scholarship assessment day.
Plus at some schools they aren't worth much, ie 5% at St Johns leatherhead.
Your ds needs to be at regional or national level in a sport that the school excels in for you seriously consider this.

[sleepismysuperpower1]

I know Surbiton high offer sports scholarships, although I don't know anyone who has gone for one. my friend's ds went for a sports scholarship at a different independent school, and whilst he had to do the sports route he had to first pass the entrance exam and the interview stage, which I presume is the same for all of them

[arpo]

Thanks both. Maybe I’m getting it confused then. Are you saying if there’s 50 places and 100 applicants pass the test then a child who subsequently did well enough at the sports scholarship assessment would likely get an offer even if theirs was the 100th lowest (passing) mark for the academic exam?

(I’m sure it’s not that simple / cut-and-dried. Just trying to grasp the basics)

[sleepismysuperpower1]

i'm not sure it works like that, since they tend to weed out candidates at the interview section until they have around the same number of candidates as spaces (often a few more since not everyone will accept the place). so I think the scholarship is more for the money off and the opportunities it offers the dc rather than for the entrance process if you see what I mean

[Lonecatwithkitten]

In general you apply for scholarship before you sit the entrance exams. The child sits the exams if they pass and are offered a place they would then be invited to the scholarship assessment day.
Scholarships in general now days have very little monetary value and are more an Honour coming with strings - such as participating in school events.

[QuillBill]

Surely is there were 50 places and 100 passed the test they would offer all 100 and some would accept and some wouldn't and some would intend to accept but by the time they did there wouldn't be any places left so they would not get a place. Private schools are a business. They can't afford to offer only 50 children a place when they have 50 places and risk only being half full.

[DarlingOscar]

Don't think a recommendation from a sports teacher would make any difference to a sports scholarship application? They need the reference to even apply so they will all have that.

It's whether they are playing at county standard/what teams they are in and how they perform on the day that are key.

Selective schools like KCS they have to pass the exam before being considered for sports scholarship. For less academic schools it may be more flexible but they are unlikely to tell you that explicitly?

[Lonecatwithkitten]

A less academic school might accept lower test results, but might actually want more stellar sports results rather than just sporty.
Our local independent know for pastoral care and getting good results, but not top academic level has sports scholars who other county or national standards - there are several national champions, a couple of European champions and two world champions.

[Raspberry123]

You might find it helpful to read the scholarship application forms for the schools you are interested in.

We are interested in going down this route and planning the sports scholarship as a back up to academic scholarship. For most schools the discount is only 5-10%. The school we are looking at asks whether you play for club / 1st team / regional etc at sports. The sports test is in the 2 key sports for the school so I expect you need to be better than average at those even if not county standard...

For a more sizeable scholarship you probably need to play at a regional level. My nephew is useful at various sports at gets a 40% sports scholarship but he is in the 1st team for just about every sport you can mention.