Bursary Angst - your opinions please

[powderfreak]

I have applied for a bursary for my son at local indi.

He is a current pupil there, but due to horrific health circumstances, we are now down to one salary

Heard from the bursar today. She has said that he has reviewed the bursary form and has made his report to headmaster.

My questions are

1. Does the bursar only report to headmaster if circumstances are such that a bursary can be awarded?

Wait is killing me. Have given prov notice that we may need to move him

Thanks

I'd just assume the letter would come from head, either way.

Unfortunately it doesn't mean that you are any closer as the final decision normally comes from the head.

I think you need to understand peoples roles in bursaries. I'm assuming its not a tiny school who don't have a governing body but a fair sized school with a governors and bursar.
The governors have a vision here's an example:
"St Paul?s takes pride in giving the best possible education to talented boys, irrespective of their family?s financial circumstances. Each year there are funds available for free and subsidised places. The school benefits from the diversity which our pupils bring."
The bursars job is to implement the vision and do the money, he reports to the governing body and usually an off shoot of this the finance committee or something similar "we've got X million in our bursary fund and we are currently supporting 100 boys who are receiving between 5% and 100% and to carry on doing this and increasing the numbers receiving bursaries year on year we will need Y million" or "we're supporting 10 boys but our pot is diminishing so realistically we're going to have to reduce our offer across the board by 10 % and only offer 2 bursaries this year" or "lets flog that hideous Ming vase thats collecting dust in a cupboard and raise more money for our bursary fund". He also looks at each parents application does the number crunching, he works out how much he's got to spend and how much a parent will need sometimes the two don't match up sometimes they do. Some expect you to live on beans on toast for the whole of your DC's school days other except that you need a cheap annual holiday, a reasonable diet and a decentish car life insurance and a pension, a bit of spare money for dentists a new clutch etc. Saving more than one house etc are going to be negative factors and will reduce the amount you are likely to be offered or may mean no bursary at all. He discusses individual bursaries with relevant governors/finance commitee/head (usually the head is a governor) and they may say yeah or nay. The head obviously have some influence on who gets offered a bursary; "we must carry on offering 75% reduction to Fred becasue he's super clever plays, the flugel horn to grade 8 and is a potential Olympic rower" or "I dont think we can carry on supporting Arthur becasue despite what his previous school and parents told us he's at the bottom of the bottom sets for everything, couldn't catch a ball if his life depended on it and is a musical as a saucepan." Basically what I'm trying to say is that at most schools the head is far to busy to do the actual number crunching/letter writing etc.
My DC's have received substantial bursaries at different schools for more than 9 years now and we've always been written to by the bursar never the head. In fact in one school when our finances took a temporary but serious turn for the worse and we couldn't pay the fees the head said he would recommend to the governors that we stayed but that when the push comes to the shove it is up to the finance committee if they would let us.
OP I really feel for you and I do hope you get good news.