Bursary for Specialist Secondary...any success stories?

[TheresSomebodyAtTheDoor]

I'm desperate to send my dd (currently yr4) to a specialist dyslexic school which is about an hour away from our home. We have 2 younger children also and they are very settled in their primary school, very happy.

We're almost certain neither of the younger 2 will need the type of support that our eldest needs, and they would thrive in the local comprehensive. However, our eldest is going through a really very tough time, full of anxiety, self loathing, low self esteem and although we have tried many, many things to support her, I can only see the situation getting worse. She goes to a very nuturing, academically supportive primary at the moment, and I think she will fall apart entirely if she goes to the local comp.

She's currently in the CAMHS system, awaiting a Neurodevelopmental assesment, and after that we may request an ECHP. It is likely that her cognitive profile is what causes her to be so very frustrated (bright with very poor processing and working memory).

We could not afford the school fees of £15k at the moment, and I'm wondering if anyone has any advice regarding Bursaries and whether we may be succesful or not (partial bursary).
DH earns £50kpa, and I earn £15kpa (1-2 days a week). We live in a house worth £280k with a £260k mortgage and have a holiday let that brings in £500pm. It's worth £160k. We have £15k of other debt from a couple of terrible car purchases and necessary home improvements, plus £6k of overdrafts.

I could work more days a week, but I won't as dd is so very unstable (self harming), so I don't really see that as an option, but think this might not be acceptable for a bursary application??

If we sold the holiday let, we'd reduce our mortgage but also reduce our income, which nets off.

We drive a car worth £350, and go camping for holidays.

My in laws are fairly wealthy and I read online that sometimes that is considered, which I hope isn't the case.

Any advice re. applying for specialist private schools, or applying for bursaries would be much appreciated!!

Thanks!

What's the income threshold of the bursary you wish to apply for? If it's lower than your TOTAL income before expenditure, you will be wasting your time applying.

I don't know Snowsky, the information isn't online. I've not heard of an income threshold before

I'll give them a call, but it's likely to be less than what DH earns, isn't it? :(

Most likely you'd be expected to sell the holiday let, and use the money from the sale to pay school fees. It seems to me that would be very affordable for you. Bursaries are not generally offered to people with assets of £160K!

Burserys are means tested. So they will look at your total income and then decide if and what amount they would award you.

Plus they won't look at 'if you sell the holiday let it pays off your mortgage' argument, or your have 6k over drafts and drive a £350 car. That's not relevant. It's what your income is (and assets).

Oh and at our child's school the guideline income threshold is £55k for one child, but varies with circumstances - so quite possibly your earnings would be too much to qualify anyway.

Quite honestly, though, with an income of £65k plus assets of £160k you can easily afford to pay the school fees without help, if it's that important to you. £15k pa for 7 years (Y5-Y11) is £105k, so even adding in extra to cover annual fee rises, the sale of the £160k holiday let would cover it.

Our fees are paid on a sliding scale of earnings.
Nothing else is taken into consideration, they certainly don't look at assets or holidays, size of house or car.
They are all different though and you should check with the individual school.
So in our case they wouldn't be interested in your debts or your holiday let, but would take into consideration the money you earned from it.

Hmmm it's not as black and white as it sounds (our home and the holiday let are the same building) although it's good to see this as it shows what they're likely to think, Thankyou.

Essentially, the £160k is our equity. I wonder if there's an equity threshold too. Or generally do you need to be renting to be eligible?

Request an assessment for an EHC plan. If you can possibly afford it, seek an assessment by an independent educational psychologist; but if you can't; there should be, as a minimum, an assessment by an educational psychologist, which should identify dyslexia, memory and processing problems, if there are any, as you suspect. I would also request an assessment by a speech and language therapist to see if the dyslexia is part of a wider language problem (auditory memory and processing problems should also be assessed as part of their work). Arrange an assessment in the school of your choice while this is going on. Assuming the specialist school agrees it can meet DD's needs, request for it to be named in the final EHC plan. Then the LA would have to pay the fees. The LA''s knee jerk reaction would probably be "No!", but if DD is self harming now, then her emotional problems are only likely to get worse the higher up the education system she goes. The SEN Tribunal do take children's social and emotional problems into account!

