Private school scholarships drama

[Pleasebekindt]

Posting here as I’m so anxious and stressed.

It’s a private school one.

Son is in private. He was diagnosed end of year 7 and now in year eight we moved him to a private school that can cater to SEN children.

This particular school is know to offer 50% scholarships and quite a few of them , however we were not given one as he stared in year 8 and the scholarship are given only on year 7. So we pay full fees

With the VAT being added we could still afford it but just about, however we have received an email today to say that fees will increase even more from next year and this will mean £400 more ! I top of the already increased fee with VAT

We simply cannot afford this. There are no local school that will fit his needs.

i want to speak with the school again and ask them for a scholarship. We would not qualify for a bursary as we earn more than the threshold.

I know at least 3 boys who are starting year 7 who are being offered 50% scholarships and one is being offered 50% scholarships and 50% bursary.

AIBU to think that if the school can offer new students this then they should offer it my son who is a current studebt? TBH even a 30% reduction will help immensely

Do schools have contingencies for situations like ours ? Does anyone have any experience of getting a fee reduction?

im happy to show them my outgoings ? We litteraly have nothing left at the end of the moment .

my son is finally settled and happy after years of feeling lost and being bullied. I really don’t know what to do !

Speak to the burser

Schools will have their own rules for scholarships, but I would expect most offer them only to the brightest (academically) or most musical or sporty and there will be some sort of competitive process (exam/audition/trial) to determine who the scholarships are offered to. I’d have thought it very unlikely that they would offer one to anyone who asked.

It sounds like a bursary would be more appropriate, so I’d have thought your best bet would be to ask for one of those, explaining that, although you earn over their threshold, you will be unable to continue to afford the fees given the increase.

We can’t answer for you. Every school has different funding and bursaries will be in high demand at the moment. Talk to them.

Hi OP, I’m so sorry about your situation. Unfortunately this is a situation a lot of parents are facing and times are tight financially for private schools outside the large public schools and London powerhouses, who are trying to keep the pupils coming in to keep the lights on, while also trying to keep existing parents.

In many schools you are much more likely to get some financial help if you are honest and tell the school the dc may have to leave, as they won’t want to lose the pupil. I would call the finance team and tell them your worries and ask if you can fill out an application given the circumstances. Good luck!

The thing is, that even a bursary might not help long term.

he’s only in year 8. The fees are going to go up every year. If you cannot afford private school you cannot afford it. The fees will go up every year between now and him being in year 11. The fees for sixth form will be even more.

if you cannot afford a private school then he has to go to a state school.

93% of kids attend state schools including dc with Sen. My dd has Sen and we worked with her state school to get the right education experience for her. If you can’t afford private the school is under no obligation to change its procedures. Scholarships are normally offered via exam in either year 7 or 9 depending on when the school starts.

speak to your Lea about options for state

Definitely speak to the school about a potential bursary. Is your son academically outstanding? Scholarships tend to be hard to get and are only given to those who are very strong academically.

On another note, Independent school fees will increase each year, often above the rate of inflation. Around 6% to 7% is normal. Could you find a side hustle to help cover the extra expense?

Speak to the bursar but it may well be all funds fir your year group were allocated in year 7, so no more unless someone leaves. If £400 is a deal breaker bear in mind they will continue to increase year on year, around 5% is typical, plus extras like exam fees.

Kindly OP, private school fees have always increased by about 5% a year even before the VAT, and are up 20% ish on average over the last 5 years. They go up with inflation as everything else does, this isn’t unexpected. The fees were always going to go up, if you’ve moved him really recently without asking about fee increases or considering how you’d manage them this might not have been the best choice, though I completely understand you wanting the best place for your son.

All that said speak to them, it doesn’t hurt and there might be options.

The bursary may help but year 7 entry scholarships are planned in advance and usually no movement afterwards, until Year 9 or 5th form.30% is a large number and 100% is usually very rare and exceptional cases.

I hope you find a solution however fees will increase so this needs to be thought through.

Fees go up at least 10% every year, based on the last few years. If you can’t afford that £400 this year, you won’t be able to afford next year’s increase.

Nobody on here can answer your question because it’s completely specific to the school. There’s no set of generalised guidelines for example.

However - if you don’t qualify for any kind of bursary, they deem you to be able to afford the fees.

Scholarships are different to bursaries. They are exclusively (and across all schools) offered for merit of some kind. They tend to only be 10% other than a handful of very prestigious annual scholarships (sometimes even one per year group) for full fees. They’re awarded for exceptional talent in sports, academics, drama etc.

You definitely will not qualify for one unless your son actually deserves one. They’re not (nor should they be) given out to anyone who just can’t afford the fees.

Remember that largely it’s the fees of other parents, plus their donations, that are funding these bursaries and scholarships, so it’s right that the criteria are very strict.

That all being said, a number of schools DO have new discretionary VAT funds. In our school, there was (highly means tested) funding for those who couldn’t afford the VAT but were already in the school. However, criteria included holidays, cars on finance etc precluding your qualification - again essentially you taking this money diverts money away from school funds that the pupils would benefit from, so you’d have to prove you really need it. If you need it because without it Child A couldn’t continue their £500 a month dancing or £500 a month pony livery, or Dad A couldn’t afford the HP on his BMW, then no you wouldn’t be awarded it.

Sorry I have just re read your post.

You moved him this year (post the notification of VAT) to a school you could have predicted you couldn’t actually afford.

No, they’re very unlikely to award you any kind of help with this.

You have (sorry to be brutal) made this bed. As someone else has said, there are annual increases every single year. He’s only been there for 2 terms? If they were to fund 30% of his place, that’s opening the floodgates to anyone who fancies private education without paying in full for it to just enrol and 2 terms later try to pressure school into funding it because they don’t want to move their child.

