Non-existent bursaries

[Nobursarymum]

Our family is badly off. My DD is very bright and talented in an all round kind of way. The comprehensive she goes to is not great, and is not challenging her.
So we looked into the possibility of her moving to one of our local good reputation private schools, by way of a bursary.
When I wrote to these schools, to explain our interest in the school, but that DD would need a bursary to enable her to attend, the responses were beyond frosty. Although the schools advertise bursaries of up to 100%, 2 of the schools didn't even respond. When I pressed one of them, I was told that they didn't offer bursaries. That was despite the fact that their website clearly stated that to enable talented children to attend the school, they offered bursaries of up to 100%. They also claimed that they had not seen 3 emails from me because 1) 2 of them had got lost in the vast number of emails the admissions officer of this small undersubscribed private school received, 2) 1 email had not been received because their email account was full.

It seems to me that schools are advertising bursaries - including 100% bursaries - in order to satisfy the Charity Commission. But without any intention of actually offering a bursary to anyone.

Was I stupid to take them at their word, and enquire about the possibility of a bursary? Is it common knowledge that these statements on websites are no more than window-dressing?

Or what gruach said!

I think OP was not familiar with applying to private schools at all, let alone outside the main admissions rounds.

Bursary funds will be fully allocated each year, and will mainly be spent on new joiners at the main rounds and on those already in the school who may have run into financial crisis.

If OP still has any appetitive for these schools. Then she needs to begin again, by visiting the school and working out which school is right for her DD and to which her DD will bring something that the school is looking for (not necessarily just academic level, though that is key for some, but might also be sport, drama, all rounder, exceptional achievement in some other field).

Then you need to call the admissions office and ask for a conversation with someone who can tell you about likely availability of an ad hoc place (even when schools are not full. They may not admit after the start of year 10, for example), how to apply, what assessments take place, and when and how to apply for a bursary.

In theory, schools should of course respond to every single enquiry, but if course in practice things go wrong. It is spectacularly unlucky for OP that she encountered difficulty at 3 separate schools. But I think some of it may be down to misunderstanding and not, I hope, ill-will on either side

We certainly didn’t find schools weren’t interested in children who only have one string to their bow. We found that a very high academic ability trumps everything else no one could care less that my DS’s were not musical or had any particular talent for sport.
You need to pick your school carefully those that market themselves as ideal for all rounders probably are looking talented alrounder when dividing out their bursary purse.
Super selective academic schools where sport etc is defintely not high on their priority list will want to give bursaries to super academic pupils an outstanding sporting ability will be an added bonus but not essential.
Pick your school OP that matches your DD’s ability and talent.

I agree that OP simply hasn't understood how bursaries work, or read up enough on it. Most school websites make clear that bursaries are available at the key points of entry -11+, 13+ and 16+. They make clear that you don't just write to say you'd like one, but go through the normal application process - you need to pass the entrance exams first at a high level, to be considered for a bursary.

I can see that the lack of response was not helpful. It has made Op cross and feel anatagonistic towards the school. In terms of schools wanting to broaden access, they need to be able to deal with people who don't understand how the system works and respond to them. However, it is possible that the emails were sent to the general school address and not the correct people and that perhaps they did get lost in the system.

Larger schools, which are usually those that offer more and bigger bursaries are probably more able to respond to and used to dealing with people who haven't read all the website info or fully researched bursaries as a topic, than the tiny independents who often can't afford much in the way of bursaries, don't have an outreach programme or respond to many queries.

Op, if you are serious about getting a bursary - read up on it. Look at MN, plus some of the bigger name schools to see what they say. Consider if your DC would entering at a point where bursaries are given.
If you have questions, email the bursar at the schools you are interested in, saying you are new to this and would like to know more.

Remember, bursary funding is usually limited and over subscribed. Most people who would like a bursary won't get one, if get a big enough one to make it possible. They tend to be given to very bright children and those with lots to offer.

Op, move beyond being annoyed about it all and look into it a bit more to see if it might be possible. Your DC might be just what schools are looking for, or the timing and circumstances may mean he's not.

And I'd also agree that being less easily offended and more determined to press forward would help.

It's a shame communication with these schools hasn't been great and that you are outside of the normal cycle of admissions now. You do sound as if you'd missed the entrance exams for 13+ entry - those exams will have been a while ago and your queries probably came after they had offered their places and bursaries. If you'd missed 11+ entry, 13+ might have been a possibility, but 16+ will now be the next likely point.

