Bursary to attend Independent schools - insights sought

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I'd be very grateful for any insight current or former bursars could offer, or from anyone who typically sits on the decision making panels/boards for your independent school. Panels which decide whether to offer a bursary or not, and if an offer is made, how much should be offered.

A neighbour of mine has a 10 year old daughter who was advised by her under performing state primary that her daughter was gifted and that she should consider sitting her daughter for grammar school 11+ exams. Unfortunately we don't live anywhere near any grammar schools.

My neighbour investigated other options and decided to try her for a bursary place at local independent schools. The family are local authority council tenants, former refugees. One parent is able to work full time and works a minimum wage job. The other parent works for minimum wage, part-time, their hours are fitted around their children's school/ nursery hours.

The daughter sat 3 exams and was offered a place at 2x schools (Channing and Francis Holland (I'm unsure which site). However neither school offered her a bursary, as such this extremly bright little girl is now on her way to the local underperforming comprehensive school in September, 2022.

I understand that bursary pots are finite, and there will always be many deserving applicants each year.

I'm particularly interested however in understanding which types of applicants are offered bursaries. I was surprised by my neighbour's experience and I guess I'm trying to rationalise it. If this little girl was not found worthy, can someone venture ideas on which types of applicant are.

Many thanks for reading.

Hi @vanillasunshine , I suspect you're right, it's possibly just an incredibly difficult time for bursary applicants, I'll pass on your advice to perhaps investigate possible other options. Thank you for sharing your experiences.

Hi @FourOclock

Yes, you might be onto something, perhaps there were many applicants to these schools who only required partial support, in these circumstances the schools are able to assist multiple families per year, which is great for the children and I'm sure benefits the schools records when it comes to evidencing their ability to fulfill any widening participation obligations they may have from the Charity Commission.

That's intriguing @LIZS , thank you for sharing this insight.

I'll pass on this info on, along with the information offered from a previous poster above re specific, grants, charities and organisations which are founded to support specific groups of people.

There is no point in looking at Fortismere if they live in Hackney! FWIW my friend's very bright child lives in Hackney and has done very well at Clapton Girls, but it depends where in Hackney they are. It honestly sounds like a really nice school from what my friend's daughter has told me. For state schools, you have to live within a reasonable distance. As your friend's child is not massively upset, it would be far better to make the most of the school she has and perhaps go on waiting lists for anywhere they prefer that is within striking distance (most councils have maps of allocations on their websites and there tends to be movement on the lists over the summer).

If she decides to try again for A Levels, your friends should be aware that they are likely to have a better chance of a bursary at a bigger name school which is likely to have better funding and a larger amount of funds to disburse. I know for a fact that at DD's school there are many children on 100% bursaries and around 1 in ten children there are receiving financial assistance. There are other schools with similar numbers though I don't know about North London.

However, the fact is that bursaries are awarded not to those in most financial need (though they do have to meet the requirements which are simply that they should not be able to afford to pay the fees, which can perfectly well apply to someone on £50,000 salary given that the schools might cost as much as £25,000 a year and people do need money to pay the rent and buy food) but to those who have done the best in the exams and interviews out of the people who qualify for financial assistance. It may be that eg your friend's daughter is a lot better at Maths than arts subjects or vice versa and she would have a better chance at A Level when she will be applying to study the things she is best at.

As others have said, she sounds clever, hard-working and well-supported and she will probably do really well wherever she goes to school. It sounds like you are taking it harder than the family, OP!

I'd imagine it would be quite difficult on the child to attend the school even with a full bursary. Uniforms for independent schools are extremely expensive, school trips etc will be expensive too and these won't be covered by the bursary

I don't know about other schools, but my daughter's school gives grants for all of these things for those who are receiving financial assistance and covers even very expensive trips for bursary children where there is educational benefit to the child, such as foreign language exchanges, trips for geography or biology fieldwork, history visits to important sites in other countries. I would be surprised if other schools were substantially different. Plus there is a thriving trade in secondhand uniform - the uniform is donated and sold at a much reduced price and the profits go to the bursary fund.

Hi @cestlavielife ,

Thank you for these suggestions, I will double check with the parents. My understanding is that the location of the family home falls out with the catchment/last distance offered for these schools. However, there's no harm in them exploring again, September is still a couple of months away...

I dont know anything about hackney schools but they can look at nearby boroughs. Kids commute for secondary . If she bright she will do ok.

Mossbourne School is in Hackney and gets good results -it operates a lottery system for places as far as I know

There is absolutely no point in looking at Camden School for Girls, Marylebone or Fortismere at this point unless the parents plan to move house which seems unlikely from the details shared so far. Moving house tends to be expensive even for people who are renting.

Marylebone has, I think, its own admission process for out of borough children which will have been done and dusted some time ago (and is probably too far away). Camden very popular and too far away. Ditto Fortismere. All three schools will have a waiting list and places will go to children who are nearest. This will absolutely not include children who live in Hackney and who have not yet applied or gone through any of the admissions processes for these schools.

There's no point in telling the parents about these schools because you will only raise their hopes for something that is unachievable, though they might well be a possibility for sixth form when distance is not so important.

