Advice on bursary and sibling fees

[rainzen]

Hello,

I’m seeking advice from anyone who has been in a similar situation regarding bursaries and siblings.

Our eldest child is currently in Year 8 and receives a substantial bursary of 70%. We also have a younger child attending the same school’s preschool, and they are due to start Reception in September.

We’ve applied to local schools, but unfortunately, our catchment school has a poor Ofsted rating. Ideally, we’d love for our youngest to remain at the same school as their sibling. However, we’re aware that bursaries are only offered from Year 7 onwards, so we would need to fund the prep school fees ourselves.

I’m planning to return to work once our youngest starts school, which will give us an additional income. Our hope is to use that income to cover the prep school fees for our youngest while maintaining the current bursary arrangement for our eldest.

My concern is whether the bursar would take this into account or if they would expect us to allocate the additional income towards reducing the bursary for our eldest.

I’ve read posts here about families with multiple children receiving bursaries, but I understand that might only apply to senior school.

Have others navigated a similar situation? Is it feasible to fund one child in prep while still receiving a bursary for another in senior school? Alternatively, would homeschooling the youngest until our eldest leaves school and then transitioning them to private be a better option?

Any insights or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

It will depend on each individual schools policy.

If you can homeschool, is there capacity for you/oh to work more hours to fund fees? Or apply to state schools outside catchment and see if you get a place. Where did your eldest attend before the secondary?

Thank you. I will be emailing the bursar this week.

Yes, I have applied to a school that we'd be happy for youngest to attend which is about 200m outside of our catchment! If they got a place there, we'd be happy for them to attend until eldest leaves school.

Eldest was at another local private school, since year 1. They have always received a bursary.

I would be very wary of relying on a bursary for your youngest. With VAT, many schools are reducing bursaries and limiting to existing pupils only.
For your eldest, it will depend on the wording in the bursary contract. Many schools require you to notify them of any change in financial circumstances if claiming a bursary. How often does it get re-assessed?

It is yearly, we will be sent the form soon actually. Obviously it's already gone up this term with the VAT.

So you would need to declare the extra income once you start back at work. It may, or may not, impact the bursary for the eldest. Best speaking to bursar.

It will most definitely @twistyizzy

Shall email the bursar this week and see what they suggest. I think more than likely, if youngest doesn't get into the school we'd like them to go to, I will look into homeschooling for a few years.

Speak to the bursar. Explain where you are with this and seek their advice on rules and what the school plans to do with bursaries.
Many schools are keeping kids currently on bursaries but giving out fewer for new pupils.

For your 2nd child I would homeschool until a place comes up at the state school you are happy with - check where you are on the wait list every 3 weeks or so.

And then see what happens in future around bursaries at the private school you like for that child, or your own income increases of course!

Yes, I think realistically that is what we will do. May I ask, if you know what happens come April if we don't get a place at the school we'd have applied for?

You can go on WL for any school you prefer. You can also appeal for any school you listed - but it’s very challenging to win an ICS (infant class size) appeal, which this would most likely be.

It’s a good idea to accept the place offered as you may find out you prefer it to homeschooling, which may not be ideal for your DC.

(I am all for HS when it is chosen in a child- centred way, so bc the child cannot manage at school btw)

Surely you can list more than one school? If there are any others preferable to your catchment do include them. Otherwise if the one school is full of those ahead of you in priority (siblings, living closer etc) the LA will look for an undersubscribed school to offer which may be your catchment one.

Yes good point from @LIZS - I just clocked that of course the deadline is end Jan. yes do fill up your form with any schools you would be happy with. And include your local school unless you are certain about homeschooling.

I’m flabbergasted at the ease at which homeschooling is suggested these days, just because you’re not happy with the offered school.

Have a look at the previous year’s admissions for your preferred school; the way birth rates are going, you’d be very unlucky not to be offered an out of catchment place round here.

The deadline to submit an on time application for a reception 2025 place is January 15th. It's the UCAS deadline which is at the end of the month.

@rainzen , if there are any primary schools within a few miles of your home address that you consider even more undesirable than your catchment area school, please think to put your catchment school on your CAF as a last preference, otherwise one of those others may be what you are allocated in April. You may think your catchment school is too awful to contemplate, but if enough people have other feelings towards it to fill its available places, if you don't actually apply for it, you won't be offered it just because it's your closest school.

Where can I find out about previous school year admission intakes? I can't seem to find this information.

Also, I only have one school that is in my catchment area?

Should be on your LA website under Primary Admissions. Not sure what relevance of there only being one catchment school. You can list any school you prefer, ideally at least one of which you might have qualified for a place at in a previous year.

And don't forget if you decide to move you will need to give a term's notice.

Thanks @MarchingFrogs I am getting my deadlines all tangled up!

Yy @rainzen you can list any school on your form. Are you in England? How many slots do you get?

My dd was offered a bursary. I then got a 6k pay rise on my mediocre part time wage and it was withdrawn. The best thing to do is speak to the bursar - but I wouldn’t rely on maintaining the bursary if you go into work. I would consider looking for a separate primary for the youngest with a view to move them for secondary.

Despite low birth rates I believe state catchments are smaller this year due to increased people applying for state over private.

To be honest I’m more flabbergasted that the OP managed to get a bursary for their eldest as a stay at home parent!

I'm posting again as I posted in haste before wrt homeschooling and wanted to clarify what I meant.

I have worked with and known a fair number of DC who were homeschooled at some point – most often after having tried school and it not having been a success, due to issues such as ND. In these cases I have seen it work really well, as a DC who was really struggling is suddenly able to fulfil their potential and enjoy learning. Great stuff.

Some people also HS bc they are not in favour of school in general – perhaps for sociological or religious reasons.

But it seems odd to me to say, effectively, “I am in favour of school in general – my older DC attends one and I have applied for a place at one for my younger DC” but then plan to HS if your child does not get a place at that school. Surely if you are in favour of school and think that your DC would do well at school (hence applying) then yes, School A might be preferred and best, but surely School B or School C would be better than no school and homeschooling (other HS-related factors not applying, which presumably they don’t).

HS is a serious commitment – of time, resources, effort and skill. It's in no way an easy option (nor a cheap one). So while I support HS in general and in many specific cases, I don’t think it should ever be a knee-jerk answer without deep consideration of the child’s needs above all.

YY @rainzen to echo others, if you have (say) four slots on your form, use them all; fill them with schools you would be happy with, in true order of preference. Make sure at least one (even if the last listed) is what is called a banker – one you are sure of a place at, so usually the catchment or nearest school – as this is likely to be a better option than an equally poor one a long way away, which you may be given if you don’t list your local one.

Is the only issue with your catchment school that it has a poor Ofsted? what does the Ofsted report say? How long ago was it done? Are there other factors? Did you look round it? IME most primary schools are pretty OK – and if there are gaps (poor MFL, not great clubs, not much music, sport offering is weak) you can always supplement these with things you offer at home.

Have a poke around on your local authority schools page. You’ll only have one catchment school, but you can apply to any school you like. Admissions rules have to be published on both the schools and LA websites, and for primary are usually centred around distance as crow flies from school, maybe in combination with a catchment area. There might also be a church attendance requirement for a CofE or catchment school.

The LA will also publish previous year’s admissions - Google for school allocation information for your LA. This will tell you whether the school was full on national offer day, and what criteria on the admission criteria they reached.

If you don’t get an offer on offer day, there’s nothing to stop you going on waiting lists.