Downsides to scholarships

Worth School

I had a friend at JAGS (south east London girl's day school) who got an art scholarship and an academic scholarship. She lost the academic scholarship in year 9 but kept the art one. She got 4 great A levels and is now at art school.

JAGS, Dulwich College and Alleyn's are the obvious private day schools in south easy London. I think all have good scholarships.

As the OP said she's not a "tiger mum" and her "DC's are not geniuses" then I suspect that she has no interest in Westminster, St Pauls, Win Coll or Eton. I think she's hoping someone may be able to recomend something a bit more what shall we say; normal? And she definitely used the words day and SE/London.

I should have added a caveat on my post - I am assuming that your DC are not currently in the junior school of a private senior nor in a feeder prep.

Colleger - Looking at the Kings Scholars last year there is better spread of schools than with Westminster (which is very heavily weighted towards WUS) even if certain schools like WUS and Summerfields are more successful over time than others.

WUS and Summerfields are the biggest scholarship feeders to Eton. Pilgrims for Winchester, although not this year.

I think you will often have a tough job aiming for scholarships at those schools that have their own junior school and/or one or two feeder preps. Westminster publish their scholarship winners and last year the vast majority are from WUS with most of the rest from The Hall.

www.westminster.org.uk/assets/Further-Information-Booklet-20112012.pdf
St Pauls don't publish (or hide it well) but CC get over a dozen scholarships and I know my son's prep (a major feeder for St P) gets anywhere from 3-8 scholarships a year.

I suspect schools like Eton, Win and Harrow draw on a wider range of schools should stop the concentration of scholars in a very few schools.

What I am trying to say is if you are considering trying for scholarships then I would go for schools where there isn't a junior school / obvious feeder school that has got teaching for the scholarship exams down to a fine art. Otherwise you are competing against children who may have had very well practiced preparation for that specific type of scholarship exam.

I can tell you that some papers are much easier. Radley's is very easy compared to Win and Eton.

Not sure any are 'easier'. Most expect a very high level of achievement. I imagine however that the better known schools and the more popular schools will have slightly more competition for scholarships, but standard will not vary that much.

Only know hard, or impossible...l

Eton
Win
Harrow
Sevenoaks
Westminster
St Paul's
KCS Wimbledon

There will also be schools that are fairly unselective but because of their notoriety and history there will be exceptional international scholars applying. Harrow for example, but to some extent Eton as they are not as selective as Winchester but have 150 candidates for 14 places whereas WC has around 60 for 14 places.

I did try and persuade my son to go for a school like Shrewsbury that still offers 50% and he would have got but he said no. If a fee reduction is important then look at a less selective school.

"Trying to weigh up whether its worth pushing dc to up their game and if so by how much!"
There is not set level. It all depends on the school. So to get a sports scholarship into a place like Milfield your going to have to be unbelievably good, ditto an academic scholarship into St Pauls.
Obvioulsy the more academic the school the harder it is to get a scholarship so most who easily get into the relative handful of super selectives could probably have got a scholarship into those with a CE pass mark of 50% - 55%.

DS is a music scholar which is 20% of the fees. Plus he gets an exhibition on his two instruments. So, in our case, its definitely worth getting. He attends two orchestra rehearsals a week. Unfortunately these fall on the same days set aside by the school for extra curricula activities so DS doesn't get the full benefits of attending a school with such a diverse range of activities. Having said that, if it wasn't for the scholarship DS wouldn't be at th school anyway.

As for losing a scholarship, I know a girl who lost her 10% art scholarship at the end of year 9 but I think that this was an exception (she lost interest in art having 'discovered' boys)

I'd love to know what schools offer 100% scholarships (ie not bursaries, which often do go that far).

I think the "fitting in" thing very much depends on the school and the child. I recently read somewhere that bursaries should be primarily be offered to nice middle class families with limited funds (my words not those actually used but that was the general gist) as they will be able to fit in. Interesting thought.

In the olden days, I had an Assisted Place to a private school (basically government-funded means tested bursary). I had a brilliant education and was very happy there and although generally lefty in my views now, I am not anti-private schools per se.

But I think it's no coincidence that the only people I'm still friends with from way back then all had Assisted Places too. And talking about it recently, we have all been left with the feeling of not really fitting anywhere - because of going to a school where the majority of people were better off than us, but at the same time living in an area where we were seen (by some) as snobbish/above ourselves because we went to a private school. I am ashamed to admit it now, but I often felt embarrassed then admitting where I lived/what car my dad drove etc at school. As well as the practical thing of our parents trying to cover expensive school trips etc, it has had a lasting psycho-social impact. Don't want to over-dramatise, and it hasn't all been bad - I always feel like I can fit in in lots of different environments, but never quite belong. So think about whether your DCs can cope with that - and whether you want them to.

(Also someone I know has a DC at a private school and way under-estimated the cost of the extras when they were working out whether they could afford it - £3000 for a trip to Asia, anyone?)

"So do dc applying for a bursary need to be at scholarship level academically to qualify or do school give them to those who meet at least the basic academic criteria but financially the most needy?"
No straigth answer some schools will only attach bursaries to schoalrships or certainly big bursaries, others usually the super selctives will offer bursaries to all although but they may still limit the size of them. Lots of posting on bursaries on MN you best to do a search for more info.

Free music tuition is usually called a music exhibition award these days I think. It is generally a lesser award than a music scholarship (these are London school terms - may be different elsewhere).

"On the academic scholarship front, the maximim award is usually 20% and the awards usually range between 5-20% remission of fees. Music scholarships normally just entitle the child to free music tuition (2 instruments normally), though some schools offer a small remission of fees as well."

Much more in our school - every school will vary but free music tuition seems rather measly for a music scholarship and if you only had 5% off for an academic award I'm not sure I'd bother putting ds forward for the exams. There are schools that give 100% fees remission for academic scholarships so you need to look around.

Scholarships are aimed at children who are interested and passionate enough about their speciality that they would want extra practice/rehearsals etc. They wouldn't see them as a downside.

ds1 has a music scholarship and it comes with the proviso that he take a full and active role in the musical activities of the school ie all concerts and open days as well as exemplary behaviour/attitude to his studies. (Not necessarily A* across the board but that he tries his best).

He has also got an academic one which has the same proviso, though not having to make the commitment to take part in school functions makes this much more attractive and its worth more too!

Its down to the school to decide its own terms and conditions. ds1's awards are for the duration of his time at the school so we don't have to worry about them being withdrawn unless he goes off the rails so for us there is no downside whatsoever.

Very useful when you're filling out a ucas application too!

With sports the commitment can be huge. The ones we know who got them at 13+ were already in county squads, attending national events or training with senior clubs, at 11 they certainly need to show the potential to do so. They often need to excel in more than one sport too and be available to represent the school at whatever is offered. Music again they are expected to showcase at every opportunity and attedn relevant ensembles. There may also be an expectation as to what grades are achieved by when, and usually 2 instruments played to a good standard are required.

I have a friend with a DD on a music scholarship which was worth very little on the fees but included tuition on two instruments, which she had to do. She also played in the school orchestra, at least one ensemble, had to perform at all recitals and sang in the choir. With rehearsal and practice times, it was a huge commitment. She loved it, but it really wouldn't have worked for someone less naturally passionate.

But I agree with posters above, you need to find out what commitment the school will demand.

There is an almost universal condition on all scholarships that they are subject to good behaviour and continuing good effort.