Am fuming - private school thread

[Sorrento]

A conversation I've just overheard from a neighbor (i know, i know) she intends to send her child to the local private school knowing she cannot afford the fees and intends to apply for financial assistance in the Feb is this likely to work or will the child be chucked out ?
I'm not sure whether to admire the audacity or be shocked at the cheek of her.

Pag I think we could be twins

Blinkin heck call the UN it isnt often that scienceteacher and I agree on an education thead.

Seems like weird and irresponsible parenting to me. Her dd will start school in September and the mother will apply for assistance in Feb so she can afford two terms only? What happens then?

Bursaries are few and far between these days and I would have thought there will be more deserving cases - eg a child who has another year to go before GCSEs but redundancy means parent can't afford that year's school fees. Someone who has just started won't be a priority imo unless she is scholarship material or exceptional in some way.

By Feb the child will have made friendships and settled in but chances are will be asked to leave at Easter. She will then have to move to another school and start the whole process all over again.

Selfish, cruel and heartless imo. Why doesn't she ask the school before her child starts? That way she will know what the likelihood is.

It's the dishonesty and scheming that annoyed me that's all, perhaps we should go give it a go, I could report back if she "gets away with it".

Science teacher the buseries have been allocated to people who are upfront and honest, many other people will have applied for them and been told no and put their children into other schools, why should this lady be an exception because she lied for 2 terms ?

I know someone who is trying this for their DS at a local Prep. I also strongly suspect that the Prep school our DSs are out is giving out secret bursaries or being easy on certain parents who cannot quite manage the fees.

Private schools are fairly desperate about keeping numbers up and I think that those who are most desperate will agree to fee reductions but the danger is that if any parent tries this they will end up at a really desperate school that eventually goes under and closes. It is a big risk.

It is not just the school fees either but all the other expenses which I am not sure the bursary will cover.

we dont have school fees to pay but part with a few hundred pound a month for activites. I would imagine that there would even more pressure to do such activities in a private school.

Sometimes as well they dont give out bursaries every in every year. I am sure in the school that dd nearly went to they were only available in the upper school.

The only activities we pay for - music and piano lessons - are cheaper than the going rate locally. Uniform was also cheaper. Wraparound care charges are far far cheaper than our local state equivalent and more extensive.

That is good mollieO I just knew when dp wanted to send dd to a private school there were lots of add ons that he had not factored incliding school trips.

Must be more to this conversation. I would find it surprising that a parent would take such a chance, but the opportunists usually succeed in life so good luck to her! Hope the kid doesn't suffer.

Certainly seems like a risky gamble to me. Private schools often have no qualms about 'asking a child to leave' and if her plan backfires, then her child's education may well suffer.

However, if it works, fair enough. I wouldn't fume about it. Plenty of parents are underhand and play the system when it comes to state schools, so why should it be any different in the independent sector?

I don't understand why you're fuming about it.

Sounds like she's a desperate woman, for whatever reason, maybe she was privately educated herself and has no idea of state education, maybe she has some weird idea that a private school education is going to be better per se, maybe her daughter isn't very clever and she's worried she won't cope in normal size classes. Whatever the underlying reasons are, she's clutching at straws. The school are not going to dish money out. They are a business. Even if by some chance they found the money at the moment, there is no guarantee they'd keep paying - the parent will just be asked to remove her child when her cheque bounces, to put it bluntly!!

Why does it bother you? This woman and her kid will end up being the losers, not you

Just in case it works violet, then i shall be really fuming

It's a fairly obvious ruse and I can imagine that the Independent Schools Council are, as we speak, running seminars on What to do with apparently penniless parents.

Surely the school will ask why the fees are suddenly no longer affordable and ask for evidence eg redundancy notice. They are not stupid: they have been at this game a lot longer than your neighbour and will be able to spot a con. Their sympathies will lie with more-established families. Unless the child has other attributes which are useful to the school (the usual academic, musical etc), they don't stand a chance.

senua is correct sorrento. The school is a business - they won't just allow a kid to stay there if they're not getting the fees! In the current climate, there are many genuine hardship cases, and even there, the school can't work miracles. I have friends who are in the position of no longer being able to pay the full fees, and the school is being very reasonable and is helping them to enable their children to stay until the end of the Key Stage they're in - but after that, they'll be out. I think you're worrying unecessarily sorrento. Your neighbour sounds very dim if she really thinks she can pull this off!

I give her 10/10 for effort, but I doubt it will work.

I would be very suprised if it works - as others have said, schools are extremely rigorous, not to say intrusive in investigating financial circumstances before giving away bursaries, even to the extent of using private detectives... , and are far more likely to give burasries to parents of children who have paid fees for many years, and then fall on hard times. There has been a massive surge in people in both geniine need, and also trying it on. Please do revive this thread next year and tell us how she got on

I know quite a few who have got away with this. But it is a risk. It depends how popular/liked the child is - and whether there's any light at the end of the tunnel (financially). The only problem is that once you're in the fee-paying sector it is very hard to 'go back' to state. I pay for mine - and go without a lot as a result - and as they get older it becomes more and more difficult to move them! With hindsight I should have found a great state school (prices have risen by 30% in past 2 years, too!). Just nipping off now for bread and dripping and a glass of tap water

I dont really get sorrento why this is bothering you so much. I could understand why you may be upset if it failed as there would be an upset child and the mother was the cause. But if she gets away with it why not be happy for her, her child is , in her mother's eyes, getting a superior education. The mother is clearly stressed about school places, I would feel sorry for her.

I was talking to a friend about this subject the other day: she says that it is not only about income. At her school the hardship fund will not even consider you if you still have any assets to your name eg equity in your house.

Well there won't be many people that have equity to worry about in coming months.
I'm hardly loosing sleep over this, just seems like she's playing the school for a fool or trying to.
Her child is awful so I'll be delighted if she is as far away from mine as possible but I hate to see cheats prosper.

Sorrento says "There's a perfectly good state option available for everybody else who can't afford private schools." I find this rather odd. Can we afford private education? Yes. Do our children go to private schools? NO. Why not? because I don#t believe they offer value for money, and we are lucky enough to be in an area where the state schools are outstanding.

Don't assume people who don#t go private can't afford it; maybe they have different priorities.

Well I think assuming she feels the private school is value for (somebody else's money) as she'd like to use it and that she cannot afford it otherwise she's going to look a twit applying for a bursary would be fair enough in this case wouldn't you say ?

Sorrento, I've just posted on your duvet cover for sale thread. Just let me know if they're still available.

Hello
They are that seems like a long time ago, I'll go and find it