Bursary

[Hocuspocus77]

Hi there
My child has been awarded a Bursary of 25% the other week .
It’s amazing but doesn’t guarantee a space obviously. Which they may not have any spaces or dependant on the tests too I suppose .
25 % is great I’m / we are very appreciative however we didn’t put our expenditure in on bills . So they must think take home pay is take home pay and apart from mortgage our biggest thing we have nothing else to pay out for hence the 25%?
There wasn’t any space to put food bill and petrol money to get to work gas electric all the normal things one has to spend out.
Also that means we be having to pay out £300-400 a week ? Where does that come from if haven’t got that over a week we have about £100 a week left over I think or £80 after bills . How did the school work out what we will have over after all the normal bills or don’t they consider them when the school doesn’t put that on the forms !
I had said to my husband maybe the school doesn’t want rif raf in there like us . I automatically felt awful . He had said they wouldn’t of offered the 25 % would they ? I suppose not .
Anyhow equatity in the house can we use being we not over 55 yet and thought to release equatity we had to be ? I don’t think we can remortgage either due to already pay a lot in mortgage ( down south ) .
We are thinking of writing / emailing the school . How do we go about doing this ?.
Any help someone can advise on ? If possible can you private message me thank you .
I be greatful for any help .

You can remortgage if your house value has risen? If there is no space or he has yet to pass assessments there is no actual offer. There maybe more scrutiny of your finances if and when he is offered a place.

I did write back and say we could only accept with a higher bursary and did list my expenditure and did get a better offer - but was on very low income and in 70-80% bursary range. I agree the formula they use is really opaque. In our case there were disability expenses which also explained why couldnt earn more or remortgage. Its worth a try although I expect there is a set deduction for normal outgoings like food / utilities and it may need to be something out of the ordinary - however it may also be they havent changed the formula since before recent inflation so their calculation is out of date.

Hi I see your point about house prices . They have risen but didn’t have evaluations done .
we just got from the internet but we bought for 300 9 years ago roughly and now zoopla saying worth 410 k
but whether you get that is another story next door two years ago sold for 260 they wanted 285 or 280 ( they had had a new bathroom windows done and new kitchen ) we can’t afford that and our house is what it is without all the extras thrown in so I don’t know how zoopla can say .as they had it up for 285 . It sold for £260 k so what does that say our house is the same but isn’t with the £410 k mark there one next door now zoopla says 450 I think no chance !!!!
I reckon ours is with the £350 k mark without any work done !
But still if we could afford to remortgage and to pay back more I think we would of moved by now somewhere with new kitchen bathroom windows or we would of had the work done !
mugs madness isn’t it really . Suppose just sensible with money and don’t touch and want things without having the monies there if that makes sense !!!! Hence the no new cars when I definitely need a new car . When I say new I mean not new out the showroom new for me . Oh my husband would love to go into a car showroom and pick a motor for 40 k his not like that though he don’t spend out of his means if that makes sense .
but thank you for replying

Since you say there are items you had no space to input, then I would send an email and state the extra expenditures. Also, if you made your application before the increases this year and bills have massively gone up since you last filled in the form?

I know someone who wrote an email after the award was too low, and it turned out it was a mistake.

Depending on how rich the school is, some may consider the impact- with you living in the south, you may, as a last option, demonstrate how much this would impact your way of life. Nothing to lose if you were going to have no choice but to reject the offer anyway.

Good luck

If private schools offered high % bursaries without entry requirements met - surely they would find themselves totally overrun with applicants? While they want to encourage access to bright children that would otherwise be unable to afford the education, there has to be a limit and you cannot assume that your child will be given a free ticket, before any entry test is taken.
I would probably not worry so much now and raise your points once the school offers your child a place.

Hi thank you for your message . we had filled the forms out probably just after the bills went up . But there wasn’t anywhere to put anything about any expenditures on bills very weird when it said means tested we thought ok after bills etc but obviously not . I had a chat with my husband and he had said it’s stressing him out which I don’t think we will persue any further .
Thank you for writing though very much appreciated to all your responses .
Even if I wanted to persue it . I don’t know what to start with etc because I’m just useless at all that .

Just wait until he is invited for an assessment. Then you have an opportunity to discuss funding again.

Hi
thank you for your reply
You think we should wait till January next year when my child will have the assessment .
it does say a they want us to reply soon .
so I don’t know .

You could respond and say unfortunately 25% would not be enough to enable your dc to take up a place. If they don't come back is there any point in continuing to register for the assessment? When is the deadline?

Hi the deadline is around September but I have sent the registration form back . Nov and Jan or just January are the months for the tests but they said January in an email .

Hi thank you for your message . I do get what your saying and no I don’t want a free space for my child . But considering people push for a higher bursary why shouldn’t I . My child is quite capable of attending a private school like many of children .
we don’t have many state senior schools here tbh . We were lucky to get into the primary school up the road if I’m honest due to over sun and waiting lists .

anyhow thank you . I think I would need to see if they can offer a higher bursary before he takes the test .
But then again reading on here people say if there child gets full marks etc then there bursary sometimes goes up .
Wish we all had a crystal ball sometimes

Apply for state schools in October too. You both need to be on board with sacrifices you may need to make and bursaries are usually reassessed during a pupil's time there so may decline in value. Do you have more than 1 dc?

Hi oh will definitely apply for state schools we not silly but thank you . We got 3 lined up already but thank you .

Only got the one

How did you get on @Hocuspocus77

In my experience, they want to know if a bursary will be needed as soon as possible, so maybe see what happens in January?

If the bursary form isn't a full reflection of your finances, put in a cover letter. I always did this explaining that while the income may be £, there were also debts as income was irregular (sometimes lots of over time available, sometimes not etc).

Also, find out how often you need to re apply for a bursary. We had the yearly review, although stayed the roughly the same for 6 years.