Do you receive a bursary for all your children?

[woolieapple]

My son attends a private school and we receive a means tested bursary to help us with the fees. He's in year 7.

We would love our daughter to also attend, but she is only 2.

I would be working when she is at school age, and I am curious if anybody has two children on a bursary and how they work that out?

Thank you 😊

That's a large age gap. It'll be a while before they're senior school age when most bursaries are usually available so it's impossible to know really? Lots will change between now and then.

Hi, please could you tell me what percentage of a bursary you received? And how invasive it was? We will be going through this process in January. Thanks 😊

Bursaries are not usually available before 7 years old, and in majority of cases, from 11 upwards so would be a case of waiting until then.

It depends on the school. The one I used to work at wouldn't give bursaries for siblings - or would split the existing bursary between 2 siblings. No help available until year 7 and you'd both be expected to be working full time to qualify for help in the first place.

If you'd be working when your daughter reaches school age don't forget this will affect/reduce your existing bursary (which should get recalculated each year)

It very much depends on the school and how rigorous their individual procedures are. Some schools outsource their bursary assessments to an external provider (more objective and the school gets a recommendation from the company that the family can afford x% of the school fees).
With costs rising and budgets being squeezed, bursaries may well be harder to come by (although they are unlikely to disappear, as they are part of the public benefit requirement for charitable status - however, a change of government could mean no more bursaries if this is removed).
Again, most schools recalculate bursaries every year, and the amount awarded is adjusted depending on the family's circumstances.
The process is quite invasive, in that you can usually expect a home visit and to hand over details of all your finances, savings, assets, incoming/outgoing expenses - you need to show that you can't afford the fees, so evidence of foreign holidays, home renovations, fancy cars etc etc will play against you. The other parents will essentially be paying the fees that you can't.

One thing to be very aware of is if we get a change of government ie Labour and they bring in the VAT rise + loss of charitable status. Our private school has already muted that they will drastically reduce/end bursaries if this happens to try to mitigate the impact on parents who pay full fees.
So you may need to look at how this could impact you if your school did this. Obviously it is all What Ifs at the moment but worth bearing in mind for future planning.

Yes twistyizzy makes a good point.. of the 20 in DC 2's class atleast 3 are on bursaries - combination of looked after kids and Ukrainians..