Low income and zero bursary award

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Got offers for senior schools but have received zero bursary awards despite being on very low income, living in housing association home and not being able to accept a place without a bursary. I know VAT has a big impact but to be awarded zero help just seems very strange as I would have thought there would be some consideration at least...

Any advice as my child is really distraught at working so hard and passing the assessments but the zero bursary awards look like we will need to reject these places...

In percentage terms…what would you have needed in order to send?

@Mareleine no I didn't. I went to that school because I needed a bursary to afford the other which I didn't qualify for. I knew what was required and the consequences. Fortunately my parents could just about afford the lower fees for me to start otherwise I would have gone to the newly merged comprehensive. My point is you have to work within your financial limits and that may restrict options.

Do you think private schools would give everyone bursaries if Labour was not in power?

Of course not, but VAT has massively reduced the amount most schools are now offering

I think the independent sector would not be in the precarious position it is currently in. There probably would have been more money to go around for bursaries.

If Labour hadn't smashed the assisted places scheme in the 90s, many children like the OPs would have been eligible for places in independent schools, if they met the admissions criteria.

Bursary funds are usually ringfenced, invested and managed separately so not directly affected by increased school costs, although as a % discount the £ may not go as far or benefit as many pupils.

@Mareleine ahhh yes I forgot that nugget they really are the most awful chippy people phillipson reeves Rayner Starmer I’m looking at you
@ImmortalSnowman no I don’t but my son did get 50% off prep and public he’s very average so you never know unless you try - did you try for your kids ?

Oh dear oh dear.
1- they aren't losing charitable status
2- this policy is on target to raise £0 and actually cost the taxpayer money. It will hit that target much earlier than predicted due to the sheer number leaving Indy schools + number of indy schools announcing closures since 1st Jan + number of exemptions which weren't initially taken into the calculations

A reduction in the number or amount and the criteria to get a bursary was bound to change. I expect only the exceptional will get any money off. My experience of bursaries is that they tend to go to children who they think will 'fit', I'm not agreeing with that it's just my observation.

Private school fees are now off the scale, many will be struggling to continue paying and I expect schools are being mindful of this and maybe reducing bursaries accordingly. Rightly so IMO.

You can never assume you’ll get a free or reduced place - they can’t offer everyone one and they never did, even in easier times.

Do you know anything about the private system or are you getting your information from the media?

Private schools reinvest any surplus in education. That's what charities are about. I wouldn't call Oxfam a great Charity myself when you look at where most of the money goes, but it is a Charity.

The political attack on private schools and public animosity towards them will have an impact. Why should they bother, everyone seems very ungrateful. The large private school near me has cancelled the subsidised summer camp it ran for local kids and the free use of its sports facilities by the local junior football. It has close ties with the local primary and is still allowing free use of its pool but I wonder how long that will last. I am not privy to its accounts but I suspect it is in trouble. I also suspect the Head is feeling very Fk U to the world right now. I have no connections to the school but I'm feeling it on their behalf!

If you believe that you're mistaken. Lots of independent schools are actually making money from the VAT, an incredible amount of capital expenditure is being claimed back now.

Of course. The point is they are giving fewer and smaller bursaries now and in future.

For the time being yes. And that will help soften the blow of far fewer pupils.

Really candidly there is passing and there is passing

She prob scored a pass but not a high pass...
They are going to preferentially offer to highest scorers.

Just out of curiosity - who did you vote for OP?

They are not all charities and the amount that will be raised by the next VAT imposition is debatable

It is irrelevant who is in government , no private school has a bottomless pit of bursary awards to hand out .

Most of the schools I know "rank" pupils mainly on their entrance exam results but might add a bit extra for extra curriculas eg music or sport. Then they go down the list offering funds until the bursary pool is exhausted. If a bursary offer is declined then they may offer it to the next person down the list. So your DS might be eg the 20th highest performer in the entrance exam but if there are only 4 bursary places and they went to number 2, number 7 and numbers 11 and 12 then despite having done very well indeed it wouldn't be quite enough to make the cut. Harsh but fair.

I don't really understand your hand wringing. Surely (1) you realised when you applied that it would be very very competitive to get a bursary and (2) you have a very good alternative - a state school.

I’m waiting with bated breath for the hordes of new teachers marching on to state schools on the back of the vat.

i think I’ll be waiting a looonnnggg time.

my god, labour coukd have done things so differently to REALLY make a difference to state schools (using privates). Enforced weekly amount of dedicated hours (and transport) for tuition for example , having to open their facilities for an enforced amount of of time each week. Private heads having to buddy up with state hheads or having to be a Governor, these things would have an actual tangible effect on local states.

As far as I understand it, outside of the big name public schools, nobody is granting full burseries to new pupils any more as existing parents (from whom the burseries come from) have stopped or reduced or put strings on donations to benefit existing pupils.

Well they have been very quiet about that recently if you notice. That's because they can't recruit enough to hit normal target ser by Tories, let alone find 6500 extra! Teachers up in arms about Education Bill and new Ofsted score card.
It was all a big con, and sadly one that many voters Inc those on MN fell for!

Unfortunately there are far more well qualified children who would benefit than there is money to support them. It is a little naive to assume.just because you are on a low income.you would get something, however good your son is. In terms of how schools split the money they have available for bursaries, l imagine that lots of little awards.might not actually be very helpful...that is.more what scholarships are. Better to give a decent sum to one candidate that actually means they can take up a place. I realise this is disappointing for.you, but there is no right to bursary however qualified your child may be.

That's a disappointment but if you had got a small bursary how would you have made up the rest on a low income?

I have friends who really stretched themselves to afford school and the stress is ridiculous and appears so to take a huge toll on the family.