Bursary Decision

[Lizziedripping123]

We applied for a bursary for a v academic school for our son. Went through the usual bursary process by external company (BAA) and son went through rigorous testing/interview process. He was offered a place by email and the next day a letter arrived to say no bursary awarded as we fell outside financial parameters. We were surprised as we don't think we do (previously awarded a big bursary at school up the road for different child), so we asked the school for further information, including a copy of the BAA report. Received reply to say we fell outside financial parameters but no report attached. Replied again to ask for report, received reply to say we fell outside financial parameters and that all candidates across the board at sixth form are very able. No report attached. We replied again to ask for report on our finances but received an out of office reply, on holiday until 6/1/25. This is the deadline for accepting a place (which obviously we can't accept as we can't even afford the deposit).

We don't deserve a bursary and understand the school has a limited pot but the fobbing is off with something that we are pretty sure is untrue is frustrating, the lack of clarity and transparency even more so. We are a family on universal credit and receive 100% bursary from government for music and dance school scheme for another child. Does anyone know how bursaries are actually allocated/awarded as there must be some sort of fair process otherwise could easily discriminate. And are these decisions meant to be transparent?

If the bursary fund is a separate charity you may find more details on the CC website. However there is often room for discretion in the decision making, a potential first xi rugby star may trump an academic or artist.

Yes, there's a whole list of criteria and we didn't fall outside the parameters. Our interview with BAA was very positive.

Yes, we'll go state. Older siblings all in private so it's just a different path but I think it'll suit us well and there are some big advantages of state. Thanks!

It seems quite early for places to be allocated. Is this 6th form @Lizziedripping123 ? Which area are you in?

Yes, sixth form. Private School places are allocated Dec, state schools Easter.

We’re private too but places not until March. I guess the age/ year group is different. We’re at the Y7 stage.

Pretty sure they have to send it to us if we request it.

Not necessarily. Their terms with the outside agency may preclude this. Have you looked at any paperwork you got when you provided them with the financial data and signed it as a true set of numbers etc? That might say what you are entitled to re information.

In any event, all they would tell you is stuff to do with you and you know your own personal data. The agency would have fed it into their model which weights income as X, capital as Y, expenditure as Z, requirement for an over 50% bursary as B etc etc, Then there would probably be an “at the school but now financially strained ” V factor. If all of this gave you a score of 78 or whatever, that score isn’t your personal information. It’s their algorithm.

If the school has asked the agency to weight the V factor even more this year, given the VAT, then you may well come under the threshold cut off of 85 (or whatever) in the way they have described, even if they have expressed it slightly clumsily.

I agree with you about the other school who required the £250 before they would even talk to you, though! That’s shonky.

Why? It takes time and admin to lo process your application that needs to be paid for. They are a business they can set their own terms especially when you are trying to access their services for free!

I find the ops whole stance quite odd. It’s like she is aggrieved at the actions of a business she is trying to get free services from. You pay you receive this service if you don’t pay you don’t surely that’s how it works? The fact they may occasionally give a discretionary bursary is neither here nor there. A family member is about to pay £60k for her child’s sixth form. You are asking them for £60k.

Thanks, this is really helpful as I didn't realise it might work like this.

If they do offer 100% bursaries there are probably no more than one or two students getting support at this level.
At the school I am familar with about half the students have some form of financial support but it's only a couple at 100%, half a dozen at 80%, rather more at 60% and the majority at 40% or 20%. If someone's finances were such that it would be impossible for them to attend with less than a 100% bursary they wouldn't be offered a 60% they would just be turned down, and there are plenty of applicants in this category. The available 100% support places are awarded to the best candidate and the remainder do not get anything - otherwise there would be a silly mess every year of children who need 100% support being offered places with 80% or 60%, and other applicants being told they have no support, and then the awarded applicants turn their places down and the other applicants who would be next in line get messed about with a late offer of support.

I think it also depends where in the country you are. Local to us all year 7 places were offered in December. It was nice to have it out of the way before Christmas!

OP it is possibly too late for year 7 entry in September, but Christ’s Hospital offer the level of bursaries you are looking for if you’d consider boarding.

Do you both work full time and live in a modest house for the size of your family? When DC was at school, the two families I know who received a bursary were better off than many of their classmates - one had a mortgage free house in the region of 2-3 million and the other overpaid the maximum into their pension, meanwhile another family with both parents working full time had a child sharing a bedroom with his granny, but the family were too self sufficient / proud to ask for help.

They may be charities in name because they aren't profit making businesses but that doesn't mean they have to be fair about bursaries alas, they allocate funds often to existing students/siblings or offer amounts far too low to be of use to genuinely low or middle income families.

My dc was offered a 50% scholarship (max academic) but on an income of £52k we were deemed too well off for a top up bursary yet we couldn't afford the fees. What annoyed her teachers was that boys got 100% scholarships from her school, but that pot of money at the school was reserved for boys!

@mitogoshigg
Each school can of course choose which students to offer bursaries to, however they think best. I can't think of any charities where decisions on how to operate and fulfil their aims are dictated externally, can you?

I would expect a calculation which takes into account both how much it will benefit the student and also the wider benefit to the school community.

Incidentally, wrt funds going to existing students: I'm sure it varies from school to school, but I absolutely think that schools should give significant weight to the benefit to an existing student of being able to continue their education at the school - either in the event of their family income unexpectedly falling or due to the new 20% tax which has Labour have suddenly imposed. I'd expect that to give an existing student a significant edge in the 'how much the bursary benefits them' calculation over a new applicant, all else being equal.

