If grandparents contribute to fees will it affect bursary?

[gardengoal]

We were awarded quite a significant bursary to enable our child to go to an independent school. Grandparents have now offered to contribute to the fees which we are very grateful for as as it's still a real stretch for us. Does anyone know if this will affect our bursary next year? The school did extensive checks on our expenditure, savings etc so are likely to see we've had some help this year.

Ask the school.

A similar thing happened to us. We were offered a significant bursary but the fees were still pretty much unaffordable for us. My parents said they would pay half of what we had to pay and we told the school and they were just pleased we managed to accept their offer - so it hasn’t affected it for us. I think once you have the offer they don’t care how the fees are paid - at least that is what has happened with us!

Thanks, that's reassuring. We were a bit nervous about asking the school directly in case they changed their mind and reduced the bursary offer as we had help from elsewhere! We don't want to rely on grandparents but if they could contribute then that would make it all much more doable for us!

I think it will depend on the school.

We decided not to apply for a bursary as although our income is in the zone where we might get some help, the stress of dealing with all this was too much even if it could save us a bit (perhaps £3000 per year) which would obviously be welcome but with my neurodiversity, anxiety and executive function issues in the mix, paying £3k more to not have to grapple with the annual reassessments felt like a good deal.

I did take a careful look through the bursary application form before making this decision and it included having to declare the wealth of grandparents and had a question along the lines of "explain why you can't ask grandparents to contribute to fees"

Depending on the school's bursary policy, it could be that the size of bursary you have been given is the difference between what they reckon you can afford from household income and the total value of fees, and that if you pay your share of the fees from any source other than from your household income then you have effectively under-declared your financial resources.

However I am sure there are other schools that have a more relaxed attitude.

As PP already said, there's lots of schools that will expect you to explain why grandparents or other family members can't contribute. The assumption is you've explored all options before applying for a bursary. It may be that your school won't mind, some will and will reduce your bursary to reflect it.

Bursary money comes at the cost of rising fees for everyone else - so if you have additional financial support that should absolutely be declared!

In the vast majority of cases it really doesn't come from fees.

I thought bursary’s were offered as a charitable exercise to keep school fees artificially low by benefiting from the 20% charitable reduction?

Not really

A lot of private schools were founded long before free state education existed, and at a time when a "proper" education for the wealthy was done by having a private tutor (or several) at home. Schools were foubded as charities (definition - a not-for-profit organisation that does something in a list of "good" things which includes a wide variety including education, sports, religion, care of animals, promotion of special interests. Loads of charities charge money for what they do, the requirement is that they don't make a profit) with the aim of providing a cut-price option for those who couldn't afford a tutor to share the costs with other families, as well as scholarships/bursaries for those who couldn't afford even that shared cost.

There was no expectation that this education should be universal but the possibility of a bright child from a poorer family getting access to the same education was in place long before the various parliamentary acts that created Value Added Tax, or the regulatory body The Charity Commission, or the possibility of universal free education provided by the state.

Depends on the school. I would discuss with them …you never know how grandparents finances might change unexpectedly…what you don’t want is to start at the school with the bursary and then it be withdrawn meaning you have to remove your child, whatever the source of your contributions!

one boy in ds’ class has a significant bursary, the proportion of fees the family pay are almost entirely paid entirely by grandparents - I’m sure this is looked at on an individual basis.