Quick bursary survey please

[abittoofat]

I'd quite like to get an idea of what percentage of people who apply for private school bursaries actually get them.
Would anyone mind saying if they've ever applied for one and if they got it??
Many thanks.

If the school is aware that someone owns a holiday home etc then I would be very suprised that a bursary was awarded,certainly wouldnt be if I had anything to do with it,if as you say the school "considers assets" how did these people get a bursary,likewise the "two expensive cars" does the school not see these on a daily basis(presume day school?) do you know they own the cars,could they be leased,company car etc,

Our bursary forms ask about everything including value of contents of house. It would definitely cover cars and holiday homes. even if they're leased that will go on the application in one form or other.
One thing I have learned though is that you can't tell much about other peoples lives fom the outside.

I definitely think bursary awarders should investigate grandparental assets. I know people who look on paper to have fairly modest means, but are completely bankrolled by wealthy parents. And I don't mean the odd pair of school shoes, either - sil's parents bought them a Range Rover.

However public/private school cannot employ an army of forensic accountants or perhaps wouldn't even wish to - they want who they want.

SOLO2 although I feel sorry for your plight you have managed to pay your mortgage off. We have now been paying school fees for over 10 years and not only have we not managed to pay our mortgage off we haven't even managed to buy a house because every penny we possess goes on school fees and therefore we cant even raise enough money for a deposit on a house. The bottom line is its about choices there will always be rumours about someone with a holiday home, an Aston Martin, a Range Rover and twice yearly skiing trips getting a large bursary but rest assured there are many if us who have decided to sacrifice everything to pay the school fees. If we inherit money the first thing we would do is pay off the school fees (the full amount not the reduced amount that we pay at the moment) then we might be able to raise the deposit on a house, have a holiday and even enjoy ourselves a bit more. Most importantly we would remove an enormous weight from round our necks.

My grandson has a 50% bursary at a local prep school. His father earns about average (as far as I know). No savings and not much equity in the house. An under-5 at home, so mother doesn't work at the moment. The school isn't rich and only 2 bursaries were on offer. There were no academic tests, just a 'trial day' and a couple of parental interviews. So, a charm offensive really! Still a struggle to find the fees, but they think it well worth it.

Sorry. I do realise how fortunate I am not to have a mortgage and how I'm lucky even to be able to pay school fees at all. yes, I can't really know for sure about other's financial circumstances and am only thinking anecdotally about a few people I know where - from what they've told me and what I can see - from the outside - I perceive them to have more potential income and current disposable income than I do. But you're right, I can't really know. An option for me of course is to re-mortgage the house to pay school fees and this is looking a possible/probably choice within the next year or two.

Ds got knocked back for a primary school bursary. We had poverťy level income, v opd car and 20k equity in small flat.

Personally i think that they were never interested in giving primary age bursaries when they can just fund secondary age instead. Also i dont think ds would have fit v well into the school, it wasnt v academic and he was a clear 3 yrs ahead of the level they were working at.

His current state primary are quite confident that he'll get a scholarship/ bursary for high school.

It is so easy to judge people by their appearances. On paper we earn a good salary way in access of the £40 000 threshold, on the surface we couldn't look more conventionally middle class and comfortably off if we tried; we live in a beautiful ancient market town, we shop in Waitrose, buy fairtrade/organic food and dont walk around in primark clothes, have two cars (although together their joint value is no more than £6000) etc. I'm sure no one at my DS school even suspects that we are on a bursary although if they came to our house which is lovely but is only a three bed cottage they might wonder. But anyone who looks further than this will see that we don't have holidays (actually I lie there we had our first holiday in seven years this summer a £500 camping holiday in the UK) we don't eat out or go to the opera anymore (my husbands passion) or own horses anymore (my passion) or go to the theatre anymore (our joint passion). When asked by a friend what we would do if my DS failed to get into his senior school my first response was go on an expensive holiday and my husband muttered darkly about a sports car, but he did so the holiday brochures have gone in the bin and my husband carries on dreaming!!
The question all who are on bursaries or who seek bursaries have to ask is it worth it? Just because you are paying it does not mean its going to be better for your child. Independent schools are are slick marketing machines they want your money. If my DS had not got a place at his current boys boarding school we would not have sacrificed everything to send him somewhere else. He very very bright and could have easily got a scholarship into almost any other school apart from the one he's at now but I wouldn't have sent him instead he would have gone to our excellent local comp.

There are no hard and fast rules - it is a private decision purely for the governors of the school in question, which they don't have to defend to anyone, and with every case being considered on it's total merits. Almost all bursary applications will take assets as well as income into account (unlike the old assisted places scheme, which, whilst laudable, was, AFAIK, based purely on income and was a delight to asset-rich income-poor landowners) but the decision can, in fact, be based as much on whether the child will be an "asset" to the school as anything else, IMO/E.

