Which independent secondary schools have scholarships which have real monetary value?

if they want your child badly enough it is possible to create a 'bidding war' between a couple of schools, and that's how you get to 50%, at least it is round here (refuse first offer and hold your nerve). This was advice from our current prep school, I'll tell you how it goes in March.

Some London independents do offer 50% non means tested scholarships still but the child needs to be very bright. These can be 'topped' up with music and sports scholarships.

I am name-changing because it would be easy to work out who I am from my comments, but am a regular contributor. My son gets currently a 50% non means tested academic scholarship which lasts his whole school career (11-18) from a school on the list provided earlier in the thread. They are still being awarded. I understand that there is an HMC agreement that non means tested scholarships shouldn't exceed 50%.

My son's co-ed school is very old so they have a large endowment fund with a mix of large scholarships and high value bursaries; but also are more top 200 rather than top 50 in the independent school league tables. It is an excellent all-round school; he is an academic high flyer but not the only one, so there plenty of challenge.
I recognise that he is there to push the grade averages up, but non means tested scholarships are great for people like us (just above local bursary levels). We would/could not have spent more than the 50% on his schooling but then we had a pretty good choice of alternatives.

There are no requirements put on him other than to keep his grades up, which is no difficulty. Incidentally, he came from a state primary and I just gave him some practice papers before the testing.

This is a zombie thread from 6 years ago.

Would be interested to see it continue in the current climate and I suspect that there are now fewer big non means tested scholarships being offered.

Where we are (Home Counties day school) scholarships are £1k and remain flat rate. So in real terms, they become less each year as fees rise. They aren't quite honorary but not much more when the fees are £18k. They always stress that a means tested bursary can be added if people meet the means testing criteria. They want to give most of their money to means tested benefits now.

And it's possible to get scholarships stacked in name (which the Preps love as can list them as more than one award) when in actual fact they usually only attract one fee discount.

Would be very interested to hear if people are still getting the 50% scholarships without any means testing these days.

Westminster offer 8 scholarships worth ca 50% of full boarding fees (you still have to pay almost the same as day pupils though). Scholars have to board, and are contractually obliged to take part in ceremonial services in Westminster Abbey on Sundays. And it’s rare (but not unheard of) for anyone outside the Under School to win a scholarship.
I don’t know where you are OP, but two other schools I can think of in SW London with generous scholarships (up to 25-33%) are Reed’s and Emanuel.

My dd gets 25% has an academic scholarship and for ex prep pupils this can go up to 50%.
We are in Yorkshire though so fees not too bad anyway

Would love to know about scholarship for st swiven school in winchester
How do you applied how much financial help can you get
Is it rare or are they re fair
Thank you for any help

I should have thought most independent schools - other than the two or three who were randomly picked on and 'failed' will be awaiting the outcome of that case. I know that one of those schools is in the process of trying to raise funds for bursaries (without raising the fees for all parents, mostly 'bog standard professionals') but that it'll take some time to manage it - it had no endowments, no scholarship funds to divert (its a primary, the idea of 'scholarships' for tinies is obviously ridiculous - they're perplexed what basis should be used to award bursaries!)

It might change again when that court case coming up over the wrong way the Charity peopkle have interpreted the Charities Act in relation to private schools is corrected but until then it is likely the trend to bursaries which are means tested are likely to rule and academic scholarships where you're not poor are nominal in fee terms only.

If he doesn't want to board and the 2 or 3 possible day schools are not on easy bus routes perhaps consider an au pair who drives as she couldl get him to and from school each day by car.

Agree with the point things are changing, I know a family who received 100% scholarship for their son who is now in his mid 20s, same school and the academic scholarships then dropped to 10-30%, now they are approx £100 a term - so just recognition really. All the money can then go to those that need it which means a third of pupils receive means tested bursaries today. Must say I think it's a fairer system and one more in line with public benefit.

Depends where you are & what you want. In SW London is entirely negotiable - if they want the child badly enough, but the most academic ones can fill their places many times over with full fee or bursary children and so do not need to. I heard of a parent a few years ago blagging a 100% scholarship, non means tested, which was way above the published rates - they had the chutzpah , and the child was a genius

You have to remember that a very large percentage of pupils were on the assisted fees scheme which ended in 1997 and places were generally filled by middle-class doctors, lawyers etc.

I've always wondered why parents insist on taking kids away on holidays during half term when they board. My kids want to be in their home and chill out and have some family time, not be stuck on a plane for 25% of the holiday!

I have also noticed that your bog-standard professional (vet/clergyman/solicitor) cannot now afford private school (esp boarding) fees unless both parents work and they don't have too many children. There were lots more very ordinary middle-class families when I was at a private secondary school 20 years ago then there are at DS's school, when they are all heading off to the Bahamas for half term.

Having said that, DS is completely cool with not being able to have that stuff because he does genuinely appreciate the education and intellectual stimulation he is getting.

Stealth I agree that it depends on the school and the child.

However, as boarding school fees have climbed far beyond inflation in the last decade, so have the lifestyles of the people attending them.

Friends of mine who work at the more well-known public schools tell me it is now virtually unheard of, for example, for the son of a clergyman/doctor/vet/country solicitor to attend unless he's an only child and both parents work.

DD's state boarding school is excellent and she has flourished since she has been there. Fees are reasonable too, about 12.5k pa which is less than half the price of DS's school.

Charity commission privileges are going to be stripped from many public schools very soon. That's why they're all swapping from scholarships to bursaries and suddenly opening their facilities up to local state schools.

The Sutton Trust is lobbying hard and soon there will not only be a means test for public/independent school bursaries, but also a capital qualification.

I went to public school because my parents had been too. However, it was an enormous financial struggle for my parents (there are three of us) and it really wasn't worth it: we absolutely hated seeing our parents scrimping, and we resented being "poor" (which was a nonsense in real terms, although we didn't realise it at the time). We felt excluded from much of the life of the school, if not quite bullied. If you can't very comfortably afford the fees, the extras on your bill, and crucially, the lifestyle of your school, it's a recipe for unhappiness for both the child and the parents.

That's a shame because some of them are really good.
But, like I said, you have to research carefully.

oops sorry, the one near me is most definitely not I afraid :(

Oh, you've sort of turned my argument on its head there MABS. I was trying to boast by stealth and say that ours, despite being a comp, is in amongst the best schools (Times Top 500).

totally agree oshgosh, the state boarding school near us is not at all good :(

I second Grimma's point about State Boarding schools but you have to research carefully because they are not homogenous. Some are selective and some are not, but the non-selectives usually still get pretty good results. Some have a majority of boarders and some only take a few boarders. Some have catchment areas and some don't.

The education, being State, is free so you only pay for lodgings. At our school it is currently about £10k per year.

yrp, Mos, 30% at Hurst is pretty much the max for a scholarship, do agree

Winchester offers nothing and does not negotiate. In fact if you already have a scholarship offer from another school you can't even sit the Eton or Winchester scholarship let alone negotiate.