Bursary

[Mayana1]

I would like to find out more about bursaries.
We are on the low income, but would really like to send my child to independent school as state schools in my area are all on low ratings. The problem is, he is only starting, means he will be going to reception class or Year 1 and most bursaries starts from 11+ or similar. The school I considered starts at that age too, so can not apply with them. Does anyone know if there are some charities, I know there are plenty who helps with education fees, but didn't find any so far, that would start from that age? Much appreciated any advise.

I think this is your only realistic option. Some schools allow the same staff discount for non teaching staff as teaching staff, so your educational background wouldn't matter (receptionist, grounds staff etc). And that is sometimes MORE than 50% discount. Worth looking into - I think it's your best shot. I don't think it's realistic to expect a charity to cover fees for a 4 year old unless exceptional circumstances. But staff fee remission is common. You could also look at working in a senior school (potentially more vacancies) that have a linked prep school.

What kind of job do you do currently, or assuming you’re not a single parent (apologies if I’ve missed something) could your partner get a job in a school?

So what "rankings" are you looking at? If you're looking at tables of SATS results, these are largely linked to the school intake (and how much the school turns Year 6 into a SATS exam factory).

Schools in leafy middle class suburbs where children are from affluent middle class families with professional jobs tend to do better than ones from more mixed demographics. This doesn't mean the school is bad.
In fact there's a school near us where so much tutoring goes on, I suspect the children could not go to school at all, and still get really good SATS results.