Seek advice from SOS!SEN or IPSEA for more details on this process and recommendations on independent educational psychologists.

Go over to the special needs section of Mumsnet, where there are plenty of discussions on this kind of thing.

Thanks everyone, sounds doubtful that we'd be succesful. I have had conversations with dh about selling up and moving somewhere much cheaper (we live on the cheapest road of the cheapest town) in our area at the moment, so it would have to be a drastic move in order to be able to get a 3 bed house for the same cost to us at the moment, plus uprooting our 2 happy children. I don't think we can go for that option, but you are quite right that if our sole purpose as a family was to send dd to that school, then we could make it happen.

Thanks for taking the time to reply!

should have clarified, a LA educational psychologist would have to do an assessment for the EHC plan! (Their reports do not tend to be as detailed or specific in terms of provisions and type of school placement needed, but they can be better than nothing!)

Thankyou Checklist!

I am doing exactly what you are suggesting at the moment. It just all takes so long. The majority of the problem is that she acts 'ok' at school, so school won't bring in an Ed Psych. We funded the first part of the assesments (which now needs updating). I'm logging on daily to the IPSEA website to try and find a slot for them to call me, and Young Minds have been fab. She currently has Play therapy which costs £40 for 45mins each week (ouch!!).

I'm just so desperate for her, and so worried for her future.
She's be so happy at the school with the farm, a forrest and teachers who understand non NT children. But then so do lots of others, and I know we don't 'deserve; it any more than anyone else.

Loads of typos, sorry! Dyslexic mum and daughter!

DS goes to a specialist school for specific learning difficulties and his fees are paid by our council as it's named on his EHCP. It's quite a lot more expensive than your specialist secondary as it's so far away, so DS has to weekly board. I wouldn't have been able to ever consider paying for the fees myself as I'm a single mum on a low income. I ended up having to appeal our EHCP placement and pay for our own EP, as the local authority report was so poor. I don't think they offer bursaries, most pupils there are funded by EHCPs although a few are self funding I think.

My niece attends a specialist independent school paid for by the local authority - her EHCP named it as the only school in the area that could meet her needs. They did have to go to appeal but even after reading a little about her case, even the biggest numpty couldn't fail to agree.

Definitely worth pursuing this route.

With regards to your bursary question, I used to audit bursary applications. You essentially have an annual combined income of £71k and, if I am reading this correctly, an asset valued at £440k (main home plus holiday let combined) with a £260k mortgage. You therefore have £180k of equity which could be released.

Each school is different with regards to it's thresholds but you probably have too high an income and too much equity in your property to be eligible for a bursary and if you are then it would likely be only a small one.

Thankyou Mllight. Is your DS happy there? How does he find the boarding?

Thanks Zodlebud! Yes, you are correct with everything!

Hope your Neice is happy where she is!

For reference, this is what our children school says about bursaries - standard indy, not specialist school, but I would imagine the underlying principles would be similar everywhere.

Realistically, the sale of the 2 properties (home and holiday let worth a combined £440k) and buying one property, would surely release significant capital, even if you move to a more expensive road.

^"It is recognised that judgements about what sacrifices a family should make to pay school fees will be personal. However, the School has a duty to ensure that all awards are well focussed and so, as well as current earnings, other factors which will be considered in determining the necessary level of grant will include:

*The ability to improve the financial position or earning power of the family. For example, where there are two partners, both would be expected to be employed unless one is prevented from doing so through incapacity, the need to care for children under school age or other dependents, or the requirements of their partner’s work.
*Opportunities to release any capital. Significant capital savings and investments would be expected to be used for the payment of school fees, as would equity values in houses.
*In cases of separation, the contribution made by the absent parent.
*Contribution to household or education costs by other, wider, family members, any adults unrelated to the child or by outside sources.
*The number of other dependent children in education and related financial circumstances."^

Every school is going to be different, so it might be roughly outlining the situation to the Bursar of any school you're interested in, obviously being totally honest. DD isn't at a specialist school, but on a bursary. We have more equity in our home than you, but our annual income is probably half of yours, and annual fees are in excess of £38,000. Things could be moved around to create an extra bedroom downstairs, but we effectively have two bedrooms, so this may have been taken into account.