Private School Scholarships and How to Get Them

[LizFarrell]

Does anyone have any advice about how to help your children get scholarships into independent schools? Both my kids are quite young and are in a state primary school.

Is there anything I can be doing like music lessons, sport, someone even told me chess could be an option, that would either get reduced fees or even a 100% paid scholarship when they go up to secondary school? Our local state secondaries are not good and I'm exploring all the options to avoid them!

Thank you!

Have you researched the scholarship criteria for each individual school you’re interested in?
I assume it will vary at each school.
Most probably start with an academic exam.

You are conflating bursaries and scholarships.

The first is based on your income. The second is merit based but usually only attracts a 5/10% fee reduction. Many scholarships are not awarded until yr9.

Eg. My DC both had a choral scholarship which gave them a 5% fee reduction.

DD had a music scholarship on top which gave her a free music lesson and a further 5% fee reduction.

Obviously these were valuable but they didn't make or break paying for PS.

You can't game the system much, maby have tried. Either your child is very, unusually for their age, good at something, or they aren't. To be unusually good at a musical instrument by scholarship application time, they need to have been having lessons and doing gradings from about 6 or 7, if not earlier.

Scholarships usually only offer a fee reduction of around 10%. One of my children has an academic schlarshio and another has a performing arts scholarship.
If you need a higher fee reduction you would need to look at bursaries which are dependent on your income and assets, or lack thereof.

Scholarships are generally only an award foe a small percentage of school fees based on a talent such as academic, sport, drama or musical talent. Bursaries at varying levels are available to low(er) income households whose child may display usually academic talent.

As above - a scholarship is usually 10% max, Dd had one for her sport. There were VERY few on more than that and they’re now the sort who are top TOP level and looking at 2028 olympics kind of thing, and even they only got a bit more, certainly no way near 100%. This is pretty standard across all boarding schools.

bursaries (means testing) can get you a chunk off but they need to really want your child to give them a heavily funded place, especially since the VAT thing. So ideally they’re highly talented at something and the school will benefit from having them there, hence a large discount (but rarely 100%) and you need to be low income.

honestly, just move house or go state with the 93% of kids. If you can’t afford private, trying to force them into being very good at something and then trying to shoehorn them into a world they don’t really belong is just going to be exhausting (unless of course they are super super clever or can swim 50m in 25 seconds by the time they’re 11)

100% is unusual for a scholarship. Your child needs to be extraordinary academic, sporty or into music depending on the school's profile even to have less.

Some schools have burseries depending on parents' income but again rarely 100%.

Ours DS received a 25% scholarship
as a choir singer in our local cathedral secondary school and had free music education.
He was very happy in school but it was a lot of work the singing at cathedral's services.
His school closed last year (he had left) as it wasn't profitable to run it with new VAT rules and the music programme will be run differently.

Competition for grants for public education is quite fierce after VAT.
Don't expect a lot of %-off fees - a lot of parents are going for reductions and a lot of children are tutored from very young age.

Not sure if it helps but I read a great book about how to teach your kids to be brilliant at anything. I think the author said he got his boy a scholarship into Eton college. But

As noted by PPs, scholarships to private schools are usually only a very small reduction in fees (like 10%) or often not even that – more free music lessons or similar. They are often about the prestige rather than lower fees. Bear in mind that specific scholarships will often come with a requirement to compete or perform for the school (thinking here of sport or music).

If you want a big reduction in fees you need to ask about bursaries. These (like scholarships tbh) will vary by school; the school will usually enquire closely into your financials – mortgage commitments etc – and as I understand it, a large bursary may include expectations of economy from the family such as no lavish holidays etc. I gather 100% is very unlikely now but you need to enquire of private schools that you are interested in. You often get a reduction for a second child attending btw.

We were advised by my dd's teachers in primary school to put her in to sit for the entrance exam for our local independent secondary. She got a 50 percent scholarship and an additional 30 percent bursary allowance through until the end of her A levels.

Thank you. I have a few years to go so wonder how brilliant is brilliant?

This looks very interesting. I will have a look for it online.

Thank you. I need to look into whether our salaries mean we would et a bursary.

Kindly meant - if your children need you to put loads of effort into tutoring/extra lessons/other extra activities to make them shine then they are not the children that the private schools are looking for for their full-fees awards. If an otherwise ordinary child is drilled into gaining some extra skill they are still an ordinary child, just one who has been drilled in that extra skill. Every private school has enough young people on their doorstep who can't afford the fees that they could fill every place at the school 10 times over. The most generous 100% bursary funds are there to make the school accessible for extraordinary children and there isn't anything you can do by effort of will to make an ordinary child into an extraordinary child. If your child has already shown extraordinary talent that will get them a place in the National Youth Orchestra, their county Cricket Team, or a place competing in the Olympics then absolutely support that and look for a private school that will be flexible in balancing teaching with extracurricular commitments in ways that state schools can't accommodate.