With 16+, get visiting those schools whilst in Yr 10 - do visit first and speak to bursar in person or on phone if poss - websites can only give limited info, but a bursar will be able to ask about your circumstances and give you more accurate info for your own circumstances. They will want you to have visited to have shown genuine interest.

They’d be on shaky ground to lie about this. As others have said you haven’t approached it in the normal way. My daughter is in receipt of a near full bursary as are several others in her year (yr 7) v unlikely you’d get one after yr 7 and there is a massively long process to get one - including crucially taking an entrance exam ! They use the exams to look out for exceptionally bright kids who would never be able to afford the school normally

OP there is perhaps a little bit of misinformation here, yes some schools do require you to sit the entrance exam and use the exam to the look out for the exceptionally bright kids who would never be able to afford the school normally but not all do. Some usually the super selective s offer bursaries to all who are offered a place not the those who’ve achieved the highest marks and some do offer bursaries outside of the usual entry point a lot depends on how much money is in the bursary bank account and how many apply for it. The point I’m trying to make OP is that you need to have conversation with the individual bursars at any school you might be interested in and find out how they organise bursaries what they are looking for and how big the average bursary is.
I personally don’t think you’ve come across as grabby you like many I suspect you took what was written on a schools website as gospel and thought that they genuinely meant that they offered large bursaries to all.

Mine has a place with a 95% bursary for September for yr7. She's bright and an all round good egg, but not exceptional (obv she is to me but I mean academically!)

So YABU!

Hi op, lots of really good info and help here if you want consider sixth form entry.
As I said further up the post, my dds school offer outstanding scholarship/bursary help to girls from state school post GCSE with a specific scholarship aimed solely for them.
You would prob need to start showing interest in year 9 and register for an open day for year 10.
As others have said, calling the bursar or admission dept should be your first port of call. I actually spoke to my dds schools admission dept and registered interest when she was in year 5 for a year 7 entry so definitely the earlier the better. Admissions dept at dds school were clued up about the entrance exams, scholarships and finances and infact I was directed towards the bursar only once we’d have an offer of a place and the bursary was granted about a month later (think it was the March before entry in the Sept)
In the meantime if your dd was to follow some extra curriculm activities such as DofE, sport, music, volunteering etc then the school would look in favour of an all rounder.
I don’t know where you are in the country but I am in the south and I could perhaps direct you towards my dds school which as I said offer some amazing scholarship/bursaries for state entrants into the LVI. (Dds school is boarding and day - the day is long but she loves it and will be going into the last term of year 9 when they go back after Easter)
Best wishes

Also, see if there are any GDST schools in your area. They tend to have generous bursaries

I posted this on another schools thread, (confused between the two,) so might as well put it here too.

I wonder if schools realise just how many prospective parents are put off by their first contact with the applications department. Ideally one would only pursue applications at places with flawless admin and eager, alert, sensitive people answering the phone. But in real life ... Voicemail not picked up and responded to. Misspelled emails. Misdirected letters. Staff who ignore or forget the crucial piece of information you’ve shared with them. Inflexibility over dates for visiting. Etc.

And so often this apparent administrative flakiness a) hurts the feelings of anxious enquirers but b) has no bearing whatsoever on the experience of actually attending the school.

You do need either a thick skin or a devil may care attitude.

Not all admissions departments are like that. And I would find ones such as you describe off-putting too.

I think most super selective DO give out from the bursary pot according to exam performance. That’s how it was explained to me at the two schools we applied for. So the highest performers got first dibs on how much % they’d need to attend the school and it gradually worked down. The good thing was that they would only offer a bursary level which meant a child could realistically attend the school
We did apply to apart a GDST school too who offered us the highest bursary on offer (they said) but at 30% was completely unrealistic - As far as i remember when looking GDST schools were the least generous but maybe that’s just London schools ? Anyway, I was probably a bit harsh before so I wish you luck - it’s a hard system to navigate at times

Thank you everyone for your advice. I will do some research about possible schools next year, so that we can decide whether to try again for 6th form level, not focusing so much on local schools. Although DD is bright and keen rather than super brilliant academically, she is developing her academic strengths in a couple of subjects that interest her particularly, by spending quite a lot of time on them on an extra-curricular basis, so if she wants to take those for A'level (likely) presumably that might help. I feel that she has a lot going for her personality wise too - lots of comments in her school report about how enthusiastic she is, how kind and helpful with other pupils, etc.

So that communication doesn’t turn into the train wreck, as it has here, it is wise to follow a certain pattern...

1. read the bursary policy on the school website to know that you have a chance and what is in store.

