question about year 7 offer and bursaries

[blackheathdad]

hello if we apply for public school places and are offered a place.. is it then you asked about bursaries. if you have a place ... ask for a bursary and are rejected for a bursary do you lose you place ? will the school find it weird / care if you apply for a bursary .. are rejected for that but find a way to pay full fees?

You should have the Bursary conversation before application but if you don’t get one and go anyway nobody will care

The school should have information on how to apply for a bursary alongside its general admissions information.

In general, you do not lose the (full fee) place if that is what you are offered. But there is little expectation that those who applied for bursaries but did not secure one, will suddenly be able to pay. But occasionally some do (genuine change of circumstances, grandparents stepping in).

Don't forget it's not all or nothing.
Quite possible to be offered any discount from 10% to 100%.
Some independent schools have much more bursary funds than others.

Have the bursary conversation as early as possible.

The schools I know (west London independents) expect you to apply for the bursary before the entrance exams. They only then opened the bursary applications if the child did well enough in the exams for them to consider whether they wanted them. Applying once you have been offered a place is too late - they might have already offered their full pot for the year.

We had to have standard school application in by June, bursary application by September and pretest is October (as is bursary home visit - the week after the exam).

School certainly won't find it odd if you end up paying for a place having been rejected for a bursary. In my experience at a west London independent most applicants for bursaries were turned down immediately because they had the funds to pay! Few applications were deemed genuine cases.

As others have said, you need to approach the school as soon as possible. A school will only have a certain amount of money set aside for bursary places. For example, they might have money set aside for 2 places - so then if 20 people apply for bursary places, they will obviously select the best two applicants (provided they actually meet the eligibility criteria). I know someone who went through the process and it was quite rigorous - they had to provide information about all assets, income, etc.

Hi we been offered a bursary but not an actual place it depends if they have places I suppose nearer the time with us and if my child does well in the test ?

Slightly going against the grain here, but our school won't let you proceed with your application if you apply for a full bursary and get turned down, on the basis that you shouldn't be applying for a full bursary in the first place if you can actually afford to pay in another way.

You won’t lose the place if you ask about a bursary after the event. However, there’s a big chance that the conversation will be pointless since bursaries are given out with the offer (not after the offer).

i imagine the only reason you’d be given a bursary after the offer (retrospectively) is if your child was one of the very top scorers and is also talented in some other way (art/drama/sport/amazing school reference). Ie they really really want your child to go to their school. Don’t rely on this, it’s a huge ask of your child! Also, I imagine it would annoy the school a bit since you won’t have followed the schools application protocol , which is (normally) to put the bursary application in when you apply (I.e. autumn of year 6, usually). But do look at the rules for the various schools you are applying for! Maybe your chosen school/s allow this! Any confusions and you can always call or email the bursar in sept for a chat.

When we were considering whether to put DD in for the Scholarship exam at Private school we were asked what we would do if she wasn’t offered one as they prefer not to put the DD through the process if not .
There was a general entrance exam and you could specify if you wanted to be considered for a scholarship

@Hocuspocus77 Yes, it sounds like your school does the same as ours and plenty of others, which is to confirm the percentage discount before the entrance exam process - ie they tell you the amount of bursary you would get if offered a place. That gives you the chance to pull out of the process without putting your child through the exams, if you already know you can't afford the fees (discounted or otherwise). But getting a confirmed bursary percentage will probably have no bearing on the chances of a place - that will depend on how your child does in the exams/interview.

Hi there oh ok I see .

I have read that others on here have asked for more bursary . So I think I will try . But thank you for writing back .