Private school scholarships drama

PS are losing students after Labours tax
They aren’t increasing scholarships and bursaries if anything they are reducing numbers and %s.
It will, I think, be harder to get them

Again, private school will go up twice a year every year. I really sympathise as I’d hate to have to remove my dc from their school. However you have missed very important information somewhere of you didn’t realise fees would always rise regularly. Good luck

Another option is a charge on your property.
When you sell the school gets what they are owed.
( plus interest )

You won’t be the only parent in this situation, they can’t support everyone. DD’s school only offers bursary/scholarships for entry into Y7 and Y12. That’s their rules, it’s not designed to offer financial support to everyone who is struggling.

We have had fee increases too, luckily I can absorb them and I found a higher paying job too which helps - but at the end of the day private school is a luxury and if you can’t afford it you can’t afford it.

You can ask, but be prepared to hear “no” - £400/m is quite a lot and it makes it clear you will need further financial assistance when the fees inevitably go up again., for the duration of his education. That’s not a reasonable expectation.

other options:
look at taking out loans
can you release equity
look at state options (do this as a priority as him having to leave seems highly likely).

Our schools had set years that they offered scholarships and bursaries.
Nothing was offered outside of those years

You May find there are others available higher up the school years
The start of senior school for example at age 13 ( or whenever senior school starts in your school ).

I've probably missed the details, but if your child has SEN they may need an EHCP. Whilst you've opted out of the state system you've already saved your LEA a shed load. Speak to the SENCO at your child’s school. State education isn't free - budgets are moved around LEA, councils and schools. If your child needs an EHCP does your LEA (or neighbouring) have space in a suitable school? SEN spaces in state schools are like gold dust where I am. I know several children who have EHCPs and attend independent schools where the LEA pay fees because there isn't a suitable alternative. Think about what your child needs in order to access education and discuss with the SENCO.
And speak to the Bursar about means tested assistance - even if it's just for the rest of this school year.
Good luck!

You can ask the school bursar if you are able to receive any financial support, but what are your plans for subsequent years? The fees are going to increase by a certain percentage year in year, and also as your DS processes through the school. There will also be exam fees to pay.

You haven’t said what he’s been diagnosed with, has he got an EHCP and what in particular makes this school the best fit for him.

It sounds as if you really didn’t think through your decision to send him privately very thoroughly and now you’re going to have to make some significant changes to your lifestyle to avoid moving him again. I feel sorry for him.

@Yaaaassssssqueeeeeennnnnslay

I said it didn't leave much for fees...

100k is 68k after tax, you then have to take off pension which could easily be another 5k plus. So 63k, how much would housing costs be? 1.6k a month? So you are down to 44k. What about bills, transport, food, insurance? At least another 1k a month, so that's 32k. And then you have fees of 30k, so as I said it doesn't leave much for fees does it?

The madness in that statement! £100k ain’t that much. It’s true though, private schools ah e been gouging their parents for decades now.

And another question - if you earn over the max for bursaries why can’t you afford the fees? Is your mortgage high? Can you downsize? Are you paying lots into your pension?

The cut off for a bursary can be over 100k but even if you are on 100k that doesn't actually leave much for the fees.

Private schools will always give discount to students who are good and some of those will get more discount because of their income.
You should talk to the bursar about your circumstances.

I think it’s very unlikely that you’ll get help from the school so close to starting and with no unavoidable disasters in your life ( bereavement etc ) so you need to look for help elsewhere.
With no other info given it’s hard to advise but I feel that your choices are to look at your lifestyle, employment or relatives? Private school days are long - does this create space for extra hours at work or even a small side job? Go back to basics and look at your spending - look again at your bank accounts and check you have no unnecessary outgoing? Would downsizing a car save the 7.50 a week you’ll need for next year? Then look for more to start saving for future increases.
many many private school parents are getting by and cutting all but the essentials

Op I suggest asking MN to move this to the private school board - you can report your own post and ask them to move it. There are lots of posters with experience of school finance stuff there.

I voted YABU as the yearly fee increase is something you should have factored in.

It was unfair to move him to this school if you couldn't afford any increases and were entirely reliant on funding that doesn't necessarily exist.

By all means speak to the school and ask, but I'd start looking at state schools that meet his needs, especially before he reaches Y10 and GCSEs.