2. contact the registrar by telephone and have a tour of the school

3. register your child for entrance exams (paying the 25/50/75) and fill out and submit the bursary application forms

4. receive an offer of a place for your DC and go ahead with the bursary application

5. await the decision of the trustees as to the level of your bursary

6. accept your place ASAP.

Definitely read the bursary policy on the school website. DS’s School encouraged you to details your financial situation even before registering so that they could give you an indication of the potential size of any potential bursary on your current income assets. Thus not wasting anyone’s time or raising hopes only to have them dashed if the proffered bursary wasn’t large enough but I suspect this is uncommon.

i had that experience with a couple of prep schools in North London, some years ago,.
They go on about inclusivity and bursaries for 'bright' children but i think it is just lip service. if they have any bursary money (and dont forget a lot of smaller, newer, schools dont) they probably give it to a teacher's kid or something.

The thing is though, Crafty, if you've read the thread - I did read the bursary policy on the school website, which very clearly said that bursaries were available (up to 100%). But when I contacted the admissions officer (they don't have a bursary officer) asking if we could discuss the possibility of applying for a bursary, she simply said (after ignoring the first 2 emails, which she subsequently said hadn't been seen, though they went to her email address) that the school didn't offer bursaries (at all, not just not to us).

You've had a bad experience. They shouldn't say one thing in their website and then something totally different on the phone. Of course you're annoyed by that.

Do you know, I'd email again and politely point out that you're confused following your conversation about bursaries - admissions officer said school doesn't offer them but website clearly states it does - quite what it says if you like. Ask them for clarification, because you simply can't understand how you can be told one thing when the website says something else. In your position, I too would be annoyed and I would pick them up on this, rather than just feel irritated on here.

And fortunately, not all schools are like this. Smaller schools with cheaper fees are unfortunately more likely to be unprofessional with their bursary policies. They have less to give and are more desperate to attract candidates, so might be a bit misleading. The bigger more established schools often will have a clearer policy, a big pot of money and an established mechanism for dealing with queries. There are lots of testimonies on MNbof people getting partial or full bursaries.

Don't let your view of the whole sector be coloured by this. Don't decide that the system is totally closed to people currently outside it - it's not true that bursaries are all given to teachers kids or people who the school know - lots of schools really do want to widen access and you and others reading this thread shouldn't let this experience, which is undoubtedly bad and not excusable, decide the whole sector is bad.

There will be a completely separate policy for teacher fee remission.

We only have the OP’s side of the story here. It is fairly inconceivable that a school, registered as a charity, will not offer bursaries. More likely, the schools in question do not offer bursaries to new entrants in non-foundation years.

Successful schools will have a strict and robust bursary policy, often administered by an external company to ensure fairness and confidentiality. They will be forensic with your finances. You would be expected to release any equity in your house, have modest cars and holidays, and to sell anything of value such as jewellery and artwork.

Less successful schools will be much more lax, as they will be eager to fill places, and any contribution the student makes to fees will be welcome.

“You will be expected to release any equity in your house”
Not necessarily. Basically there will be significant variations depending on the individual school.

What I gathered from the situation was that the school does not actually offer significant bursaries, though it may very well reduce fees slightly for parents in difficulty, and that the wording on the website is window dressing.
It's by the by now. I realise that approaching a relatively small school, which may not have a trust or whatever behind it (I don't know what the circumstances of the school are, but this does now occur to me), was not the best idea, regardless of what was said on the website. I won't do that again, unless our circumstances improve and we can afford to pay most of the fees. Would nonetheless not now be keen to approach that school again.
We do have equity in our not at all valuable house, but very low income. Releasing the equity in the house would be financial suicide. I don't dislike DD's state school to that extent, and we are also partially home educating, which makes a big difference.

Forget the school with the misleading website. And please don’t imagine you would have to re-mortgage your only (presumably modest) home!

I’m sorry it’s all left a nasty taste - but this honestly is not the definitive bursary seeking experience.

What year is your dd currently? Are you in an area with other state secondaries that are within reasonable travel distance that are better than your dd's current school?

It sounds to me like you've resigned too quickly to staying at the current school you don't rate for your dd. Have you explored other state options?

My daughter was offered a percentage bursary and a percentage scholarship. We enquired after our secondary school allocation which we were disappointed in. I was honest at the outset saying we couldn't afford full fees and as part of my enquiry attached a reference from her primary school and a reference from her sports club. They contacted me back within the day suggesting she come and sit the exam.
My experience of other schools were similar, only one did not reply