Bursaries for independent schools

[clutteredup]

Does anyone know how little do you need to earn to be eligible? Our local independent school offers a bursary scheme for 'those who would otherwise not consider private school for financial reasons.'
DH earns a good salary, he's a civil servant which means he won't be getting a pay rise and will essentially be getting a pay cut due to increased pension contributions - I'm not moaning we're very lucky thta his job is currently safe, but we couldn't ever contemplate affording private school fees. We don't go on holiday abroad, caravan in Cornwall at easter and visit family in Summer. So its not like we have a luxurious lifestyle or have major areas we could cut back on to afford the fees. But on paper our salary looks good.
Is it worth applying for a bursary or do we have to accept that we are too comfortably off to be helped but not wealthy enough to afford the fees.
Am only considering this as an option as we have a secondary school which is on the borderline of going into special measures and looking for optional back up if we don't get a place at school 5 miles away out of catchment which is a decent school. DS is very bright and needs a school which apsires to more than just a couple of GCSE passes.
Don't want to start a private school debate just wondering if anyone knows about this at all.

There's no standard salary figure that can be used nationally as all independent schools will set their own limits. DS received one when I wasn't working and DH had a reasonable salary (for one of the less well paid professions). The bursary was a percentage of the fees. As soon as I returned to work the percentage awarded as a bursary decreased - which was completely fair.
If you don't ask you won't get, so ask the school whether you might be eligible.

Thanks Lilymaid. My concern is I don't want to take DS all the way down the road of getting him motivated to go to a school which I think will be good for him and then finding out that even with a bursary we can't afford to meet the fees. Also if we have to realy scrimp and save how fair will it be on his two sisters who won't be able to go as we will never be able to afford 3 at any level of fees.

This is from the GDST schools website. Most schools don't specify an actualy amount - you would have to take your chances as there may be a lot of applicants with lower incomes than yours. But this gives you a rough guide.

The GDST bursary scheme

Most bursaries will be awarded to students from families with a total income of less than £16,500 per year and with no capital assets other than their home. It is highly unlikely that a bursary would be awarded to a family whose gross income is more than £48,000, other than in exceptional circumstances.

It depends on each school who will set their own scale. Ask the school(s) that you are interested in as they will tell you. Some have it published on their websites. Most have a sliding scale and at one point may cover 100% fees and at the other end 10%. We receive bursary for dd and her school have put a figure of £55K if you have 1 dc and £60K if you have more than 1. To be honest I haven't seen anything more generous than that. That wasn't the reason why we picked the school though! I have seen other schools with figures of just over £20K, although how you can afford school fees with that level of income I don't know, but I guess some schools don't have the funds to make generous bursaries.
They will also look at assets as well so if you have a huge house with no mortgage but an income of say £25K per year they will probably expect you to liquidate some of your assets!

See here for the whitgift foundation details, which are amongst the most generous.

Just call the school(s) you are interested in and ask what the cut-off points for financial help are. All schools are different, and if you don't ask you won't know. The bursar's office will be quite used to dealing with that sort of enquiry. Then only if it looks like you might qualify, it's worth having a further look around. Though of course not everyone who qualifies financially gets a place, and it is quite rare to get 100% of fees covered.

As I understand it, it depends entirely on the school and is at the discretion of the governors - so basically they will have an amount of funding and will award that to the most deserving/eligible candidates until they run out. This is not as bleak as it sounds, as they (generally) get very few applications from families with very very low incomes.

Best option IMHO would be to talk to the school before getting DS involved.

Ds1 has just got a second 100% scholarship from an independent school (we are moving so he is having to leave his beloved school, sob). We were completely upfront with both schools about our (lack of) income, and one even let us fill in the bursary application form unofficially so they could look at it and give us an idea of what he might be awarded. They were very helpful and actively want to give money away to the most deserving cases. However, without wanting to sound boastful, DS is an extremely able child, and did very well in entrance exams, and qualified for scholarships as well, so that was rather an incentive for them to throw money at him. And to give you an idea, our combined income is below £25 grand and we have four children.

So, yes, talk to the school and be very frank about your finances and how wonderful your DC is!

LadyP (may I call you Harriet?) has the bottom fallen out of the gentleman detective market then ?

OP - bursaries are not (generally) very transparent or 100% based on income - how much the school wants the child (as LadyP says) makes a lot of difference, so make sure you big up your DS (within reasonable limits) when you talk to the school.

If you look good on paper - then it may be a 'no.' We are exactly the same and in a time of financial difficulty we applied and were turned down. You have to show incomings and outgoings of course.

But it is worth applying.....

always worth applying - but one friend got a shock last year when turned down (DD already at the school and doing very well, which friend assumed would help). She was told whilst they may get support based on income, they would first have to remortgage and use the equity in their home. The school is full of bright children so academics really didnt play a part. They werent prepared to release equity first, so have switched back to the state sector. It is very much school specific so i would def ask the bursar to give you a proper informed view asap before you get DS too engaged.