My DS was very very lucky enough to get a 100% bursary to an independent school. It was a late decision on my part to put him through for the test - mainly due to being too far out of the catchment area for the school he would have loved to have gone to and the alternatives being not so great.

The forms I filled in took into account household income (only me, exh hasn't seen DS since he was 8 months old so no support there), value of home (I rent), car (a few years old), etc etc. I work hard but I know that it would have been a struggle to pay fee's. I honestly never expected the level of award that DS received - I was hoping that there may have been a possibility of a percentage off fees but not this - so please don't think it doesn't happen. It's always worth a try.

I actually thought that the school had made a mistake when I received the letter telling us the amount of award - I had to telephone and check they hadn't got it wrong. My circumstances, his results from the entrance test (he was in the top 5%, the tests had been taken by approx 400 boys) and the report they had received from DS's primary school had resulted in them awarding the bursary which will stay in place until Year 11
(he has just started in Year 7).

Propatria, I think you aren't seeing the point, which was that I can't see how these things can be adjudicated on the basis of need given that half the nation would qualify.

I wasn't saying anything about you or about the need to give everyone something, merely commenting on the difficulty of a needs-based process which effectively must be an admissions policy.

It would mean half the population would qualify - if they applied! A school only has to judge the relative merits of the applications they have, not of the whole population. On that basis, they will award the money they have to the most appropriate applicants that they have based on whatever combination of criteria they choose.

Yes, stealth, but not everyone who applies and can't afford the fees succeeds - see above.

See my last post - the school has a finite amount of money to award in bursaries - they therefore decide on a set of criteria, rank the applications they have according to those criteria, and award as much money as they have - leaving the remaining applicants, deserving or not, unsuccessful.

At my DS's school he was offered a place when he was 11yrs old two years before he was due to start. He was required to pass their very difficult entrance exam at 13 yrs but there were only a handful more boys sitting the entrance exam than there were places.
We applied for a bursary after we were offered the provisional place but before we he sat the exam therefore this limits the number of people who are likely to apply for bursaries. Anyone can register their son and all are interviewed although again the numbers are limited because the housemasters undertake a detailed and long interview. You cannot register your son till he is 8yrs old allowing people time to work out if 1. there son is clever enough and 2. if it is the right school for them. I appreciate that this doesn't make the school open to every clever boy in the UK but it does mean that theoretically anyone can put their sons name down (its full boarding so it is literally open to any boy in the UK) and if successful apply for a bursary. After many years in independent ed. I believe that it is as the headmaster said "the best school in the world" and the school is very committed to widening access through its bursary scheme.

ok,
I have my appointment with the Head tomorrow.
Just me, without DD.
I am wondering.....should I offer that we are an artistic type family (artists and musicians) and DD enjoys all things creative???
Is this the time to promote DD, or play it cool???? Am slightly paniking now......

Promote away . Do you have any glowing reports you could bring?
Good luck

HappyGardening do you mind me asking where your DS is - I think I recognise it from the description (and if I am right it is currently on our "long list" which needs narrowing down soon)

stealthsquiggle if you PM me I will tell you I would like to try and remain vaguely anonymous although you have probably guessed correctly from my description..

Well, thing is happygardening, I do know where you mean. And the admissions process is a labyrinth. You'd almost think they were trying to deter people. Why does it have to involve such a fierce timetable?

OP, hope the day went well for you.

^"And the admissions process is a labyrinth. You'd almost think they were trying to deter people. Why does it have to involve such a fierce timetable?" sieglinde maybe I'm missing something here but I didn't find the admissions process a labyrinth or the timetable particularly fierce. This makes me wonder if you think I mean a certain well known school just off the M4 (that does have have a labyrinthine admissions process) or a well known boys school in Barnes; very early registration and 10 year olds experiencing Oxbridge style interview.

Haven't read the whole thread so apologies if I'm repeating, but I think it really comes down to how much the school wants your child (just from friends' experiences). The children I know who secured bursaries were also awarded scholarships (usually only about 25% of fees) and the bursaries are used to top up this amount so that the exceptionally clever/sporty/musical child can go there. I suppose you can see the schools' point - if you are offering a free education, you might as well offer it to someone who is sure of 13 A*s or whatever.

stillfeel18inside is probably correct in what she writes and it applies to the vast majority of schools. But when you get to the super academic ones where all A*s are the norm they are offering bursaries to non scholars as well.

But my daughter is only 6!!!

Update - if anyone is interested!

I have a Home Visit from the Bursar this Friday!!!!
I think he wants to check we don't live in a big house!
Anyone else had a Home Visit??