Many schools have bursary policies which state how they make awards eg those who would benefit more from the education are awarded first, or those who gain scholarships or awards are awarded first. I think this is helpful to parents applying.

The school we applied to state that they will not let finances be a barrier to any child they offer a place. I think this is something they can't fulfill and it would be wise for them to put 'as far as possible' or 'as far as our bursary fund allows' in there.

Yes, I agree re internal students. Many schools have entry bursaries and hardship bursaries, which are different pots of money. Again, it would be helpful for the priority of existing pupils to be stated in the bursary policy, I'm sure some do!

What transparency so you want though? You seem to be wanting details of how it's all worked out and where you rank on the overall scheme - exam results, test results, how you work out who is gifted at sport, music, drama, science etc. and then parental income. By the time you've stripped that down for gdpr purposes, it'll be
prwtty useless information.

I also think the schools need flexibility - student a may have grade 8 music, a grade 9 at GCSE and a desire to study music at University but student b may have 20 times the raw potential the school wants to work with. How does it choose if parental income is the same?

The school we applied to state that they will not let finances be a barrier to any child they offer a place

This does seem a strange thing to say. Very few schools or unis can afford to be entirely needs blind to the extent they would be fine if no students paid. Maybe Harvard and Eton.

I think schools can be cautious about transparency in admissions, @Lizziedripping123 They want to avoid damaging arguments.

And I'm not convinced they do owe you transparency. You asked them for a very substantial hand-out, they assessed, they said no.

It's misleading if they had previously said unequivocally that they don't let finances be a barrier for any child they offer a place to. You did the right thing to query it, and you could certainly feed that back to them and ask them to be clearer for future families applying.

It's not a realistic promise though: even Eton - by far the wealthiest UK school, and which has been actively trying to become fully needs blind for decades - say that don't have enough funds to cover all bursary applications.

The other school who insisted you register your DS before telling you that there were no full bursaries - despite you telling them beforehand that you needed a full bursary - certainly behaved inexplicably badly. I think that's unusual, and sounds like poor communication within the school. I'm glad you managed to get a refund.

Good luck to your DS in finding a good sixth form, and also in his studies.

They have said that no bursary is available. That's enough.

The thoroughly nasty, class-warrior attacks on private schools and private school children have absolutely nothing to do with exactly how private schools hand out the hundreds of millions of pounds worth of bursaries they give away each year (£464m each year from ISC schools alone).

We see time and again that when there's a hated group, it is completely irrelevant what they actually do: it will be twisted into a justification for the hatred and abuse anyway. Fuck off with your ridiculous victim-blaming.

No school in UK has a full "needs blind" admissions/bursary policy, as it is so expensive, though some have made great progress towards one.

Those that attempt it typically have a final ranked list of successful candidates, and then they go down it offering bursaries to those who have applied for one, until the money runs out (which obviously it will do earlier for 2025 joiners than in previous years because they have to find the VAT too). Others might look at the list of bursary candidates and go for the greatest need (ie poorest families) first.

They may offer a place anyhow (thinking that the DC might like to know that they reached the quality line; or that a grandparent might step in or whatever).

I agree with PP, that you didn't meet their financial parameters because the money ran out.

A number of parents at our local private school who have previously paid extra to support bursaries have already announced they won't be doing this anymore due to the VAT so the lack of money in bursary pots is only going to get worse.

The school we applied to state that they will not let finances be a barrier to any child they offer a place

But if they haven’t offered / don’t offer a place then this statement is accurate. They don’t need to further caveat along the lines of ‘budgets permitting’. They didn’t offer a place, correct @Lizziedripping123 ?

I appreciate it’s frustrating, but this isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ process. Annoying as it is.

Unrelated and an extreme example, but I overheard at one private school open day, from the head to a couple of parents “Yes, we do have a bursary scheme but to apply we’d expect you to at least have sold your second property…”. 🙄😬😱🤔

It’s a long time since I was at school, but the bursar was open with my parents that bursaries were awarded to those whose families had the best accountants 🙄.

Yes, we were offered a place. My son went through the rigorous exam/interview process and received a lovely letter saying how well he did, how they think he'd thrive there and they were looking forward to having him. The next day we received a letter to say that unfortunately our bursary application was not successful because we fell outside the parameters of their financial policy for bursaries.

I do not think we deserve a bursary and I do not think the school need to give every detail of how they decide bursaries, but I do feel we have been given a reason that is not true. The school share their criteria and we fit them. We had an interview with the external assessor who was very positive about our application and raised no concerns. It would have been fine for the school to say 'although you fit our criteria, I'm afraid we are not able to award a bursary this year due to our bursary allocation system', or something along those lines.

FWIW I agree completely with you - in your shoes I could accept being told - while disappointing- that the bursary funds are obviously limited and that it’s not possible to grant a bursary to every family who meets the eligibility criteria.

Or even being told “It is our policy not to comment on the reasons why any bursary application may be turned down”.

But to keep parroting the line that you don’t fit their criteria, when according to their published criteria you absolutely do is very poor. While it’s probably not the case, it would always leave me wondering if the school had made a mistake in assessing eligibility.

I don’t really understand why so many posters think you should just suck it up - there probably isn’t anything you can do but having entertained your application and engaged in the process with you they do owe you more than repeating an untrue statement.

Sorry it’s been such a disappointing and frustrating process, I know how much gets emotionally invested in these things.