Well, wait until you have everything in writing and look through it with a fine tooth comb.
The actual school offer and bursary offer usually comes direct from the school as your agreement is with the school, not the bursary company.
Given bursaries are means-tested by their very nature, it is usual for the financial position to be reassessed every year and quite a lot of documentation to be needed. It is very unusual (and I’ve never heard of it) for the bursary element to not be changeable if circumstances change, although scholarships wouldn’t be. So I would check it is very clearly expressed in writing int eras that couldn’t then be reinterpreted.
You can understand why bursaries are subject to change when means change can’t you Op? Other parents pay full fees and effectively subsidise those on bursaries. That’s fine when I come remains low, but if a family on a bursary found their income rose to that of full fee paying parents, you can see why those full fee payers could feel disgruntled to know they were subsidising others in a similar or better off position.
Schools claim charitable status partly based on giving of bursaries and all of it has to be transparent and means tested, so what you’re suggesting is extremely unusual and doesn’t fit with the whole spirit of bursaries. As has been mentioned, the standard bursary documentation states that bursaries are subject to change and not compatible with owning second properties or incomes above a certain level etc.
The whole timescale if this is odd too. You say you have been given 14 days to decide, but you haven’t actually got the bursary offer in writing. The whole setup sounds very unusual, so do be extra careful before accepting anything and know that the situation you find yourself in isn’t the norm or the way the school seem to be operating in isn’t the norm. This should raise some concerns in your ind that make you do more through checks.
Whatever the documentation says, I would email the school and bursary company to confirm that the bursary is not subject to change and across how many years, regardless of your family financial circumstances. Pinning it down like this might reveal it isn’t quite what you think...and better to know now than later. I have known families find their bursary halved when circumstances changed a small amount...and the children had to leave the school.
If I was another family considering this particular school, the details you report here about your bursary would certainly out me off. Bursaries absolutely are a good thing when they enable families who have made all the possible sacrifices that can be expected (both parents working, using equity in property and not building assets or investments but using the funds for fees) to attend the school, that would have been impossible in other circumstances. But they cannot be used to draw families in at a cheaper price, just to fill places and boost fee revenue by some amount, on a non-means tested basis. The auditors from the charity commission would need to see that bursary policy was applied properly, and what you’re suggesting has been offered to you, doesn’t really do this. This is why I think the school is either dubious in its offer and in all liklihood not in a strong financial position, or that you’ve actually misunderstood the offer.
It is true that some schools set a fairly high income level as a cut off for bursaries and it certainly rises when more than one child will attend and fees need to be found. It can certainly exceed £100k, but is on a sliding scale and often income has to be below £30k for a full bursary . By the time someone is approaching £100k, you’d be looking at very small bursaries and always the mention that if income rises or circumstances change, the bursary is subject to review.
Op, aren’t you surprised yourself at the idea the bursary won’t change at all if your income rises?