Bursary experts, please help?

[Bursarymum]

My two dds get bursaries at a local prep school. The older one gets 50% and the younger one gets 25% plus a sibling discount. When they were given the bursaries I was told that they would be very unlikely to be reduced unless our circumstances changed, which they haven't.

I have just had a letter from the school which says that my older dds bursary will be 25% for next year and the younger one's will also be 25%. I am panicking because I don't have time to find another school for them - and will not be able to keep them there unless they continue to receive the same level of support.

The school is not oversubscribed - in fact the class numbers are low. And my older dds class has dropped from 12 to 10 last term. She is doing well academically so there is no reason for them to find any problem with her that I know of. The school also advertises it the fact that you can apply for bursaries on its home page.

I am just wondering if you experts have ever heard of this happening? I cannot get hold of the person in finance as he is not there today. The person I spoke to on the phone said it may be a mistake. But I am very worried. Any advice?

That may be the case but they should not have told me only 6 months ago that the awards would be very unlikely to change.

Don't suppose you have that in writing ? check your terms and conditions , I 'd bet it is qualified in there

From a legal point of view of course they can withdraw whenever they like but ethically it is wrong to put families in a position like this IMO.

Of course it is , which is why it smacks of desperation. Interesting they've not cut back for the less expensive fees . Are you also subsidised by the early years funding atm ?

Friends school went down to just a few in each class, then land sold off then closed down all together. Start looking around op

Yes I see what you mean. We don't get EYF but apparently dd in reception is supposed to be getting it. Seems strange they haven't suggested applying for it as the school would benefit from this as they pay half her fees.

You're not in Surrey are you? I ask because I know of 2 lots of people this happened to, in small, non IAPS family owned private schools. One of them had her bursary cut, even though the family income had FALLEN the previous year. The other family had their bursary withdrawn and given to another child. The first family stayed at the school, despite the reduced bursary because they just had 1 child there and decided to put up with it for the remaining 3 years. The others had 2 children and moved to the state sector, but hope to find bursaries to return to the independent sector.

No we're in the midlands. How did the one family know that their bursary had been given to another child? At our school it's confidential - nobody knows which other children have bursaries.

Where I live it is very difficult to get state school places. That is part of the reason they are at this school - the school my younger dd got was a long way from where we live and I would not have been able to do the school run.

At this point in the year, it is particularly difficult to get a place in a state school for September. I have no problem with state schools by the way. There are some other private options. I think a girls school suits my older dd, particularly. I will make some enquiries.

You can go on their waiting lists though. If you meet the criteria better than others your dd's will be nearer the top. Sometimes even when offered a place at what once seemed a more desirable schools , people turn it down because their dc are settled elsewhere. If one dd got a place , the other may qualify for sibling priority. Not getting EY funding is also a red flag btw, it may mean they are not meeting the LA criteria in some way.

They knew, because the school was advertising bursaries on the website, someone came to sit an exam for one and was offered a bursary and a place, at the same time as theirs was removed. Friend says she thought the school just didn't believe she would leave, but would put up with it. It was the schools attempt to boost their numbers when they were declining overall. School was wrong, in that they left, taking both children out and the share of fees they had been paying.

Ah I see, so that is why they are keeping it on the website - to get more bums on seats and then later they can reduce the support. That is a very risky strategy though. I made it clear from the beginning to them what we could afford and what we could not. There is no question that I will have to remove them from the school. We can't over stretch ourselves. And tbh, the school is not very academic - I like it because it suits my very sensitive older dd, and calms my quite hyper younger dd.

I think a lot of propaganda has been going on as they have been trying to promote a business is booming image. Obviously it isn't... I had mistakenly thought that the school must have picked up a lot.

I bloody love Mumsnet. If I were in the OP's position, I wouldn't have had a clue even where to look at the school's accounts, far less how to read between the lines. Then you look at LadyMuck's and LadyMaryLikesCake's posts and you have your answers.
Bloody love it, I tell you.

One other thing. My older dd who is in year 5 now does not do art at all - I thought this was odd. Is it something schools generally do?

Art definitely. At dc prep they had a double lesson a week plus textiles, dt etc in rotation. Presumably they never get any Art scholarships to secondary ?

They do have an art scholarship though for the senior school and even an art cup for the end of year 6. Very odd . It's a real shame for my dd because she is very creative and and likes to make garments, little animated films as well as being very good at drawing etc.

