is everyone on a scholarship?

and a good scholarship will have a program in place to support the student in whatever it is they excel in, yes. Your children are perfectly free to apply, they are open to all!

No, you didn't misinterpret it. Scholarships are given to attract the best, whether that's academically, in sport music drama or art. Of course schools want talented kids and will offer money or prestige to get them.

Nothing wrong with supporting talented kids who need a bit of extra support.

However, your earlier post suggests that sporty kids get in purely to raise the profile of the school, ie. make the school look good, rather than to support that pupil as such in their academic (and sporting) abilities.

Maybe I mis-interpreted what you meant.

Fat - given the choice between the school having a sportier image, or me paying smaller fees, I would go for smaller fees

Hmm, the scholarships come from the school's scholarship and bursary fund. Both are charitable gifts from the school, both used to attract top performers from all walks of life. The schools usually give both, often scholarships are worth very little financially.

Tbh there are plenty of cheap unexceptional private schools in the country if that's what you want! Presumably you don't want your children educated in a tiny rich bubble and would be happy for them to be educated with bright talented kids who wouldn't be able to attend normally?

kalifornia and Lefay - Thank you.

Brekkie - Yes, we’re in the middle of London. They get offered academic scholarships based on the senior school’s own exams (as in the case of my DS) or if they do well at the school’s own pre test and then at the CE. So the CE kids won’t know yet, but the school my DS opted for just has their own exams, so he already knows.

For the specialist exams (art, music, drama, sports) they had their interviews in the fall.

No prep on the prep school’s part more than the regular lessons and test prep.

Petalflowers - Bursaries are means tested, and all public/ private schools that are charities has to award a certain amount of bursaries in order to maintain their charitable status. Bursaries are up to the full tuition fee.

Schools don’t need to award scholarships, but many do in order to attract certain pupils, which in school turn raises the profile of the school. Big sporting schools will be keen to award sporting scholarships to make sure they have the most promising teams, just as schools with a reputation of educating great musicians will want to offer music scholarships to make sure their music department is flourishing. Academic scholarships are offered for the same reasons, to attract highly achieving pupils. Scholarships are usually at 5-50% of tuition fees and will often be subject to certain conditions (x amount of practise hours/ matches/ showcases/ exhibitions/ scholar clubs per month etc). Some scholarships won’t mean any deduction in fees, but rather private lessons or similar. Scholarships aren’t means tested.

brekkie - I think quite the contrary. More and more co eds and girls’ schools are opening for 13+ rather than 11+.

Most preps we looked at in our area also mainly preps boys for 13+

bursary is financial circumstance (eg parents earn under 53 k for example may get fee reduction)

scholarship is merit based, eg grade 978 violin

Fat - given the choice between the school having a sportier image, or me paying smaller fees, I would go for smaller fees.

(Purely hypothetical as dc1 has left school, and dc2 is in a six form of a state school)

Can someone explain the difference between a scholarship and a bursary please?

No scholarships/bursaries here. I pay full fees for both my DC.

Oh and thank you brekkiequeen for taking the time to explain!

This is really interesting. None of the (top and second tier public schools in London) schools we applied for had any separate tests for academic scholarships. They were all based on performance in the exams and interviews. One or two had special scholarship interviews once they had taken the general test, the CE ones we applied to (but now ditched as he’s got a place) also had scholarships based on exam performances.

Our prep is not keen on setting/ streaming though, so I doubt they’d want to separate the pupils in that way anyway. But we have a second DS who might not want into the same schools as DS1, so I’ll definitely do more research on this.

DS1’s scholarship is at 15% of fees for his time at the school, so not a huge amount but it’ll still be about £2K per year we can spend on other things for him. But I think the main benefit is that he is feeling that his particular skills are valued by the school.

Not everybody who send the kids to pre schools are rich. However, if you go to a state school and can afford a tutor you may be in a better position to get a place and scholarship at 11 plus over pre-schools. As schools will see these state students as not having being prepared by the schools. Apparently, they may take this into account.

Most parents who are seeking scholarships go to preps that prep for them. That’s partly what you are paying for. DDs old prep gets loads every year. Not London.

My DD1 achieved an academic 6th form scholarship and received £0 off fees. Others got “Principals Awards” based on sport, music and drama and got free coaching and lessons for a year. The very rich parents got this benefit. How was that fair? Still makes me cross now!

Most independent schools are switching more and more from academic scholarships to offering more bursaries. As an aptitude scholar (music, drama, sports, dance etc.) the student actually also needs to do a lot of work for school to deserve it, and the amount from some most desired schools can be really nominal (few hundreds a year or some book vouchers). The commitments required from these students can easily fill up an A4 page (helping out on open days, organise clubs, coaching younger students etc.).

Mine's just got one. It's pretty nominal. Rather than moaning about having to 'subsidise' him, you should be grateful that he will almost certainly raise the sporting profile of the school. That's why he got it.

Ok I clearly don’t understand how this works. Would those who get scholarships not have to sit the CE then?

And what happens if they don’t get the scholarship? Surely there must be a higher chance of getting in via CE than via scholarship?

None of the 13+ schools my DS1 applied to had specific scholarship exams, it was all “academic scholarships will be awarded to pupils who excels im the exams”

He’s our eldest and we’re not from the UK originally so it’s all new to me, and I’m genuinely interested in how it all works. I don’t really see how preparing for academic scholarships could be that much different from preparing for CE?

I might sound really stupid, sorry!

Interesting! I had no idea some prep schools prepared for scholarships! Our prep certainly doesn’t. DS1 got an academic scholarship for his next school (Dulwich College), but that was due to doing well at the tests, so not sure how they could’ve prepared specifically for that..?