Scholarship

[Shaz2001]

I was recently retrenched from work and i am a single parent whose child was at an independent school. Now i am looking for any informstion of were i can apply for a scholarship or sponsor funding for my daughter as the school does not offer any funding at all. Its really a good school were she is and would not want to transfer elsewhere.

Any information will be greatly appreciated.

You might have no choice but to transfer elsewhere if you can't get a bursary. What year group is she in?

What year is your daughter in?

xposted!

You need to find out about education grant awarding charities.

One way of doing this would be to go to a Local Authority Public Library and ask the Librarian for advice in finding out about grant awarding charities, there is, or used to be, a reference book that listed all the registered charities and what they gave grants for under various headings. Likely enough there is a web site now.

Scholarships/bursaries from independent bodies are very, very rare - if the school itself can't offer any financial help (have you asked already?) then your chances of finding anyone else to help with fees are very slim to non-existent, particularly at primary level.

I think there are a few charities around which help out in exceptional circumstances, e.g. if a child is orphaned part-way through their GCSE or A-level course, but unless you have any overriding reasons for needing to stay at that school (rather than just wanting to because it is a good school) I would not hold out too much hope.

There is a brief mention of grant-making trusts on the Good Schools Guide website (towards the bottom of this page www.goodschoolsguide.co.uk/help-and-advice/choosing-a-school/finance-school-fees/52/scholarships-bursaries-grants-and-awards) which basically says don't bother unless you have an exceptional case.

There are some independent grant awarding bodies but the eligibility criteria is very narrow. Such as : boarding fees paid for children who have very very adverse home circumstances.
The best (and most realistic) way of getting financial help is to look around at local independent schools and see what they offer. Most independent schools will offer financial assistance to children from year 7, but they have criteria that that to be satisfied in order to be eligible.
Some of the stand alone prep schools also offer financial assistance but they don't always advertise that they offer this and the only way of finding out is to diffract the school bursar.

OP: have you spoken to the school bursar to see if any help is available? You might be surprised.

When my friend's dad lost his job, it was the school who sorted something out, not sure if they found the money or found a scheme.

Your only realistic hope is to talk to the school to be honest. Funds for primary students for private school are very few and far between, and aimed at very exceptional cases/students - there is not a central bank of funding, for example.

The local library ideas is a good one as they may know of any small local charities/funds that may help. However, if the school itself won't, you need to be realistically looking at your other education options - and remember, the current school probably has a notice period of an entire term's fees, so don't delay too much if this has to be the outcome.

Try asking your library to get hold of this directory or a similar one. Even if you have to pay an inter-library loan fee, that's much cheaper than buying your own copy.

But IIRC, educational grants for private school fees are not commonly available, and when they are given it is in circumstances such as a death or life-limiting illness of the fee payer and even then only until the next natural school break point (and that tends to mean pupils already embarked on GCSE/AS/A level courses until the actual exams).

Private schools are businesses, and not charities as they are regarded by the government. We found their heads and trusts are very cold, for any issue brought to them. According to the GDST contractual terms and conditions, they would "required a pupil to be withdrawn if their parent has failed to meet the obligations to pay fees in respect of that pupil" and no grace period is given.

I am very sorry to hear that you are in this situation. I would recommend Plan A - to ask if the school would give you a grace period to delay payment, say for one term or more so you could find another job, and Plan B (concurrent with Plan B) apply for a good state school. There are many very good state schools out there, and some are even better than private schools as we have found.