45% Bursary - how likely

[Justalittlequestionortwo]

Hello there, just trying to guage the probability of DS getting a 45% bursary for year 7 on a joint gross income of £105k outside of the south east? Is this achievable ? Looking at several schools that are mixed day/boarding. DS is county level in 2 sports and academic. Has anyone achieved this / are willing to say if they have secured this in the last year?

Do you mean bursary or scholarship?

Is 45% the advertised rate?

Scholarships have been reduced to 20% at DC school. Bursaries are on a case-by-case basis but 105k would be a stretch

@OnlyMabelInTheBuilding Looking at a mixture of scholarship and bursary - from looking at the websites all of the schools have limited scholarships to a max of between 10 - 20% and then bursary which I know would be based on need. Day fees are circa 42k incl. VAT a year - we can afford £20 - £23k a year with sacrifices. Only have one DS.

I’d talk to the individual bursars. Some schools do 105% bursaries (as in, they give you cash to cover uniform etc). Some, especially now, have cut right back for new pupils.

Their income thresholds also vary (I know some of the pricey London schools would be fine with your income).

And finally, they vary on how much they care about your DC excelling vs an ethos of ‘if you’re good enough to get in, we won’t exclude on the ground of fees’.

Bursaries at DC’s school are now pretty much centred on current students whose parents are struggling with fee/VAT increases, eg kids in the middle of GCSE’s etc. Speak to the bursar, but in the current climate, this will be challenging. There will be constant fee increases to come, too.

How do you propose to cover the price increase for the subsequent years? The bursary percentage won't increase year on year so you'd need to find the difference. Sometimes up to 10%.

@Acc0untant one of us are guaranteed pay rise pay rises of 7.5% written into our contract so this would cover year on year fee increases. Thus the reason for asking asking of likelihood of 45% scholarship/bursary mix. I have gone a 5 year spreadsheet and am fairly confident that we can afford 55% of fees with sacrifices. It wouldn’t be the end of the world as we live in an area for an outstanding state secondary however it doesn’t have the sport offer.

A lot of sports scholarships are nominal and carry little financial value beyond access to specialist training or fitness sessions. The obligation to play school team fixtures can be onerous and mean little opportunity to train and develop out of school especially if boarding. A bursary on that salary is unlikely but will vary from one to another.

Seems pretty unlikely on your salary. You would be much better off sending him to the outstanding state school nearby and paying for his extracurricular sports.

@LIZS thanks for your comment. That is interesting re. Playing team school fixtures but I’d assume that County fixtures would pip school fixtures? Would this not be the case?

Assuming that's a gross 7.5% pay rise, once you've accounted for deductions it may not be enough to pay annual increases.

I would also be wary of the additional costs. Things like trips, uniform, school dinners, books, music lessons etc. These can run into the thousands each year and it's very much expected that these aren't optional, even they aren't explicitly said to be compulsory.

I think a 45% bursary in this climate is unlikely, sorry. A lot of schools are using their available bursaries for current students and have drastically reduced what they offer to new students.

Oh no not at all. School (private at least) takes priority every time! (Well at least in our school and many of the other local ones I know). They are very clear on the expectation of all pupils to put school first. Sports scholars even more so.

Especially if in receipt of a sports scholarship you are expected to put school team first.

They tend to enjoy the kudos of a county/elite player but expect it to happen alongside school team performance not instead of.

No chance. It’s frowned upon to miss any school fixtures, but if you have a sports scholarship, it’s a condition you are present for all. Parents at DC’s school will turn down the opportunity for 20% off to not be mandated into trekking all over the county on a Saturday at 9am.

Thanks for this as this puts a different perspective on our view. We wouldn’t want our DS county commitments to play second fiddle to school fixtures as he loves representing his county.

I know people with generous bursaries but they earn a lot less. I think 45% on 105k is unusual, more like 10-20% & many schools cut off at 80k ish anyway

42k for day fees?? Why look for a bursary for a school with those fees? There are good private schools with fees around £23k a year.

@MigAndMog it is the sports offer at the schools we are looking at. The day schools in our area sports offer is no better than our catchment state school and gets similar academic results so no real benefit in our view to our DS.

We received a 30% reduction on a significantly higher household income- twin DS, very strong academically but not candidates for sports or music scholarships. 10% Academic Scholarships, plus 20% means-teated bursaries. Then along came the VAT issue and our bursaries were reduced by half. Our income at that time was c£185k so I can only assume they took the twin element into account- they wanted both and we couldn't have managed two sets of £60k fees.

Schools aren't always completely clear about who they will or won't support. But it's fair to assume if they offer a supported place it's to buy in talent to boost their performance whether academic, musical or sporting. So of course these pupils are expected to perform for their school. Nowhere is this more true than for sports scholarships. The school isn't going to subsidise places for the benefit of local clubs or county teams- they do it for the wins. External commitments have to fit around school matches, and they in turn will provide coaching, strength & conditioning training etc.

If they want your DS enough, they will help you make it happen, but 45% reduction would require the school to make a choice between bringing in your single DC and enrolling four or five others as Scholars. It's possible but I'm afraid it isn't likely in these straitened times.

@Reswallie80 thank you got your honest view and again this gives me another perspective. In terms of the sports I thought that a school would want them to play for their County as they looks good for the school? My DS is county level cricket and tennis. I accept that they wouldn’t be able to play for their County local cricket club / tennis club but naively it seems that they would want them ti play County.

But if all the school’s best players aren’t able to play in school matches, they won’t finish top of the school leagues, which is part of the point of sport’s scholarships.

School first - always

You should ask the school what their stance would be, @Justalittlequestionortwo . Somewhere like Millfield is less concerned about school teams because they are so dominant they can hardly run their As and 1st teams against other school sides. Our experience is of a more mainstream boys' boarding school. Different schools may take different approaches, but it will always boil down to a business decision- is it in their interests to take a certain child at a lower fee and what are the opportunity costs of doing so, ie what other opportunities will they be willing to forego to secure an individual pupil.
Your son sounds a great candidate by the way, so good luck with whatever you decide.

Noted re. sport scholars expectations and school first.

@Justalittlequestionortwo if there’s a fixture clash between county and school, school would usually expect you to play for them. If, however, the county fixture is during a normal
school sport training session, they may agree to a pupil attending a county fixture. With cricket, I think most county fixtures are on a Sunday, so normally don’t clash (there are a few exceptions).