Ds's prep did very little art/music/science. They focussed on Maths, English and Verbal reasoning. You know why don't you? It's a feeder school for other private secondaries and they boasted about the fact that all children were offered a place at their preferred school. Art is one of those subjects which a lot of places don't consider. It's quite expensive to buy the materials and it won't necessarily boost the schools exam results for the vital 'maths, science and english'.

I'd move them Bursarymum. Maybe look for one that focuses on the creative side of life? The right school for your children is out there. I'm in the East Mids if you need some pointers.

This sounds rather like a school near us, which was giving out bursaries left right and centre in a desperate attempt to get new pupils, and ended up collapsing. The children all had to find new schools in a hurry. Those who had left before the ship sank were in the best position to do so. I would check out other schools asap. But they are only young, so won't be the end of the world if they need to go to state primary.

The state primaries around here are not the problem - it's the secondaries that are not so good. The primaries are good and places are sought after. I thought that because our school was offering so much to different people things must have improved for them. How wrong could I be?! They are even offering free transport for people who get bursaries now which must cost a fortune.

I think it would be a risk to keep the girls there even if they reinstated the 50% for older dd. I must thank all of you for your insightful and very helpful posts which have helped me to get a handle on what exactly is going on here.

Hmm. Could be a case of 'get bums on seats, then slash the bursaries'. It's no way to run a school, it just looks so risky.

Wishing you all the best, Bursarymum

It sounds like the school has drifted into offering lots of bursaries as a marketing strategy. It has probably gotten out of hand and they need to do a correction, if the school is to survive.

A lot of small schools can have over 50% of fees covered by bursaries and this is not sustainable.

If a school is to offer bursaries, they need to come from a limited pot. It is crazy to give bursaries out in reception.

I'd take the youngest out straight away, and send her to one of the good primary schools you mention. You will then easily be able to afford to keep the older one in the private school and then move her in Yr 7 as planned.
Bursaries without scholarships is not a good sign. And a 50% bursary is unusually high, even with a scholarship. I'd think of it as you having had good luck so far, rather than seeing it negatively, as it's unlikely you'd have got that kind of financial support elsewhere.

I can't just move her into one of the state primaries though. They are all over subscribed. I can put her onto a waiting list but there is no guarantee that she will get a place for September. Unfortunately I don't see the situation in a positive way when they have not been honest with me and actually handed me a leaflet encouraging me to 'apply for a bursary from reception' for my younger dd. it was wrong of them to encourage me to apply for the bursary for her, let me fork out registration fees, let her settle in there and make friends knowing that the award was not likely to be sustainable for both children. I was very up front with them about what I could afford and what I could not. They could easily have said well we can't do that award for both children.

As it is I will now have to take both of them out of the school not least because I can't do three school runs (I have another child too in a special school). But I would rather have to act now than later I suppose.

Where I live all the private school do give bursaries at up to 50% and I know of one person in a school who gets 80%. It is scholarships that are awarded at 10-20%. However, I do agree that most private schools do not offer bursaries in reception. I did question them about it at the time and they assured me it was an option.

It seems strange to me that you are given a 50% bursary for the first child, presumably on the basis that 50% is all you can afford to pay, and are then given a 25% bursary for the younger child. So you are currently paying 125% of a full year's fees. In other words, you could have afforded to send DC1 without any bursary at all. IME most schools would not give you any bursary for DC1 in this situation, let alone for DC2. So in that sense you have been lucky, surely.
That's not to say that the school hasn't behaved badly by misleading you about future bursary levels, so that you have missed sending your younger child to state school at Reception stage, meaning that you now have to go onto waiting lists.

I see what you mean but it doesn't work like that. As it is, if you meet the criteria for one child then you will meet the criteria for two. It is all down to your income and assets - in our case we don't own much of any value. In the case of my younger dd, I explained that we could pay 50%. And the bursar said ok, we'll give you a 25% bursary and a 25% sibling discount. Everyone gets the sibling discount - that is not means tested. So as it is, if both children were to stay in the school now the younger one would still get the same award. But the fees go up considerably in year 7. I worked out whether we could afford it on the basis of both getting 50%

I think that obviously, they have used it as a way of getting more children in the school and it has now backfired.