I have recently realised we are 0.6 miles out of catchment for the local comp that we were planning to send DS to. Sadly the only other option is dire and further away (under subscribed). We are in a grammar area and they only had 2 people pass the 11+ last year! They are the 'troubled kids school' and over 2 miles walk away.
Realising this I have decided to look into bursaries for a local Indie school that is practically on our doorstep. It gets 98% pupils to pass 11+ which would mean I would only have to pay private for Junior and we wouldn't be a burden on the bursary for Seniors.
Financially I own our house outright but only bring in around £1700pm as a landlord, which won't be enough to cover the £3k termly costs.
When DS is old enough to be in full time school I will be happy to work on top of this and probably bring in another £1k pm (assuming I will need flexi-hours to collect him and so a smaller salary than I used to have).
I am a single parent and DS's dad now pays only £27.00 pm for maintenance (long story and needless to say it's not reflective of his actual wage). The main issue with this is that I don't feel I can work until DS is in school every day for a full day as I have no other child support.
I have sold my car and given up driving due to the financial pressures we are now under as a twosome and I am loathe to remortgage a house I worked so hard to clear, but I am aware this may be something the school would ask me to do. I just don't know how I would pay that back monthly on top of my salary going towards school fees!
Am I just being completely naive in thinking this is an option for DS? What other sacrifices can I make to ensure he gets a decent education? I have considered moving but I don't want to uproot either of us from friends who have supported us so much over the last 3 years.