Prep School scholarships

[angrysquirrel73]

So our existing prep school is changing to all girls and so we are looking at moving our son and daughter to other schools.
One school looks very lively but is very expensive. However you can apply for a scholarship. Has anyone had an success at a prep school scholarship? How do I go about knowing which scholarships to enter them for?
Our children are both very good (for their age) at maths and probably above average at English but not amazing. Not musical. Son is very sporty, daughter is quite sporty. Daughter can be good at art (but not reliably so - she tends to rush things!) and does well at LAMDA.
How do I know what to apply for? Should I ask her current teachers? Or do we just apply for as much as possible or there's a risk of burn out / spreading too thin?
I am thinking for my son - academic and sports and for my daughter academic, possibly sports, possibly drama and possibly art.
Any help / experience gratefully received.

So not lively - lovely ;-)

Sorry you're having to go through this process. What a shame they're making such a huge change so suddenly and driving so many families away.
My only experience is of our prep. The scholarships alone are not worth much - around a 10% discount - but if you're awarded one you can then apply for a means tested bursary on top. I'm not sure how that all works but there are a number of recent threads on this topic on these boards if you search.
Scholarships can be either all rounder or academic. Basically they're looking for boys (in our case) who are likely to win scholarships to top public schools at 13+.

I think there are also bursaries for specific groups/professions isn’t there? Maybe have a look online .

I don't think we could qualify for a bursary so I need to focus on scholarships. They offer academic, music, art, drama and sports. One school offers a discount of 10-20% and the other up to 30%.
Any tips on how to know whether 'you are a contender'? I don't want to put them in for stuff they have no chance at..

Some schools are more ‘generous’ than others -
It should give a breakdown in the prospective?

See what they offer - academic, sport, Music, art ... (sorry if you already said that - I’m half in half out today) and do you know any parents with children there Whose brains you could pick?

Have you seen the scholarship papers? Or if they don’t use these, the usual papers? What does your school suggest - they should have info and also a connection with the relevant schools.

They only tend to offer them at certain ages e.g. 7+ to start year 3, 11+, 13+ so depends how old your children are and if they fit into those timescales? Not sure if they would offer anything outside those times?

My son won an all-rounder one at 11 and the sporting element of it is very competitive - they expect a high standard outside of school e.g. county level or equivalent in a sport. Academic is decided by exams, verbal reasoning type papers so not on content as such. An interview too. Could you ask their form teachers for an honest opinion?

Ask the schools for their assessment criteria for those you think they might stand a shot at.

Bear in mind though, that unlike bursaries, prep schools use scholarships as a way of 1) bragging about the achievements of the child and 2) using them to them go on to achieve scholarships at the big name schools in your area (or boarding schools) which they can then brag about. Given you appear to need a discount on prep fees, are you going down the independent route for secondary?

Do your children fit into this sort of category? For example, at our Prep just outside London, ALL of the sports scholars have contracts with the big London premier league football clubs, rugby equivalent or are playing at county level in hockey and swimming.

The only academic scholarship I knew about (people are less obvious about being in receipt of a scholarship outside the realms of sport), the boy went on to get an academic scholarship at Westminster. A drama scholarship went to a girl who had been in two West End shows. Music scholarship child was Grade 6 in Y5.

Bursaries are a whole other matter and can be given for children who are perhaps far less high on the achievement scale but no less worthy.

Also, IME, the numbers of scholarships offered by prep schools are far fewer than at secondary level.

I personally would consider two angles if you don’t think they would be at a high enough level for a scholarship.

1. Speak to the bursar at the school and see if you can negotiate fees down a little. They will be aware of what’s going on at your current school and so why you are looking. Having two children fill empty places at the school on slightly reduced rates is better than two empty places. If you don’t ask you don’t get, and was an offer extended by a couple of preps in our area when one school closed down unexpectedly mid year. It was only for a year but every little helps.

2. Consider keeping your daughter at the current school and just move your son. I know you are cross about the whole situation right now but if you can get the drop offs and collections to work then you are only having to deal with the logistics and higher fees of moving one child.

I think it makes a difference knowing what schools the prep school normally feeds into and the number of scholarships it achieves to senior schools. If the school regularly achieves scholarships to senior boarding schools like Eton, Harrow, Winchester, Rugby etc. then I suspect the quality of the scholars will be very high across all disciplines. Our prep sent scholars frequently to the well known public schools but almost every year to our local independents. The standard of applicant was markedly different dependent on the senior school.
Anyway, that was a long winded way of saying you know your child/children, you know the school you want him/her to head towards. Is the senior destination school, therefore, competitive/over subscribed/very academic or a more relaxed/parochial etc. type of school? Would they cope with the extra pressure throughout prep school and then at senior school? Can you afford the senior schools of choice without the scholarships?
I’m sorry you are finding yourself in this position but you may need to look quite long term and not make a hasty decision.

I can't comment in general but at my DC's prep the scholarship isn't particularly valuable, only £500 a year, (less than 5%) off fees so won't make the difference between it being affordable or not. The scholarships have gone to kids who are bright across the board but not necessarily exceptional or to kids who are pretty sporty. We're talking the sportiest in a year group of 20 - is a useful player on all the teams but not playing at county level in any sport.

I'm not sure a scattergun approach would be worthwhile, given that you don't suggest your children are academically outstanding. Prep school scholarships are so scarce ...

The thing to do (ideally) would be to identify a school, or schools, that have a definite gap for your particular child - in terms of ability, talent, achievements etc. And don't bother with places where scholarships only mean 10 or 20% fee reductions.

(FWIW our child secured a scholarship and bursary combined that covered 100% of fees - but the school only offered one a year, so it took a fair degree of optimism and determination to even apply.)

Hi @angrysquirrel73
My youngest got a prep school scholarship 50%. Where are you thinking of applying?

Thanks Zodlebud as you can imagine at the moment all sports activities are off in any case, our daughter had attended the first of a county trial but that is on hold for COVID so it is awkward...

We will try for the scholarships in the 1st place. DS will try for sports and academic. DD for academic, sports and possibly art. DS is more than a year above himself in a couple of sports (performance age 9 or 10) but at age 7 too young for county trials in anything. we will just have to hope he can 'perform' on the day. His current school will give him a sports references.

For academic DS is less reliable but v bright. Maths should be no problem but English writing more problematic. He would be at the school for another 5 years so a 20-30% scholarship would be of value. I do not know how many they give out.

For DD she is top 5% for maths and top 25% for English. Sports she is in all the 1st teams and as I said just started county trials in a sport but unfortunately that is on ice and unlikely to be resolved prior to submitting the scholarship forms.

I think you are right - we will try scholarship as a first step and if no joy / on top will then try negotiation. As you say 2 x 80% is greater than 2 x 0. And I have already told the prep school it is more expensive than our current school by 50%.

motherstongue - good points. The prep school sends mostly to local independent schools and less regularly to Winchester, Cheltenham Ladies College etc. So I would anticipate our kids will still be atleast top quartile at the prep. We won't need a scholarship at the senior school as its cheaper than the prep school!!

Lucinda76 if its ok I will PM you.

Thank you for your help.