We have enrolled our child at a fabulous pre prep. We could afford the fees at the time but after job changes it just is no longer an option once the 15 free hours nursery provision finishes and DC has to enter Reception.
When I spoke to the head she was non committal but told me that all financial circumstaces are looked at and although salary figure is too high to normally consider bursary that things like excessive mortgage (tick), very high overheads including debt (tick) would all be taken into account. Tbh every month we are struggling, really struggling to save even £450. She also told me that generally once a child has started the school she considered it negative to their education to have to let them go so she would usually recommend a bursary be approved.
Said child has not yet started pre prep.
We have another younger child and my concerns are partly that if we can't afford one we certainly can't afford two.
How many people have managed to get bursaries while earning well in excess of the usual low income expected and has this continued to work when two children are in attendance?
Am I being ridiculous in even trying? Am very concerned as DC1 is considered exceptionally advanced in terms of development (genuine concern please do not flame) and needs a high level of attention/stimulation (no idea about DC2 yet, very very little indeed!). Local state schools said to be good but HUGE class sizes and very oversubscribed, hard to get into.
Anyone? Is it fantasy to start pre prep with no realistic hope of remaining? Or do we really have a hope - is it possible, is it reasonable to consider successfully claiming bursaries?