Hi @debbiewest0 , Thank you for sharing this info.

Hi @nomoneytreehere , this is interesting, so the order is possibly:

a. Do you qualify for a bursary, yes/no.
b. How high did you score in entrance exams, interviews, tests etc.
c. Any other quality that marks the child out for special treatment.

Hi @coffeecupsandfairylights , those stats are dizzying, and go someway to explaining how much of a lottery the process is. Thank you for sharing your perspective.

There's just too many of these kids, this will sound
heartless but plenty will have even worse stories. It's not really about the situation they're in but the suitability of the candidate. I personally wouldn't want a child in that situation at either of those schools. It's very difficult to be surrounded by so much wealth.
It's a bit mean of you to emphasise that this super bright child will sadly have to got to a crap school. That's sad for any child, not just the clever ones. Also, I highly doubt she will go to a crap school, Hackney has brilliant schools. Any application now will be a late one, so where they live doesn't matter.

Hi @Anothernamechangeplease ,

Thank you for contributing to this thread, it's tough trying to communicate on difficult topics like this without jarring someone/people.

I would wish that no child be in a position that they must attend an underperforming school. Every child deserves the opportunity to be exposed to the delights that a well considered and well rounded education can offer them.

My neighbour's daughter is no more deserving of a positive school experience than another child.

I think you're right, my neighbour's are intelligent and thoughtful people who have got themselves and their children this far, their daughter is destined for great things. Their journey into exploring the varying education systems in England was sparked by one teacher, who took an interest, hopefully this child will encounter more adults like that as she progresses through her education. Teachers who care can be found across both state and independent sectors. As long as she is safe at school and her brain and her horizons are expanded, she'll do fine, I'm sure.

Hi @BonjourCrisette , thank you, yes, A'level or IB in a few years may offer an opportunity to really shine as she can hone in on her strengths.

Thanks @runningpram , I'm not sure whether Mossborne was on their radar, I know it is very popular.

Hi @Meadowbreeze ,

I accept your take on my post, it was written very clumsily. Similar to my reply to @Anothernamechangeplease ; I wish and regularly campaign for the right of all children to attend great local schools, I don't believe my neighbour's daughter is more deserving of a positive educational experience than any other child.

All children should have access to great teachers, a safe environment, in a local state school.

A lady I knows son attended a posh private school funded for by a couple of local education charities. She wrote to them saying he was gifted and they paid for his schooling. She was/is on benefits and her son did get a small bursary.

They should absolutely look at Christ's Hospital, it's outstanding and a very high proportion of students are on significant bursaries so there are not the social/cultural issues that you might find at other fee paying schools. It's boarding only though.

In recent years I think that the priority for financial aid from schools has been more focused on making sure existing pupils don't have to leave because of families struggling rather than supporting new pupils like they would have previously. That is certainly the case at DD's school.

Hi @SherbertLemonDrop , thank you for this anecdote, its very heartwarming.

Hi @Hoolihan , I'll be sure to forward on this recommendation, it seems to be very popular on this thread.

Hi @PeanutButterOnToad , I think you're right, current pupils will will take priority over a new cohort. I imagine that school coffers are regularly being tested in recent months and years.

Presumable she was not wait listed for a bursary, in case someone turned their place with one down.

Bit confused as there are actually a lot of comprehensives in hackney which have good results and outstanding ofsted ratings, probably better to make sure she is on waiting list for one of these if not already.

Oh, I'm unsure, that could be possible, I really don't know

Hi @starpatch ,

Yes, hopefully they are wait listed for their preferred schools. I'm unsure as to the secondary transfer system, I recall that at primary, children were automatically popped onto the wait list for those schools they had listed and were higher placed in their list of preferences, it's very possible the same happens with secondary.

And yes, they should definitely consider looking at wait lists for all of the schools that they're interested in, whether they featured on the original forms or not.

Hi I think these bursary’s are very weird in how they work / offer . We were offered 25% off the fees . That’s if they had spaces in September next year and subject to if my child did well and pass the tests .
would they get offered more bursary if did well in the tests ? How comes they like to take peoples money registration forms if not needing a bursary or needing a bursary and knowing they may not have a space anyhow in that intake so weird ?
Also we worked it out today lol 😂 that we got about 80-100 roughly a week to spend after bills but the school obviously think we have 300 and something nearly 400 a week to pay the rest of the school fees a year weird . What we don’t like is why on the form for our particular school they ask about cars houses second houses tax income etc but nothing about bills !
obviously if we had that left over £400 a weekly roughly after the normal things food etc bills etc we would take the offer but why would they think we got that much left over after bills we never put bills down as they wasn’t asked for and no space / columns to write it in . Was we suppose to I don’t know . My husband thinks we should write to the school or email to ask and to see if we can get more fees off !
its so hard knowing what to do .

OP I haven’t got no advice unfortunately. I don’t even understand this all myself etc :(

Bursary question - if a family are offered a free place (half bursary and half scholarship) due to a very low family income (one parent not working at all) but they take holidays abroad, is this allowed? Or does it break the terms and conditions? Very curious. Any bursary families who can answer this?