Downsides to scholarships

[mumzy]

Ds is sporty and dd is musical both are also academically sound. Their current school has mentioned they may be able to get scholarships to independent schools. I know scholarships can carry a 10-50% fees discount, but has anyone experienced the downsides of having a scholarship. Will they be expected to be available for the majority of practice sessions and events. Do the children ever lose their scholarship if they slip academically, musically or turn out not to be as good at sports and how do the miss out on re: other extracurricular activities?

Oh and re expectations - in talking to kids who have shown us around schools, there are expectations placed on scholars of all types, but none of them seemed to think they were particularly onerous or unreasonable - music scholars turning up for chapel, academic scholara keeping up effort grades, and the like.

I suspect expectations vary from school to school. Someone above talked about Milfield and sports scholarships I suspect they expect more from their sports scholars than an average run of the mill private school. I'm sure the very selective schools expect more from their scholars and also bursaries are often "satisfactory performance" related.

chaz thank you for finding me a house.
I would move to a house like that tomorrow, but if I do the numbers with that rent and pay for private school I still don't make it to the end of the month. The other problem is that kind of price can be found miles away from the schools we are thinking of applying to and if getting a bursary means DS has to travel an hour and a half to school, then I will send him to the local comp. Just not worth it.

middleclass, your situation may be due to the school being boarding and therefore more expensive? In London, a day school would not give a bursary to a family with a combined income of 82000 a year -- or so I have been told. For example the Whitgift foundation has a very clear scale. Again, I do hope I am getting something wrong here.

Yes are bursary is so large because we pay for boarding can you not consider this? Boarding schools who offer actual genuine bursaries to all (although few and far between) are in my now extensive experience are significantly more generous.

If you do go for a bursary as opposed to a scholarship, do ensure you're incredibly organised and don't mind filling in tons of forms. I have a friend with two kids on bursaries who said, although absolutely worth it, the paperwork every year (yes, every year) is a nightmare. Another Mum I know told me with her schools bursary, if you don't get even a single piece of paper in on time, they ask you to come in with a credit card to pay for that term's fee or your child is suspended.

Don't know of any schools that offer 100% scholarships, 50% is the highest I've heard of and incredibly difficult to get. Having said that there are honorary scholarships. A friend of a friend had a son who got all his fees paid (despite not scoring that high in the exams) thro' getting an honorary scholarship for fencing.

You can however more often, get 100% bursaries. They, like schloarships, are extremely sought after and your child would have to score really within the top few to get one especially for sport. South of the river the most generous, in terms of the number given out, is the Whitgift Foundation, who have a rather large fund:)

Apologies for the slight thread hijack (though I think this may be of interest to more than just me):

How do bursaries work where you have, say, 2 children being privately educated?

For example, when DC1 is 11, you work out you can - with lots of "lifestyle" sacrifices - afford to send that DC to private school. You hope that by the time DC2 gets to that age your income will have risen. But what happens if your circumstances have changed for the worse and you can only afford to pay for 100% of fees for one DC, or say 65% of the fees if both DCs go private? Is this a factor that would be taken into account by either or both schools for the purposes of a bursary award? Does it make a difference if the schools in question are brother/sister schools in the same town (i.e. the boys' and girls' private schools at which many familes will have a child at each school)?

Peppin - school fees (current and anticipated) are one of the things you declare on the forms - so they get taken into account.

Thanks Stealthsquiggle

Not always, Stealthsquiggle. The bursar at Oundle has that fees for DC at schools other than Oundle will not be taken into account. That obviously includes younger one/s still at prep. So, worth asking specifically about this

Interesting, didofido - I have only encountered what I was told was a fairly standard form, which did include it (mind you, what they ask you to detail and what they actually take into account may, of course, be entirely different things....).

You don't have to be an accountant to work out that you would need to take other school fees for other children into consideration. But didofido I'm not surprised about what you say, friends at Christ's Hospital were told the same thing. The problem is that both these and others are fairly selective and unless the school has a sibling policy guaranteeing a sibling a place come what may regardless then its obviously ridiculous. The cause of all of this is obvious many schools have been forced told to go down the road of offering bursaries by the charities commission and ultimately just don't have the money to fund 100's of places with 50% bursaries particularly in the boarding sector where your talking about a reduction of £17 000 so put up lots of barriers to not doing it. Obviously this policy cant apply to single sex schools but I'm sure they create other barriers instead.

Oundle do have a 'sibling given preference' policy, tho' not, of course, a guarantee. Which doesn't help if DC2 is several years younger than DC1 and still at prep

All three of our DC got either scholarships or bursaries. Mixing socially was never a problem. Boys at DS1s school were jealous boatyboys dad was a security guard in a factory . When the DSs went to a indie senior together some boys thought they were related to a local businessman same surname and wanted to know what coloured Rolls Royce we had!! We had a 15yr old Escort that leaked in the rain! We didn't hide our background and generally other parents were happy that bursaries were going on pupils whose parents wanted their children to do well regardless of income.
There was far more snobbery and 'class' distinction in the state schools they went to.