It's more realistic to hope for a 30%-40% bursary which some schools are quite happy to give out to a reasonably bright but basically ordinary child if their parents can show that the full fees are beyond their means, so long as there's enough evidence that the child is likely to drag their overall success levels upwards. However, needing loads of extra tuition to get to a high academic standard is rather the opposite to such evidence.

My DS got offers of music scholarships for two local independent schools. Both were for 50% of fees and subsidised music lessons, in return for mandatory membership of the achool orchestra and brass band. Both were 6th form though and before the VAT change. He was grade 8 in two instruments and an accomplished arranger of music at the time of application. I suspect that the fee reductions didn't anywhere near cover what we had paid out in music lessons for two instruments, buying instruments and driving to auditions and ensemble rehearsals over the years beforehand!

A third school offered him a 30% fee reduction for sixth form on the basis that he had grade 9s in his chosen A level subjects.

I very much suspect that these scholarships wouldn't be available in the new VAT regime.

I know of a number of children who got 50% scholarships for music post-VAT. Top schools still do this as they're not struggling.

Standard was grade 7-8 at 11+.

It very much depends on the school.

My daughter has a 15% scholarship for art. She’s quite talented

A northern indie offered a full bursary to my DD last year but we ultimately chose the super selective grammar she passed for as their GCSE results were not as good and she didn't like it as much as the school she chose. Some super selectives beat the indie schools hands down.

As far as getting a scholarship or bursary, its a case of popping up and making schools know your child is available and what talents they have. Music, like PP say will need to be at the lowest grade 5 across more than one instrument, or they are naturally gifted.

We looked at bursaries for everywhere and the forms were monsters, every bit of your finances will be scrutinised and your child will have to perform very well in the entrance exam for the place to be considered.

A point to note as well is that lots of small local indie schools are closing. What if you had everything in place and the school closed. What would be your plan then.

You do need to look at costs to be in a position to be considered. Music tuition starts at around £8 for 15 mins and its often higher. Music exam fees are eyewatering. Tutoring how to pass an exam is also expensive. Your child will need to have a flair for something or they will find practice and revision soul destroying.

Its risky but doable.

The saying goes, if you live in a flat in somewhere rough and your child has talent, it will be recognised.

Many thanks for all these answers. You have all given me a lot to think about!

Grade 5 in one instrumental won't cut it I dont think, that's not exceptional at age 10/11. The children I know who got music scholarships were grade 7 at least with another instrument and this was before Labour's attempt to get rid of private schools by imposing VAT. Its much harder now to get scholarships or bursaries as the parents that donated money into the bursary fund are largely now using that money to pay the extra VAT on top of fees. I think the larger bursaries now only go to exceptional hardship kids who are very clever and come from an impoverished or deprived background, children where social services are involved or single parent on full benefits. I don't think a dual salaried family would qualify for much now. This is certainly the case for the schools I am involved with in South London, the situation may be different in other parts of the country maybe? (And sixth from perhaps when they have a proven track record at GCSE) But as others have said, if you can't now comfortably afford 80/90% of the extra Labour tax full fees, its going to be an uncomfortable 14 years, and I wouldn't attempt it now, starting off, honestly. Labour will continue to try and force people out of independent education while they are in power so fees will rise disproportionately as well.

For context, one of my sons best friend had a 100% bursary at their school from year 6. He was the oldest child of a care leaver who had him at 14 and he lived in a 1 bed flat with 3 younger siblings. He was naturally gifted in Maths and has just graduated from uni. This was long before VAT on fees obviously. He was the only child in the year on 100% bursary, although there were lots on 50%, at the time.

That being said, the less competitive private schools are suffering with reduced numbers thanks to Labours attempts so they may be reaching a speculate to accumulate point where they may offer 10/20/50% reduced fees in bursaries to get kids in. I've not heard talk of 100% for a long time though, and know 2 bursars of large private school groups. Some have hardship funds still but obviously you dont want your child to qualify under those.

Was this quite recent?

Schools can change in next years.
Depending where you are huge shake ups and closures declining populations of school age kids
Dont push your child to e.g. chess if not interested!
No harm in you researching private schools near you and costs and potential bursaries
But what you provide at home and extras for a child at state school can be just fine

My DC’s school does 100% bursaries for the majority of bursary holders (plus they provide a laptop and cover other starting expenses), so it’s worth looking for schools that still offer them. As others have said, scholarships are a more nominal discount and come with a lot of commitments that teens can come to resent - it’s not a route I would take lightly.

Rugby is the religion of private schools in my area, attracting large discounts.