To apply for bursary at an independent school?

[expokittens]

Household income is just over £70K. We have two cars on mortgage, go on holiday 3 times a year (but we try to make them budget hols), like to go to the theatre a lot and eat out. House mortgage £1200 pm.

The school charges £7K per term.

Anyone in a similar situation who was successful with their bursary application? Would they look at our spendings and turn us down?

Maybe don't do your theatre trips and have 3 holidays a year if private education is important to you..pay it yourself so a child who doesn't have 3 holidays a year has a chance?

I have a question on Bursary please. I want to check whether or not it is worth applying. Our household income is about £130k combined before tax (tax takes a chunk) , mortage is down to 1400 per month, however we have 2 kids whose annual fees will be a total of £45k . Do we stand any chance for consideration or not bother applying? 🤔 just seeking opinion. Thanks in advance

schools will have a limit for means testing but it will vary, there's no set formula. For my DD's it's about £82k, which published on the website.

Contact them and ask if you can't find the info, especially as it's for two kids.

At my kids school you would be turned down based on your income, I think the threshold is 65k for a partial bursary and 35k-odd for a full bursary.

@MJ0404 you need to start your own thread, then you’ll get plenty of responses.

Could your DS try for a scholarship? That might help a bit with the fees if he could get a scholarship (I completely realise that they are competitive though).

I'm fairly sure your incomes are too high. Would your DC be there at the same time? We're on a slightly higher income and DS starting this year. But both kids will be there at same time just for a couple of years so we have savings for that. Otherwise it's just one set of fees.

Really depends on the school. Eg one of our local ones in London will consider applications up to £150k combined income (obvs the award would be a lot less than a family on £35k) . Yes they will look at outgoings very closely. Parents at my kids prep school (2x hospital consultants) asked for a bursary and were told to remortgage / sell house and move to a cheaper one. It’s a very intrusive process, for a reason.

Not a chance would you be successful in getting a bursary at the school I work for.

You can try, plenty of people do with similar circumstances. But at the end of the day they're more about income so don't really want parents to have freebies, only the possibility of one for long enough to keep your child/others children/subsequent children interested. So don't get your hopes up

Couldn't figure that out

Thank you. Will see. I spoke with the admissions team today and was told they didn't have a ceiling as such. So worth trying I guess. Ta