Fee paying schools but not £20K a year kind

[CookieDoughKid]

Can anyone tell me why we don't have fee paying schools where parents can contribute. I can afford £2000 a term (just plucking a realistic figure for me) not £5000 a term. I'm thinking that this would contribute to better facilities, resources, buildings, teachers, IT, books, labs etc. I'd even vote for some kind of entry test and whereby the school could allocate stream classes from day 1 and have 33% of each ability to keep it ''inclusive''. I'm not from the education sector and I don't have any experience in teaching at schools but I think there is a gap where high earning professionals like myself could and want to contribute to a quality school given that there are so few good quality state schools about (especially secondary).

[CookieDoughKid]

My dc is Magdalene College b type material. He is very bright and would really benefit from being with a cohort like him. He is nerdy and very technically minded especially in music and computers. I don't feel our local state boys school which got less than 55%GCSEs A-C including English and Maths is right for him. Yet we earn too much to be claiming a private school bursary (60k a year) and we are not in a grammar school area. I would pay to have him at a state funded grammar if there were such schools near me.

[CookieDoughKid]

Spelling typo! Not b type... Just type. I am sure kids do well at my local boys comp but I would prefer a grammar school. The area I live in is OK. Don't feel I need to move as socially, the area is fine even though it's a mix of folk.

[CookieDoughKid]

Someone said luxury grammar. That's what I'm talking about :

[Lurkedforever1]

I don't understand the 'earn to much for a bursary' logic myself. No school I know has an either/or policy. They're on a sliding scale, which varies according to their fees and your income/assets/ usually outgoings too. And for every school I have heard of, people with income above final cut off point can actually afford it, if it's their priority.

[Gruach]

Mmm ... You would need to be thinking of not day school to stand any chance of a bursary I guess. As Lurked says, they're on a sliding scale so you never know.

Though I can't recall if you said how old your DS is - I suspect you may be too late to begin the process.

[Iamnotloobrushphobic]

And for every school I have heard of, people with income above final cut off point can actually afford it, if it's their priority.

I totally agree with that. Those on sliding scales bursaries have to make sacrifices to afford the top up fees. Those on 100% bursaries also sometimes have to make huge sacrifices because the bursaries don't always include uniforms, trips and travel to and from school (which can be quite expensive). It is a case of prioritising for almost everyone at private schools except those who have very very high incomes.

[Grazia1984]

Particularly if you both work full time and earn £30k each you might well get a bursary.

Could he win a music scholarship? My 3 sons all did at age 12. They did tend to have 2 or 3 grades 7 or 8 by that stage though so it does require a lot of hard work.

[JasperDamerel]

You could always send your child as a boarder to a Northern Ireland grammar school for around £10,000 a year. Low on snob value, but very good value for money if you want that kind of education.

www.victoriacollegeboarding.org.uk

[JasperDamerel]

I went to a similar school as a day pupil and am very happy to live in an area with excellent state comprehensives, but if my local schools were all dreadful, I might consider that as a last resort.