Downsides to scholarships

Re the comments above snobby indie school kids, we drive a 10 year old Honda and live in a modest house. We have basically maxed out our income to pay for the school fees. DS's best mate lives in a massive 7 bed house and the SAH mum's run around car is a £50k Merc. His other mates parents are even better off. I have detected NO sense of snobbery on the part of the children or the parents.

Some children, particularly girls, can be quite bitchy. It crosses economic grounds. I mean, how often do you hear state school heads defending their strict uniform policy? Apparently it is not uncommon for state school girls to feel pressured to have their black skirts from H&M as opposed to Primark for example.

It might be worth checking out boys schools that offer 11+ entry as well as 13+. A larger number of the 11+ entrants will be coming in from state schools (some from co-ed preps) whereas 13+ entry is going to be from prep schools.
City of London Boys and Merchant Taylors spring to mind (I think that MT offers mostly nominal scholarships with a focus on bursaries).

Otherwise consider some of the slightly less hothouse schools such as Aldenham, John Lyon, St Benedicts etc. the academic performances are less stellar but often they are less competative to get into.

A third option might be State Boarding Schools - some are highly competative to get into e.g. Reading School as they are grammar schools other a bit less so.

Croydon schools are very generous.

Just cross posted with homebythesea (great name I do miss the sea).

All bursaries are of course means tested and equity in property, 2nd homes and a significant amounts of saving will definitely be taken into consideration especially if your looking for a substantial bursary. There is no fixed formula because its all about how much money the individual school have in their bursary pot. As a general rule "big name" very over subscribed schools have more money and thus are more generous. Also more and more people know about bursaries than say 5-6 years ago, more people are financially squeezed and so there may be less money to go round and this situation is unlikely to improve over the next few years. Finally the amount of money attached to a scholarship is going down all the time in may schools its just a status award in many schools something to put on your CV so thus more calls on the bursary pot.
Good luck.

At my kids' schools Scholarships are a teeny percentage of the fees (hundreds of pounds PER YEAR rather than thousands) and the non- academic ones do come with strings attached eg membership of choir, attendance at Drama Club, participation in school teams etc. I have heard that academic scholarships are reviewed if the child drops down from top sets etc. It's far more about the Kudos and having something for your CV than any financial rewards

What about the Croydon schools - Whitgift, Trinity? There was lots of talk of scholarships on the exam thread?

"JAGS, Dulwich College and Alleyn's are the obvious private day schools in south east London."
The OP has already said she's not a tiger mum or her children geniuses. I would have thought that to get scholarships into any of these you would certainly need one if not both of the above. OP if your children are bright enough for you to seriously consider scholarships into these three you would be better to try and aim for a normal place at London day school with a big bursary pot the most obvious is St Pauls (boys) but I'm sure there are others and if you put a started a separate thread on MN I sure someone will tell you. I was on the tube last year and saw an ad. for the London Day Girls School Trust of something similar offering bursaries. There are also of course an small handful of boarding schools also offering real and generous bursaries to non scholars (many talk a good talk on their websites but if you look into the figures the reality is completely different) these are likely to start at yr 9 again a separate posting on here will probably find you the info you require.
With regard to the "keeping up and 'fitting in" were not exactly millionaires; average cottage small oldish car etc, and I am very aware that there are some exceedingly wealthy parents at my DS's school but he has no trouble "keeping up or fitting in" maybe you have to choose your school carefully but we have been paying now for over 8 yrs and this has never been a problem for him.

If you are looking in London and the SE, at the sorts of schools mentioned on this thread, then much of this is irrelevant. At least one of the Dulwich schools has now shifted to a fixed amount for scholarships - so their value will decline pretty fast. Even if, and this would be pretty miraculous, both your children get scholarships to one of these, you are looking at very substantial contributions from you. If you are possibly eligible for a bursary, then it is very different. I know kids with both at some of these schools and have not heard of any problems, other than perhaps people thinking they must be very very bright, which is a sort of pressure. IME the sorts of kids who get them love a pretty full- on school experience.

Look further afield.

Spell checker changed five to give in first paragraph.

The problem with London scholarships is the way the system works. Often children sit for up to give schools so there can be 1000 children applying for each place and that drastically reduces the likelihood of a scholarship. The process rarely takes anything other than how well they did on the paper into account. From the OP's post I think she needs a school that will try and find out who her children are, what makes them tick and their potential.

OP, I know it's far and boarding but Shrewsbury offers 50% and is now co-ed and Stowe is quite generous too. I rate Dean Close in Cheltenham and I believe they offer between 40-50%. The cohort is fairly average but it's very sporty, very, very arty and music is phenomenal. The academic scholars are challenged and are often in the national finals for maths so they do stretch the brightest. The reality is that if you want a scholarship that is decent and not a bursary then you'll have to l

I remember for one French lesson when I was about 12 when we had to draw and describe our cars. Ours was 'Un Austin Allegro' and was 'assez petit' and 'tres vieux'. I can still remember one super bitch showing me the picture of her mum's BMW and saying 'oh - you won't have one like mine'. Now I think: silly, shallow, nasty, petty - who cares? But that kind of attitude is harder to cultivate when you're 12. But maybe the OP's financial circumstances are not so different to what would be the majority, in which case the 'keeping up' and 'fitting in' won't be an issue.

I had went to private school with the armed forces Boarding School Allowance. I echo what other posters have said about the psycho-social impact. I remember one of my friends accusing me of being mercenary in 6th form. What she meant was that she never had to think about money, and my family did.

In younger years there was direct teasing because of class differences. There's no point pretending it doesn't happen.

Colleger: I merely meant that the way you pointed it out wasn't encouraging. And I didn't think OP had shown a level of ignorance that made such a blunt statement of the obvious necessary, though I realise that is my subjective view.

A friend of my son has a sports scholarship and is expected to play for all the school teams (even the sports he didn't play before he got there) with the result that most of his weekends are only one day as he has to stay to tea at school after the matches.

So London school scholarships are not difficult then?

Not exactly encouraging to someone who is looking for a London school!

Don't be put off! Someone has to win them.

London schools will be difficult for scholarships because if the volume of applicants.

It would be worth looking at the various GDST schools, eg Wimbledon High and Putney High, as well as JAGS for DD. All offer scholarships, and the basic fees are lower than many others.

Yes but she did as about superselectives and how hard they are to get into.

City of London Boys considers all applicants for scholarships without a separate exam - entry at 10+, 11+ and 13+. There are specimen papers on their website.

For music scholarships most schools seem to expect minimum grade 5

City of London Girls has some really good information on its website on the expected levels for entry, past papers, scholarships

Try King's College Wimbledon (very academic), Dulwich, Alleyns and Emmanuel as fallback.

Is it definitely day and SE?