Bursary private school ?

Don't worry too much about the home visit. If it is needed, it's usually to go through the financial form with you and deal with any queries that they might have. Your parents' assets etc should not be relevant to the bursary application.

Bursaries will cover absolutely everything in some schools, including trips if they are deemed to be educationally worthwhile.
The ones that have direct experience of are Sevenoaks, Tonbridge and Wally Hall.

It’s worth a go, I know personally of five children on full or part bursaries. The only thing that I would say is that three of them got them following a bursary from moving to a prep (on a bursary) at age 11-13.

As a single parent I applied for independent day school bursaries for my child a few years ago and he was offered bursary places at all. My ex was required to complete the financial forms as well, as the child is considered to be the financial responsibility of both parents. The forms can be completed separately, so your ex would not have to disclose any financial information to you but he could send it directly to the bursar. The information required is quite intrusive though, it includes providing bank statements, credit card statements, mortgage/rental information, payslips/P60 etc. You and your ex may also be required to have a home visit carried out either by a specialist company or the bursars themselves. Also note that financial information for bursaries needs to be provided every year, in case you have a change of circumstances.

There may be schools which will only require the financial details of the parent with whom the child lives, but you would need to check with the bursars of the schools which you are interested in.

Also do check what will and will not be covered by the bursary and whether or not the bursary will increase to cover the annual fee increases.

OP you'd be wise to try for a few schools (having spoken to their bursars) competition for places at one of the very 'big boarding names" especially the boys schools can be fierce bursary or no bursary.

Link failed.

Try here!

"So I’m targeting one of the big boarding names but not in London."

How old is your DS, AMxx? Don't mean to discourage you but fees at the big boarding names are >£40K p.a. and that's only the fees alone - not including any extras e.g. uniform, music, trips, subscriptions, etc. And big boarding names with big bursaries don't come any bigger than [[https://www.etoncollege.com/NewFoundationScholarships.aspx this!

What you are initially looking for here is very unlikely to happen for you. Even if you do succeed in getting a "substantial " bursary from any of the ordinary independents, it's going to be tough going in the long run given your circumstances. And no, they don't take your aged parents' assets and income into consideration when deciding.

But what can miraculously happen (and I do believe in miracles) is for your son to win one of the scholarships mentioned above (see above link). If he succeeds, then you can say bye-bye to your financial worries - forever! Please study the link carefully and give it a go. You have absolutely nothing to lose and it won't cost you anything. Even if you find travelling to Eton financially difficult, the School may reimburse you if you talk to them first.

Watching

Hello AMxx

I am fortunate to have two children on healthy bursaries at two different good London day schools. Every school assesses your means according to their own criteria. It will not include your parent’s home or any of their assets - just your own so no need to worry about that.

Most schools need to retain their charitable status by having a bursary fund for children like yours. I wouldn’t say both of mine were at the top of the top set however they both hovered in the top 25% of their year group. Neither were particularly musical, though both sing in the choir and neither were outstanding at sport. They were just above average in intelligence but were good all rounders who could hold their own and think independently. They also had a good sense of humour. It is such an anomaly - why not have a go? The worst a school can say is no. Good luck!

Eton I believe will cover the whole lot uniform trips etc if your finances a deemed to be inadequate to cover the cost but boatding may not be on your radar.
Winchester will give you an idea of the likely size of bursary even before your DS has been interviewed in yr 6 in fact I believe even before you register your DS to enable you to decide if the reduction is sufficient to for you to persue the admissions process. Both work on the basis that if you’ve been offered a provisional place at yr 6 then you are what the school is looking for so you do not have to be at the very top of the intake.

AMxx, I think they will consider your income only but as previous posters have said, have a phone conversation with the bursars about your circumstances- I'm sure they will have come up against this situation before. As others have said bursaries are normally awarded to those with some sort of edge, be that academically, sporting, musical etc and can be combined with scholarships to 'top up' the pot. Note that bursaries may or may not include help with uniform which can be costly (although second hand sales are popular). You may get a percentage off the compulsory educational trips but not the non compulsory ones. You will probably have to pay for lunches etc. Even with a full bursary it is not cost free.

The brutal truth with bursaries is that your child has to be worth it to the school to fork out all the money they constantly ask the rich parents to cough up to keep the bursary pot full for the kids they want who can't afford it. They will have to be at the top of the pack academically and ideally have something else - sport, art, music, drama, chess - that the school would like.

We were in an almost similar position in that we live with an elderly relative but all the forms I had to fill in were about my income and outgoings, not the relative's. My ds didn't get offered a bursary to any of the 3 schools we tried for - the year we tried I was told by each school (all ones regularly mentioned on this forum) that the bursaries that year went to kids who had scored in excess of 90% in the entrance exams and my ds got in the 80s. We were offered a place at one school if we could pay the fees so we had to turn it down. He went to the Requires Improvement comp up the road and has just got a raft of 8s and 9s at GCSE and is now in the Sixth Form there.

If you go down the bursary route you must have a realistic plan B. MN is a great place for people telling you how their children are on full bursaries to the point where you'd think they were handed out like Smarties, but I wonder how many people don't admit to the disappointment when their child didn't get one and they have to face the fact that it's the local state school, not the unaffordable local private. I always said to my DS that we couldn't afford it without a bursary, that it didn't matter if he didn't get in to the private schools, that the school up the road was fine and on the whole that's what it has turned out to be. We've had some ups and downs but I have a lot of friends with kids in private schools who have had quite impressive ups and downs too. My main advice is do not bad mouth the state school or say things like "I don't know what we'll do if you don't get in to this school and you have to go to the failing school...". That pressure is too much for them at 10 years old.

Have you searched this topic on MN loads of stuff. Basically every school is different although I very much doubt any school would take your parents assets/pension into consideration.
You need to contact the bursar of the school(s) you're interested in rather than just reading their websites and have an honest talk about your financial situation and gauge their response.
In the vast majority of cases bursaries are means tested and attached to scholarships and often academic scholarships, competition for scholarships is fierce and those form prep schools are well prepared.
Secondly look at the very big name Eton Winchester (other are full boarding only) SPS etc they have assets and are all trying to move needs blind admissions policy (no scholarship needed) and Christs Hospital is the other one to consider (again no scholarship needed) but you may not have any appetite for boarding.
From previous posts on here very large bursaries (>75%) are few and far between so realistically must consider other options to improve your state options.