So my son, who is on the ASD pathway is in private prep. He was moved there as he was woefully treated by both peers and school staff in local state primary. His dad and I desperately wanted to make up for this as well as give him a chance to thrive. We have sought extra support for the (potential) ASD which so far does seem to be helping him understand friendships emotions and concentration better.
It is well known that the local state secondaries in the area are having a growing problem with knife crime and on some occasions, the younger pupils have been threatened by the older children. This terrifies me - if my son was a target for bullying and found it hard to cope in primary school what on earth would it be like come secondary school? It’s not like he can necessarily refine social skills in attempt to minimise being targeted and/or learn self defence or what not due to the (likely) ASD. We tried self defence classes with him before and let’s just say it did not go well! He is a really really sensitive kind boy and this big scary world really is incredibly difficult for him to navigate.
his father and I are separated but both 100% committed to coparenting and both very much involved in his life. I am a full time carer for my severely disabled and can not work. It does not seem likely this is going to change in the near future. His dad is in a very blue collar job just about making 45k with sometimes 100 hours of over time per month to afford prep fees.
realistically though this is not going to be sustainable going up to senior school. It’s barely sustainable now. His dad has debts as do I and sometimes both he and I go without food and other basic things as it is. He pays the fees and that leaves him with almost nothing, I try to pay for the extras which often means I’m borrowing.
- neither of us own our own homes
- neither of us have any savings
- neither of us have any family to ask
- Neither of us even own a car/have one on finance
- my income is around 8k Pa
- Fees for schools we’d be looking at would be the entirety of his dad’s post-tax annual income.
- no grammars in the area
- we do not think home schooling would be ideal as he really needs every opportunity he can possibly get to socialise - however I’m not writing this option off completely just yet.
hence, I’m pondering the realistic chances of him getting a funded private school place.
anyway. Our son’s overall CAT scores are just above average, 113. He has a ‘spiky profile’ and lacks slightly in verbal reasoning (which he has been doing lots of extra practice on recently).
he is very talented in art however. Very very talented and this became apparent years ago and before private school had been a thought in my mind. I don’t know if he would be considered for a private school scholarship for this - but hypothetically, if he was, and he passed the entrance exams (but didn’t get a particularly high score) and considering the extra support he may need for his neurodiversity….
what would his chances be of getting a bursary?
chances of 100% percent bursary?