Talk to me about bursaries and scholarships?

many scholarships are now linked to bursaries too. So if you need a bursary, many schools will prioritise those who would also be scholarship level in something they want.

It's too much of a long shot.

Use what resources you have to prioritise getting into a better catchment. You have a few years.

Look at income/expenditure.
Move to a totally different area.
Move into a smaller property in catchment even for only a year or 2.
2nd jobs/ career change.

SPGS offers bursaries not scholarships at 11+. There are no academic scholarships available for this age at St Paul's Girls' School. The bursaries are means-tested and more than half awarded are for 100% (which also means extras like money towards books, trips and music lessons). They do not take into account the value of a family home suitable for the needs of the family. I imagine places like the boys' school are similar and a household income of £60K would absolutely be likely to attract a very substantial fee remission. As someone said upthread, the richer/grander schools are the best place to look for help of this kind.

The best bet for anyone thinking of a bursary place is to contact the schools you are interested in and ask to talk to someone about finances in detail. A good school that genuinely wants to attract good applicants regardless of ability to pay will be more than happy to go through figures and give a ballpark figure of what you might be eligible for.

50% scholarship for a lot of applicants

Do you consider St Paul's Girls an average school? They even offer 100%, clearly they must be sinking...

Some average private schools offer 50% scholarship just to attract students, otherwise, they are not competitive enough to survive even before VAT crisis. You can consider grammar schools which is not too diffcult to get in in some area.

DC's former school has a long web page detailing income thresholds (50k for a free place, 115K cut off), what they take into account and how to apply.

They're not unique in providing this info.

@MsWintertowne OK - it really wasn’t clear to me what you meant by “basic information” - given that the thread is focused largely on £ and %.

@SheilaFentiman I didn’t mean information on exact amounts that might be awarded. I meant clear guidance on the schedule and process for applying, and what they consider when making awards.

You might find some info on the elevenplus forum, which is parents posting (for the most part) not schools.

Devon has quite good state grammars. Any of them an option?

www.millfieldschool.com/admissions/scholarship-bursaries

@MsWintertowne As an example, Millfield is very well established and they don’t give much away on bursary levels other than saying what they will look at and indicating the highest levels are unlikely,

This gives schools flexibility on a year by year and case by case basis.

Agree with the above. Look for schools with clear bursary info on their websites. It's a good sign that not only are bursaries potentially generous, but also that the school has a positive attitude to bursary recipients. Not many schools publish clear bursary figures on their websites (which is a shame), but they should still ideally have some clear info about the process (and be happy to talk to you about it). And no, you're not living in cloud-cuckoo land, but you do need to have a suitable school (or ideally schools plural) within reach.

@Mybobowler you really shouldn’t have to call a school for basic info on bursaries. If they’re not making everything absolutely clear on their website and any accompanying prospectus they probably don’t have a well established bursary process.

You don’t want a place with one bursary a year that goes to the daughter of one of the head’s chums. You want somewhere with a sizeable proportion of the pupil body receiving some level of bursary. And the money should ideally come from endowments rather than current parents’ fees.

You also need to avoid any school that is desperate to offer you one before you’ve properly begun the application process. MN posters have fallen for this - thinking themselves very fortunate - only to have the school collapse with no notice whatsoever soon after they’ve moved their child to it. Be wary, check the financial status of any school you’re interested in.

Name changed for privacy. OP at the school I work at, you would likely qualify for 100% bursary unless you have lots of house equity. But that's secondary - it can be harder to find generous bursaries in prep. Agree with a PP - for a big bursary, look at the big, established schools.

You will have to look into each school but generally burseries and scholarships are not high % and many children these days are bright and academically qualified. A lot of ordinary parents these years want better schools than state so high competition for burseies/scholarships.

Ds1 got a really quite good bursery to our local cathedral school. All the choristers received a 25% discount on tuition fees. The rest of the burseries was mean based up to 100%.
The choristers (and parents) signed up for huge commitments in the the cathedral's daily life outside school hours.
Parents were expected to ferry the choisters to extra choir rehersals, extra music classes and a lot of services during the week, holidays and Sundays.

The school expected the ordinary cathedral pupils' parents to do a second job to pay fees because of not ferrying children around extra commitments. They students not being choristers were offered 10-15% discount with a salary like yours. A few very bright children from very low income (benefits) families were offered more but never 100%.

I would move for a good school catchment if possible. I would focus on looking for a private school whose profile matches your child in a way that ensures a high subsidy but I wouldn't expect a lot considering the VAT crisis and no money around everywhere.

(PS I was not trying to imply by the fees quotes for year 1 above to imply private schools have bursaries below age 11 (they don't)).

It varies. My children's old school (day school outer London) is about £16,500 for year 1 (outer London), but could be less in say Yorkshire where we have relatives (year 1 £12k a year). If the parents can live on one parent's salary then minimum wage earned by the other spouse which is about £22k from April would cover school fees for example. Most schools will check spending, costs, your rent and savings as well as income.

Good luck.

It will depend completely on the school. One school will give 40% bursary at an income level that would only qualify you for 10% at another school.

But if your DD is only in y1 now you could start putting £10k per year into savings between now and the end of y6 and you'll have £45,000 saved up which you can then draw from over the subsequent 5 years effectively giving yourself a significant discount. You can plan to have completely depleted your savings by the end of y11 because bursaries for 6th form are a lot easier to get assuming your child manages a raft of grade 9s at gcse, or failing that there is more likely to be a good quality 6th form in the state sector as all 6th forms can be reasonably academically selective.

Exactly this is happening on this thread too 😂

@calexico if he’d got into one of the boarding schools now charging £60k per year I suspect you might have received a more encouraging answer.

(I spent years on Education threads patiently explaining to parents on low to middling incomes that they needed to look to the grandest public schools for the most generous bursaries. Was often shouted down by people with zero knowledge of either the schools in question or the purpose of bursaries. You’re fortunate, @Mybobowler - it used to be the case that the first response on any thread enquiring about bursaries was Why are you looking at schools you can’t afford?)

Our income is about £60k. My son has been offered a place at an independent school but we didn't get offered any kind of bursary. They said we were way outside the cut off for what they would consider. I was hoping for at least 5 or 10%. Our savings are negligible but we do have some equity in the house.