It is different where a child has been at the same school for years and VAT has been the tipping point.

This has actually made me really angry. The vast majority of parents (including as upthread SEN parents whose children would also benefit from smaller class sizes etc) can’t afford private school, and they accept that and work with the state system (which actually is far better with SEN anyway). The vast majority of private school parents work REALLY hard to afford the fees. The hoorah Henry set that everyone thinks of is a small minority. You don’t deserve your fees paid just because you want something you can’t afford (but also don’t meet the bursary criteria so really could afford if you cut back). You just seem to want your cake and to eat it, at the expense of other parents’ generosity.

These bursaries aren’t like state school EHCPs etc where they come out of the pockets of the masses in the same way benefits do. These come out of the pockets of a very small minority of people who gift them out of generosity for those who are truly in need. Not those who jump without financial thought at all, expecting others to then subsequently fund the school they believe their child ‘deserves’.

Anecdotally, your child will have his most challenging years from 9-12 and most private schools are absolutely not set up to cater to this. Lived experience with all of this!

Fees have always risen every year, long before and regardless of VAT. The fees also increase as you rise through the academic years at most schools.

Speak to the bursar. DC’s Indy has stopped most new bursaries in order to help current students, at the request of parents after VAT was added.

Your best options might be: to try and negotiate a pay rise for you or DH, or increase hours if one of you works part-time, or look for a better paying job, or ask grandparents to help out.
Obviously ask the school to help, but don't be surprised if they decline to change the rules for you.

It can’t hurt to ask. Some schools offer scholarships for year 9.

I think you've been a bit foolish to start private school without taking into account fee increases above the rate of inflation. That's not including the VAT, which everyone knew was coming.

Speak to the bursar. If your DS is academically exceptional or otherwise exceptionally talented, they might consider a scholarship. Also, depending on the financial state and popularity of the school, they might think you paying reduced fees is better than not having the place filled at all.

You don't say if your son has an EHCP, but if you've not attempted this process, I think that was a mistake. Yes, it can take a long time to get the correct package but you would have probably got there by GCSEs. If it's genuinely the case that there are no other schools that can meet his needs even with a support package within an 75 minute radius, then you might have got the school fees funded.

School fees have always gone each year, did you not factor this in when you moved him?

The only people that can help you is the school finance team. Many schools will prioritise those already in for hardship support- especially at the moment but it’s not a given and whatever anyone here says it’s not going to make a difference.

As a fellow parent of a SEN child who moved from state to private, I think you are getting a rough time and the usual sniping on this thread, OP. It sounds like we are/were in similar positions: I never expected or even wanted to
put a child through private school, but eventually it became clear that he was unlikely to thrive at our local secondary, given his circumstances. I can’t say I’ve looked back: he is keeping his head up academically, but more importantly he has gone from being a miserable, bullied no-mates with zero confidence, to a sunny kid with a circle of good friends.

If private school had been in the plans from the outset, we would have done what I came to realise a lot of the parents did: save like crazy from year zero. Or have wealthy parents funding the lot (sigh! The dream!).

I have no regrets, but it is a significant financial outlay and we do stretch, struggle and sacrifice to make the termly fee payments. Even when you know the fees will go up year to year, because that is what they do, I always feel anxious when the email lands in the inbox.

We have two successful strategies to raise the money. I don’t know if they’d work for you, but I’ll put them here anyway. The first is, 100% of DS’ DLA goes into the school fees bank account. No ifs, no buts, I transfer the lot as soon as it arrives.

Secondly, we live off one salary and the second salary, from the lower earner, also goes straight into the school fees bank account. We do live frugally! But with no regrets.

I do worry about what would happen in the case of redundancy/unemployment, so I save wherever and whatever I can.

Schools usually only award bursaries at the start of a pupil’s academic career. Scholarships are for academic achievement, music, art or sport. Some schools are more sympathetic than others but they must all be having a lot of parents approach them for help now.

OP I hear you I put my DD16 into the private school system when she was 10 for the same reasons and for a single sex education. Yes speak to the Bursar, but also do they do the school fees plan where it’s spread out monthly over direct debit? Do you work? Are you due for a pay rise? Can you move jobs to increase your income etc I’m a lone parent and been paying school fees monthly higher than my mortgage payments for several years and honestly I focused on driving my income up.

Private schools raise their fees year after year as they feel like and have done so for decades. Their businesses, and if you can’t afford that you’ll need to move your child.
I would do it now before you get well and truly shafted, and your child is still young enough to adapt.

Ask the school, but every parent will be after discounts all the time and if they set a precedent with you they’ll have other families claiming they need x, y and z.

Agreed. You've been very foolish.

The obvious question is - is your son scholarship material? Ie if he had applied at the start would he have got one? And what for? And how does the school treat scholarships? Private schools often have “The Fred Smith” scholarship for a Year 7 child who shows great promise in music or the “Daniel Johnson” scholarship for a Year 12 who has a great future in Engineering. It would be difficult to get an extra scholarship in that circumstance as the funding is so specific. But if there are a general unknown number of scholarships and your son is top of his year at everything, plays the violin so well that he makes the dreadful school orchestra sound lovely and is currently ranked 4 in the country for tennis then they may manage to find him one when the realise the alternative is losing him.

Another question is how far over the maximum for bursaries are you? Inflation has been high recently so they may be thinking of increasing the maximum earnings anyway.

And another question - if you earn over the max for bursaries why can’t you afford the fees? Is your mortgage high? Can you downsize? Are you paying lots into your pension?

The problem you have is that there are going to be many many families that are struggling. Even if the school has spare funds it will probably prioritise kids in Year 10 - 13 who are in the middle of exam years and where moving will really damage their chances.