Undeserved bursary

[Hamstersball]

I know a child that has been offered a very substantial bursary at my dd's independent school. She has passed the academic selection process and on the surface can be very charming, able to talk to grown ups at ease etc. However we have known her for several years as dd1 and her are in the same brownies pack and her behaviour has always been dreadful: picking fights with other dc, racist and foul language, lying when confronted, bullying other children. I can only conclude that her school lied between their teeth about her when they gave her a reference to support her bursary application as several mothers who know her at school say her behaviour is also dreadful there. I'm really tempted to inform dd's school about the true nature of this child and want to know if anyone has done something similar and what was the outcome.

[bruffin]

No op said that it was means tested which was very low to eliminate average income families.

[bruffin]

x posted

[teacherwith2kids]

Tasmania, the point I am making is that a child with a bursary should have the same behaviour expectations placed upon them as a normal fee-paying child.

Obviously, if they fall well below the expected standard - behaviour that would have a fee-paying child at risk of expulsion / exclusion / 'asked to leave' - then a bursary-holder should also be asked to leave.

However, saying that a bursary-holder should have their place withdrawn (because that will be the normal effect of a withdrawn bursary) because their behaviour is not better than a fee-paying child's is outrageous - it is discrimination on the grounds of being poorer than average within the school.....

[scaevola]

So OP is saying two different things about the nature of the award during the course of the thread.

Interesting.

[Mutteroo]

Where's the OP gone?

Please come back, this thread is hysterical!

[nooka]

All the scholarship children at my school were required to wear different clothes. I don't recall them being any nicer than anyone else. Seems an odd criteria to me, surely the school is subsidizing them in order to increase the grade average / increase the numbers going to Oxbridge etc. Important criteria to many parents and much advertised in the school brochure.

[Bunbaker]

"All the scholarship children at my school were required to wear different clothes."

That's awful. A very poor lesson to others on how to stigmatise others.

[scaevola]

If they were scholarship pupils (ie the very brightest) they it's not stigmatisation, and more than a prefects tie would be.

If they were bursary pupils, then it would be.

And if it was a school such as this, that in the first day of the thread made its sole financial award for academic ability (ie scholarship despite name) but later became means tested, presumably the children have mixed dress?

[DizzyHoneyBee]

At the end of the day, the child that the OP is talking about deserves to be given a chance and deserves not to be spoken about on a public forum.

Those of you who have been saying things that are negative about the child (who you almost certainly do not know), how would you feel if it was your child?

All children deserve the chance to achieve as much as they can achieve, including this one.

[anotherangrybird]

It sounds as if what this girl has been offered is a "means tested scholarship". That is offered based on a combination of academic merit and financial need.

My DS is starting at a school in September with exactly the same offer. He has been told this is a great honour and that during his time at school he will be expected to perform and behave in an exemplary manner. Frankly, I think this is fair. The money DOES NOT come from fees, it comes from fundraising. My DS worked very hard to achieve this and wholly deserves it. I still meet a few parents at pickup time, miserable immature people like the OP, who stare at us wondering "why them and not us?", drowning in their own green juice.

OP, if one of them ever dared to go to the school to question the decision, they would be wise to leave the country asap.

[MTSgroupie]

Dizzy - Forums like Relationships and AIBU would die overnight if we stopped discussing people that we don't know :)

[jeee]

If the OP is doing as much with the Brownies as her OP suggests, she presumably had an enhanced CRB check. When this is done (as I know many of you are only too aware) you have to read a load of bumpf about YOUR behaviour - especially about confidentiality. The OP is clearly only too ready to gossip about this child.

[Mutteroo]

What a shame. No sign of the OP. Either if she's genuine, she has got the message that no one agrees with her or it was just one of those silly wind up threads which certainly wound some up!