private school fees - has anyone negotiated a discount/worked out better ways to manage payments?

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Hi all,

Namechanged and would very much appreciate any advice. Due to a change in circumstances ,paying school fees for our three kids is becoming a huge struggle for us. We have to pay for a family member's care and it's been a very bad few years for DH's industry.

We can just about manage to keep them there for the moment - they are at key stages in their education and it would be heartbreaking to pull them out right now. The younger two can go to great local state options for sixth form if they have to - but meanwhile, we are draining our savings and the future looks quite worrying...

Our kids have been at the school for many, many years and do brilliantly there. They love it and we love it. The bursar has been very helpful and has expressed they are keen to keep the kids at the school. Quite rightly, given we DO have some savings and own our house, we don't qualify for a bursary. They don't do sibling discounts. My understanding is that there is a fairly hefty cash reserve there to help existing pupils whose circumstances change drastically - ie in the case of parental death - but again, this doesn't apply to us. The bursar is very sympathetic and wants to look at ways to help, but I am slightly at a loss as to what might be possible or what I might suggest!

Has anyone been in this situation? Has anyone been offered help of any kind, or worked anything out with the school?

Before anyone jumps on me, yes I know we are in an extremely fortunate position already, and yes I know there are brilliant state options and this whole system isn't fair. But it's the road we have gone down and my children are having a wonderful school life where they are, so I am trying desperately to find ways to preserve that. Thanks so much for any thoughts or advice.

that wealthy schools use their funds at their own discretion.

utterly incorrect

I have direct personal experience of being at one of those type of schools myself and was offered a fee discount in addition to my existing scholarship - when financial circumstances changed (note not parental death). One of friend’s kids had their academic scholarship increased when the offer did not make access possible.

My sisters’ kids did not qualify for bursaries otherwise they simply would have been offered one without mucking about with scholarships.

@rochethenut what do you mean by 3x increase?

head. wall.

it wasn’t a fee discount. it was a bursary!!!

One of friend’s kids had their academic scholarship increased when the offer did not make access possible.

again not a fee discount
simply an increase in the academic scholarship

so you got a bursary
your friend got an increase in a scholarship

neither applicable to op

so genuinely curious re what the bursar could offer when “crunch time”?

For the younger 2, if they’re bright and been at good schools all their lives, they will have excellent study skills and will likely do equally well at a state 6th form - and it may well prove to be an advantage for uni application.

It will categorically make no difference to their uni application as those clever admissions people are smart enough to consider the type of school in which the GCSEs were achieved.

3 children

so if vat applied for the op that increase is x3

@Mirabai

you do accept that your statement that wealthy school can spend however they like is factually utterly incorrect? They are charities. Subject to the CC

OP does next year look like a better year for your DH’s business?

It wasn’t a bursary.

That’s not what I said.

Do you work in the private sector?

So….

despite no financial difficulties whatsoever

the school used funds to provide a fee discount just because?

they can’t do this. it was a bursary.

sweet Jesus! you are enjoying the life of brian!

that wealthy schools use their funds at their own discretion.

factually incorrect

but please explain how you think they are?

yes
i have two children in the private sector

and i work in the private sector, yes.

Increase in the academic scholarship/ fee discount.

I did not and never had a bursary. And no amount of you telling me I did makes that correct. Sorry.

Increase in the academic scholarship/ fee discount.

the former. not the latter.

the latter is a bursary.

You received a bursary following a change in your parents financial circumstances

you seem to think there are three

an academic scholarship
a bursary
a fee discount

there is not. a fee discount is a bursary! 😂

Using funds at their own discretion where necessary does not mean spending how they like.

The bursar would of suggested that if that was an option

the bursar is going to be your best bet. That’s all you can do

either get someone else to pay it. Savings. Get a loan (friends of mine got a loan for this)

If the bursar can’t help you financially

then the options are only really. Loan. Savings. Someone else paying. Or leaving.

the end of the day the school is a business. They run it like a business and only want the money in essence.

but “necessary expenditure” would fall into the CC

and a deterioration in a family financial circumstances and a consequent subsiding of fees is a bursary.

it is baffling you can’t see this!

Using funds at their own discretion where necessary does not mean spending how they like.

that is precisely what it means.

No where in the CC can a charity spend money “at its discretion”

your family experienced a deterioration in financial circumstances and the schools offer a bursary to financially permit you to stay.

I did not receive any kind of bursary.

Academic scholarships can involve fee discounts anywhere up to 100% of the fees, the amount may be at the discretion of the school according to the means of the family, but they are distinct from bursaries which are awarded not on talent but on financial need.

This really is the answer.