Is home schooling not an option? Lots of groups supporting parents who home school.

The obvious question is - is your son scholarship material? Ie if he had applied at the start would he have got one? And what for? And how does the school treat scholarships? Private schools often have “The Fred Smith” scholarship for a Year 7 child who shows great promise in music or the “Daniel Johnson” scholarship for a Year 12 who has a great future in Engineering. It would be difficult to get an extra scholarship in that circumstance as the funding is so specific. But if there are a general unknown number of scholarships and your son is top of his year at everything, plays the violin so well that he makes the dreadful school orchestra sound lovely and is currently ranked 4 in the country for tennis then they may manage to find him one when the realise the alternative is losing him.

Another question is how far over the maximum for bursaries are you? Inflation has been high recently so they may be thinking of increasing the maximum earnings anyway.

And another question - if you earn over the max for bursaries why can’t you afford the fees? Is your mortgage high? Can you downsize? Are you paying lots into your pension?

The problem you have is that there are going to be many many families that are struggling. Even if the school has spare funds it will probably prioritise kids in Year 10 - 13 who are in the middle of exam years and where moving will really damage their chances.

Agreed. You've been very foolish.

Ask the school, but every parent will be after discounts all the time and if they set a precedent with you they’ll have other families claiming they need x, y and z.

Private schools raise their fees year after year as they feel like and have done so for decades. Their businesses, and if you can’t afford that you’ll need to move your child.
I would do it now before you get well and truly shafted, and your child is still young enough to adapt.

OP I hear you I put my DD16 into the private school system when she was 10 for the same reasons and for a single sex education. Yes speak to the Bursar, but also do they do the school fees plan where it’s spread out monthly over direct debit? Do you work? Are you due for a pay rise? Can you move jobs to increase your income etc I’m a lone parent and been paying school fees monthly higher than my mortgage payments for several years and honestly I focused on driving my income up.

Schools usually only award bursaries at the start of a pupil’s academic career. Scholarships are for academic achievement, music, art or sport. Some schools are more sympathetic than others but they must all be having a lot of parents approach them for help now.

As a fellow parent of a SEN child who moved from state to private, I think you are getting a rough time and the usual sniping on this thread, OP. It sounds like we are/were in similar positions: I never expected or even wanted to
put a child through private school, but eventually it became clear that he was unlikely to thrive at our local secondary, given his circumstances. I can’t say I’ve looked back: he is keeping his head up academically, but more importantly he has gone from being a miserable, bullied no-mates with zero confidence, to a sunny kid with a circle of good friends.

If private school had been in the plans from the outset, we would have done what I came to realise a lot of the parents did: save like crazy from year zero. Or have wealthy parents funding the lot (sigh! The dream!).

I have no regrets, but it is a significant financial outlay and we do stretch, struggle and sacrifice to make the termly fee payments. Even when you know the fees will go up year to year, because that is what they do, I always feel anxious when the email lands in the inbox.

We have two successful strategies to raise the money. I don’t know if they’d work for you, but I’ll put them here anyway. The first is, 100% of DS’ DLA goes into the school fees bank account. No ifs, no buts, I transfer the lot as soon as it arrives.

Secondly, we live off one salary and the second salary, from the lower earner, also goes straight into the school fees bank account. We do live frugally! But with no regrets.

I do worry about what would happen in the case of redundancy/unemployment, so I save wherever and whatever I can.

The only people that can help you is the school finance team. Many schools will prioritise those already in for hardship support- especially at the moment but it’s not a given and whatever anyone here says it’s not going to make a difference.

School fees have always gone each year, did you not factor this in when you moved him?

I think you've been a bit foolish to start private school without taking into account fee increases above the rate of inflation. That's not including the VAT, which everyone knew was coming.

Speak to the bursar. If your DS is academically exceptional or otherwise exceptionally talented, they might consider a scholarship. Also, depending on the financial state and popularity of the school, they might think you paying reduced fees is better than not having the place filled at all.

You don't say if your son has an EHCP, but if you've not attempted this process, I think that was a mistake. Yes, it can take a long time to get the correct package but you would have probably got there by GCSEs. If it's genuinely the case that there are no other schools that can meet his needs even with a support package within an 75 minute radius, then you might have got the school fees funded.

It can’t hurt to ask. Some schools offer scholarships for year 9.