Charity/grant funding for private education

[purplefruit]

Hi,
I'm a single mum with a low income. My daughter has gained a place at a great private school and has been offered a combination of academic scholarship and bursary that will cover 60% of the fees. Sadly I don't think I can commit to the place as I can't find the rest of the money to bridge the gap. Does anyone know of a charity or fund that I could ask to help bridge that gap?

Hi Purplefruit - Congratulations to you and your daughter, you must be so proud of her.

I think the first thing you should do is call the bursar at the school and see whether they have any advice for you, there must have been other parents in your position before.Presumably, you had to give full details of your income and expenditure when you applied for the bursary.Is it possible, that they've made a mistake on the amount of bursary they've awarded you? There's no point in offering you a bursary if it's at such a low level that your daughter still can't attend the school.

There's a link to a website that has some info on funding here.

I hope you manage to work this out.Good Luck.

Try searching this site.

IIRC, most of those who offer school fees only have do so for children who are already in a school, in cases such as bereavement, to allow them to continue without further disruption to the next natural educational breakpoint.

OP
Speak to your current PTA
they will have a subscription through the PTA to the "trustfunding " website
there is shed loads of money for the right people in the right places.

I used it to get a dear friend top of the range electric wheelchairs for her DH and DD
and then the house adjustments to make it all work.

There are local parochial charities with a spare £15k for the next 8 years.
Deserve, enjoy.

Have a read here www.isc.co.uk/ParentZone_GrantGivingTrusts.htm
However from experience, extra grants are usually only available for children already at the school, special needs and for certain occupations. I do think that it may be worthwhile going back to the school and asking for more help or thay might be able to make a suggestion.

Thank you all so much for your suggestions. Yes I'm very proud of my DD. It is frustrating to be so near but not quite enough. I will ask the school if they have any ideas although I'm a little embarrassed to ask for more help/guidance after they have been so generous already.
TalkinPeace: she is currently in a state school. Would a state school PTA have access to the trustfunding website? Also how would I find local parochial charities?

Please don't be embarrassed to ask the school for help.The school has to give bursaries to be eligible for charitable status, which of course means they pay far less tax than if they were classed as a business.

They are not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts!

They obviously want your daughter as a student so they will want to help you make that happen.

ALL PTAs have access to trustfunding.
Parochial Charities - talk to your local Parish Council - they will know who to contact.

All the above suggestions, plus have a look at turn2us, you should find other help there too.

And congratulations to your daughter.

Purplefruit well done to dd for achieving a scholarship. As the school has already assessed your income for the bursary part of the award, you have nothing to lose by asking for more. I am hoping that the support that you have received from fellow posters will embolden you to do so.

Thank you everyone for your kind contributions....on the trail of extra funding from charities and trusts at the moment...

Purplefruit - if you are successful in finding extra funding and your school bursary award is reviewed every year, that extra funding may be taken into account when next years award is given. It wont affect this years award (ie for the next academic year) but it may affect future years IYSWIM, because it will need to be declared on next years forms. Please check with the school about this. If your bursary award is not reviewed every year then dont worry this wont affect you but in most schools the bursary part is means tested and reviewed every year. I know it affected someone at dds school.

Hi
We have 2 children that have been happy at their school for a total of 20 years.Our eldest is in year 11 and youngest in year 9.They both passed the hard entrance exam against a lot of competition.Over the last 2 years we have found it difficult to pay their fees out of a reduced income from our small family business.It is pay up or get out timenow at half term.The children don't deserve to lose out from no fault of their own.Is there any short term help out there please.
Mum and Dad

The Directory of Social Change publish a list of charitable help with school fees - for a fee. Most school bursars will have access to it and should show it to you.

As I understand it it's pretty sparse. Help is limited to very specific circs and often only to those in certain professions such as the church or military. Worth asking the question, though - you never know.

Juliemary -talk to the school, if that situation occurred in our school the children would be allowed to finish their education and the parents could pay over say 5 years even after the children had left.
It's not widely published otherwise everyone would be doing it but we have found the school very accommodating.