School bursaries?

OP I'm not convinced that many posting on this thread have any actual experience of applying for a bursary at a boarding school. I suspect many are extrapolating their or their friends experiences of applying for a bursary from a day school. Im also not for one minute saying that your going to find it a doddle to get a bursary with your income or that your going to be offered a 60% reduction but unless you have no over heads in any shape or form and don't pay tax £100 000pa although a very generous salary in not sufficient to cover a £34+ and extras school fee bill. You need to apply to one of the big names who really are committed to widening their access. In fact thinking about it as your not asking for a substantial bursary you probably stand a reasonable chance (assuming you don't have loads of assets/savings) of getting something, many schools will offer 20-30%, and that is probably all you need sadly most schools don't have enough money to offer the big bursaries of 60%+.

When we tried for a bursary at a school which says that it offers 100% bursaries we were offered a small one which it was impossible for us to take up. Bursaries seemed to be worked out on the premise that you would be living at income support levels and would be spending no money on eg transport for the child to get to school or for you to get to work, on uniform or on school trips. Our family income is a (small) fraction of yours.

At dc school a bursary only applies to the day fees, not boarding. I doubt your income would be low enough to qualify, based on what you have said.

You haven't said how bright you DS is. He's going to have to be exceptional to get a 6 th place at St Pauls, Eton or Win Coll . I'm assuming you're looking for 2015 as you've completely missed the boat for 2014. If you're an EU citizen you can apply to a state boarding grammar school.

Cross-post!

Well at leat if you are looking for a high scholarship, that'll be easy to find out from the school websites (value of awards is fixed and published)

But do be wary of choising a school solely for affordability. When will you all be coming over for recce visits, and what schools are on your list so far as a good fit for your DS's aptitudes and character?

There's certainly someone on this forum whose ds has a 60% bursary at Winchester College (no scholarship) with a household income of 85,000 so it's probably worth making a few phone calls at the very least - especially if your ds is scholarship standard.

Haven't read all of this but IME you could qualify for some sort of financial assistance. We don't earn quite as much as you do but we're not a million miles off it and we get a substantial bursary. We reckon to pay the full fees you have or be on at least £130 000+ pa. If you do the maths to comfortably fork out £40 000 then you need to have at least £60 000 gross that you not channelling in too mortgages/food/life insurance/utilities/transport costs etc. You need to pick your school carefully there are only a small handful who have really generous bursary policies who might consider you. I can go into details about approaching schools about bursaries if you want but I have posted extensively on similar threads you can search them I believe.
If you try for a scholarship any financial help will also be means tested as few offer automatic generous financial awards to scholars. But it is a road you could look at.
Finally entry into 6th form (which I'm assuming is what your looking for) is becoming increasingly competitive, schools are going to be looking for exceptionally able pupils even those who are not very selective at 13+ Will have a much higher academic criteria at 16+ and the ones with big bursary pots are pretty selective in general and will be very selective for their sixth forms. For stand alone bursaries look at Christ Hospital (although I suspect they will say you earn too much) and then the super selectives St. Paul's, (very hard to get into for 6th form) only has a small number of full boarders but nearly all are 6th formers and from abroad, Eton, and Win Coll. Off the top of my head I can't think of any more but there are others I will post agin if I think of them.

I've seen some schools which have up to 50% scholarships. I think it's unlikely that you'll get a bursary though but I suppose you might as well try.

40% fee reduction for a scholarship would be high. Very many are 25% or much lower, ie nothing. I would have found all this out before discussing it with him. Could be heading for a big disappointment now!

If you can manage to fund him without the bursary, then I don't see how you think that you might qualify for a bursary??

Bursaries are not scholarships based on ability - they are a means-tested form of assistance (tho, as someone rightly says above, they are more likely to give bursaries to kids of scholarship standard)

You probably earn too much. Even the most expensive (£35kpa) boarding schools have an income threshold of around £85k for bursaries. If you are British citizens you could consider state boarding schools or you will need to find a way to fund public school without assistance.
Are there no boarding schools in the country where you live?

In my experience bursaries and scholarships are dealt with totally separately. At DDs school the top threshold for a bursary is £55K household income, ie above that you get nothing, slightly below that you may get 10% and then a sliding scale to 100% at around £15K. But schools are different so you need to speak to the schools that you are considering

You need to ask the school/s you want. It is different for each, and may be different again for 6th form (as affordability of 2 years is quite different to the 5 or 7 of earlier entry points).

The importance of securing a scholarship in securing a bursary also varies between schools.

You would need to contact each school you are interested in. Some senior schools attach bursaries to scholarships, others don't.
Ring or email the bursary department of each school that you are interested in and ask them.

Not really - depends on the school however most schools get many more applications for bursary places than they could possibly fund so realistically the children who get them will have done very well in the exam and/or having something exceptional to offer the school

I'm afraid you earn too much for a bursary for most schools and even if you did get one it would mean substantial changes to your lifestyle as you'd still be expected to pay a hefty chunk of the fees

I think you and your ds need to adjust your expectations - why have you and your dp been discussing hit with him in the first place without working out that it's unaffordable?

status not statues!

I'm sure you earn too much for a bursary. The bursary funds are there for bright kids whose parents could never normally afford private education. I know two women whose kids got 100% bursaries from private schools - both single parents, one works as a TA, the other I don't know, but I think she rents rather than owns her home.

Bursaries are the reasons why private schools qualify for charitable statues. They are there to help people without means

No chance imo.

I'd forget it, TBH. Or consider state boarding.