Stealth - unfortunately no longer any call for amateurs, even with manservants to do all the CSI stuff ... And private incomes not what they used to be. But do call me Harriet!

I have had friends turned down for bursarial help because they had no mortgage on their house. And others who have had to justify the sort of holidays they take.

Our school wants to see bank statements, payslips, everything, which would probably put most people off except those in genuine need, so I agree with that.

Of course you should re-mortgage your house before you are given a bursary,these are intended for people who really cant afford the fees,not for people who can but would rather someone else paid.If you arent willing to do this then clearly the school was right to turn them down.

Genuine question, not playing devils advocate or anything, but surely by encouraging a family without a mortgage but with a low or lowish income to remortgage, they're risking
a) the family defaulting on their mortgage and therefore
b) the family being unable to pay school fees
therefore the child (and other siblings) losing out on both education and home?

there is a school near us which wants to know what car/s you have, which holidays you take, and if there is a snifter of an improvement in your financial situation then the bursary is removed overnight.

As it should be,these are to help people that cant afford school fees,they arent about helping people with lifestyle choices..
With the mortgage question,it needs to be taken as part of the whole,clearly if you have equity in the house, that should be released,other parents will live in small houses but spend money on fees,why should someone have a debt free house but expect a bursary,bursarys have to be about assets as well as income.
It goes without saying that unless there is a medical reason(or similar) both parents would be expected to be working.

Thanks for all the advice, I guess I'll phone the school and find out. We have some equity in our house but I'm not sure how we'd get at it as we are already mortgaged up to our eyeballs, and we do have a few savings but they are small and earmarked to fix our falling down chimney. Currently selling the house to free up money isn't an option either as i'm not sure it's in a saleable condition, its falling down -hmm , money pit comes to mind.
DS is the brightest in his class but he goes to a small village school so I have no idea how he compares in the big wide world I'm sure there are loads of children out there just like him. Hopefully he'll get into the decent state school and this all won't be necessary.

Um, what about your two dds? Seems a bit wrong for only one of three to get chance tongo to private school.

clutteredup You are allowed to have some equity in your house. We have some due to boom since we bought 10 years ago and it was never even hinted at. I think the school will look at what is reasonable. I agree with Dozer, what about your dds, have they been taken into consideration? I am lucky I only had 1 dd to consider, any more and it would have had to be the local very poorly performing state school.

We were lucky and got 50% for the first 2 years however it has been reduced and we now get about 20% as I have increased my hours at work. We actually thought we would get nothing after I increased my hours, and that would have been ok, we would have struggled, but considered it worthwhile.

You can but ask...

As you may have gathered, the average independent school bursary application is possibly the most intrusive thing you will ever fill in in your life. Unsettling though this is, it does mean that they get a realistic view of what you can and can't afford (round here, it is to avoid the farmers/landowners/otherwise asset rich and income-tax definition poor (bitter, moi?) from getting bursaries ahead of the salaried-but-mortgaged-to-the-hilt)

At a good school local to me in London it is £40,000 pa household income.

I don't really understand your op. Has it only just become apparent to you that middle income earners cannot afford private school fees?

If your DH earns a good salary, I don't think you will be eligible. Not having foreign holidays is not an indicator of poverty, imvho.

The DDs are an issue clearly.I was hoping if we were eligible for a bursary for DS it would follow that the DDS would too, I know its a big ask, I know if we had just the one child private school with a bursary would be a possibility
bibbity I'm not saying we're poor, if we were I know we'd be eleigible, but we can't afford private fees either. Compared to normal people we're comfortable compared to people who have three children at private school and 3 foreign holidays a year we're positively in penury. I know it isn't real world comparisons though.
The issue I suppose is really the whole education system - another debate i know - but essentially if our local school wasn't crap we'd not be having this conversation, if we lived 5 miles away from here where the good school is we'd not be having this conversation....if we had a 6 figure income we'd not be having this conversation, if we were genuinely poor we'd not be having this conversation. As it is we are middle income earners with a crap local school and limited choices - we can't afford to move within catchment of the better school due to the increase in house prices. I know life isn't fair but it is a bit irritating.
Fingers crossed we can get a place at the good school and then we won't need to have this conversation- it's where I'd rather he went any way, all i want is for all of the DC to have a good chance with a good education.

Lots of people are in ths situation.

Some school web sites might have an on line calculator which you can use to work out how much you would be expected to contribute if a bursary or partial bursary is offered. Christ Hospital School have one on their web site so you could try using their calculator just to give you an idea.

I have total sympathy for you. So many of our state schools read like horror stories.