'Please indicate what sacrifices you have made or will be making in order to contribute towards school fees.'

Do you have other children? I am in a similar position to you and live very very frugally which isn’t really fair on the non bursary sibling.

You sound like good candidates for a bursary, but you are choosing to give away a chunk of your income that could otherwise be spent on school fees. In terms of disposable income, it really isn't any different to spending it on clothes, holidays etc. as far as a bursary application is concerned. Whatever you don't pay has to be made up elsewhere, and effectively the other fee-paying parents will be sharing the cost of your child's education. You may have to choose between your charitable giving and paying school fees for your child.

Former bursar here and the charitable giving will be excluded from the assessment i.e. if you are donating £5k per annum they will add that back on your disposable income so that they will expect you to contribute that as it is discretionary. To a PP, if it is done properly by an external assessor then it is very thorough and there is no way of hiding expenditure. They will chase if bank statements are missing, as in they can see payments to another account held by same family.

You don't sound like you should be choosing private school OP 😩 hopefully you're exaggerating for the app.

Even if 100% fees would be paid, there are so many extra costs beyond just school fees & your kid may begin to resent the lifestyle you have chosen & inevitable pressure you'll then put on them to "achieve".

Don't think charitable giving counts as that's entirely by choice!

I'm not sure you can accept charity with one hand and give charity with the other without someone questioning why.

Would you want your daughter to go to a school which demanded you stopped giving to charity and gave the money to them instead?

I think you'll have to give up the charitable giving. They aren't going to like you effectively giving away your money and then saying you haven't got enough money.

How much are you talking in terms of charitable giving, as a proportion of what you're asking for as a bursary? Accepting a bursary is the same as accepting charity. It's completely up to you how you spend your money, but I don't think a school would view it favourably if you come to them for a hand out because you've given all your money away.

You could always phone the school and ask. They're often surprisingly open and up front about these things.

The finance office / bursar will make the financial assessment, not the admissions team.

Your answers sound fine. What equity do you have in your house and do you plan to increase that during the duration of the bursary...eg through mortgage payments? Are you paying for private education for any other children? What are you paying into pensions? Do you own valuable antiques or other property including jewellery? Are you both working full.time?

They are the only other things I can think of.

To PP...yes of course bank statements are checked, and home visits undertaken etc

You are doing all the things. Holidays, cars, big houses are what they mean. Do both parents work?

I would say yes, if you do not have the money and are relying on handouts such as a bursary you shouldn't be giving what little you have to charity.

Also, you should be using the money you are giving away to make your own lives a bit better. There's time to donate when you're in a better position yourselves.

I'm confused. If you are already struggling financially how are you going to afford the portion of school fees not covered by the bursary?

Unless they actually ask for your bank statements or a verified financial statement they won't know about your charitable giving.