Is it feasible to obtain a bursary for Year 10 at a private school?

[KHMP1971]

First off, forgive me if this question sounds ridiculous. It probably is and I feel a bit of a fool posting it but I suppose if you don't ask ...

DD is 14 and in Year 9 at a local mixed comprehensive. She's pretty miserable there. She is (I suspect) slightly on the autistic spectrum although she's never been diagnosed. She is constantly bullied by the boys in the class and the school have done nothing about it, even after one of the them threw a traffic cone at her in PE leaving her with a big bruise. Apparently these boys are the football/rugby stars of the school and so she says noone will do very much about them.

We don't have Grammar schools nearby. We live in a part of the UK where they were done away with decades ago.

Her escape is horse riding and she's made some lovely friends at her riding school, two of whom go to a fairly amazing all girls private school in a nearby town.

It's a fairly impressive place and she has been listening to their stories of their music lessons, their small classes, their facilities, their awesome teachers, the better behaviour and lack of thuggish boys and tells me it would be a dream to go there. And I agree that in an ideal world, this sensitive well behaved young lady would be much better off in that environment than where she currently is.

The problem.is that fees at this school are around £19k and I'm a single mum on £20k, (no holidays old car nothing fancy). So as with everyone else who would like to go to private school and can't I assume it's impossible and have never given it any thought.

However I've read about bursaries and am just asking for honest opinions.

DD is bright but not super academic. She plays guitar and violin a little but not to an exceptional standard although she enjoy music. She is well behaved, mature, polite and works hard (putting her aside from many of her peers at school) but I don't know if this would be enough to win her a place. The only person I know whose son won a funded place at a private school.was very exceptionally bright (ie he was doing GCSE standard maths at age 10) My beautiful and amazing DD is securely where she should be academically but not very advanced if that makes sense.

Really if I'm.just talking.nonsense please feel free to ignore me but I am wondering if its worth emailing the school and asking re: bursaries for Year 10. Do children even join a private school at Year 10?

The homeschool idea would.be amazing.

She has a weekly.riding lesson, volunteers at the riding school on Saturdays (helps muck out, tack up, helps with the younger children's lessons etc) shes quite shy however. I was also going to see if she could start to.help with Riding for the Disabled, which they do at her riding school.

She met her friends who go to the private school through this work at the riding school and the Pony Club.

She also has a part loan horse who she helps look after at the local.farm on two evenings a week (her dad pays £23 a week!), plus she has private guitar lessons (which I pay for) . So these would all fit in well with homeschool. She'd certainly much happier.

The main problem I have is that some of the online systems such as Minervas Virtual Academy seem to cost almost as much as Private school!

what other options are there locally Any other secondaries you could go on the waiting list for? Any more vocational schools?

Even if the bursary idea does not work, or would only work for sixth form, you are doing so much to help her, well done. It is lovely about the riding and the music.

As she has riding friends, she can make friends. Is there anyway she could find more like minded girls at the school where she is through a special interest club, say?

This is home school information.
https://www.heas.org.uk/faqs/
The price is a problem.

The SEND board of mumsnet might help too, including about the bullying.

The local secondaries are all sadly much of a muchness and it could be a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire. She's at a Welsh Medium School at the moment which is probably about the best she will get in the State Sector . Shes always proud when a welsh soeaking little on comes for lessons at the riding school and she gets to speak to them and their parents in Welsh!

There's also a Catholic High school not too far away which may have been an option as I'm Catholic although DD was never baptised because my ex isn't religious. He didnt want her to be baptised and we ended up agreeing that we would wait until she made her own decision. Its a reasonably nice school however, she definitely doesn't want to go there as she says she "doesn't beleive in it" . Which is fair enough. It's also not that local (in a nearby town).

There aren't any grammars or selective state schools as they all went decades ago in Wales.

I do know of two people whose children went to private schools on partial or full bursaries but they were both quite exceptional as in musically talented in one case and academically talented in the other.

Its more about just finding her a place where she will at least be happy and thrive for the next two and three quarter years really, before she decides what to do post 16.

Thankyou so much!

You can but ask you never know

But as an aside and without meaning to sound rude ....you say you only earn £20k....which is less than minimum wage so doesn't sound like you are working full time...and not like your child is so young she'd need childcare to explain why you can't work longer hours.....I'd be taking on second/third jobs to fund private school (that's what my parent did)

I do work full time.

I earn around £1600 a month after tax from my full time job. My last year's p60 was £20k. Wages in Wales are actually quite low.

I also do a part time job two evenings a week to pay for riding and guitar lessons. But what I earn from that is quite low.

you need to ask the school in question. my experience is that very few award bursaries outside of the 11+/16+ but a few do. very few. so ask all the ones in your reach and you might find one. even if they do, getting one is incredibly hard as there are always many deserving candidates. i would say odds are low but if i were you i would call every private school and try those say they accept bursary applications for that year group (it will likely only be one school).

Thankyou all for your replies.

I contacted the school and yes as expected there are no bursaries for Year 10. However the very nice admissions tutor encouraged me to contact them again when DD is in year 11 as there are bursaries for Year 12 and "they'd love to meet her".

I've told DD that she will need to work hard and perhaps she can go for sixth form, which she is happy with although admittedly it's over two years away.

I hope this will prove a source of hope to her. Thankyou all for your advice.

Wishing you the best of luck OP!

That’s a good update OP!

That is positive, and I would suggest that aspects that are the real DD such as what she does with her riding including helping out with children with special needs etc are all aspects that would make her an asset to the school apart from the academic.

This. However my D.C. is very academic and moved post 16 and got a scholarship and bursary. Look for an assessment. NHS waiting lists are 8 years here but mine is being seen in 7 months on the nhs (pm me if you want more details). If you don’t ask you don’t get.

great update, lovely to hear that your initial contact with the school was positive.
certainly used the possibility as a carrot to help motivate her with her studies and extracurricular interests. at some point you could even do a tour (the year before).
an easy area to discuss and work on in a fun way is interview skills, yup "meeting her" is code for mini interview. hand shake, eye contact, chat without getting overly personal.

What about asking other schools in the area?

They may not be all girls (if you’re in the Cardiff area there’s only one) but I doubt she’d experience the same issues in a mixed private school. You may get the same answer but it’s got to be worth asking.

There is no harm in asking but I think it is unlikely, sorry.

What about online schools? I don't know much about them but might be worth looking into.

My heart goes out to you OP. My DD is on the spectrum and we can afford PS and we did that at secondary as she also experienced complete horror from thuggish boys who also targeted her in PE. She got a football thrown at her face twice close range. One of the boys was eventually excluded but he is probably soon to be in prison now he was so bad. It has made such a difference. She comes home and is calm and not traumatised like she was at state primary. it was so so bad.

I would definitely suggest home-schooling in the meantime. She'd be so much happier. There is a lot you can do through BBC bitesize and various other free websites. What is your daughter studying? I can suggest some resources.

The local library may well buy in the text books for her if there are no up to date copies. Well, they used to do this, but maybe the cuts have affected that.

The other thing as well is to look around the Catholic school. It makes no difference if she believes or not. We can all fake being Godly if it means escaping thugs. Put your judgement and morals to one side and have a proper look.

I'd book in for a visit and see what she thinks. You can't judge a place unless you've seen it.

it sounds like if this is all girls, which it might be, she might well have a better time there. Teen boys can be really awful. Especially at the moment.

Maybe two years at the Catholic school and then 2 years at the private school on a bursary. Good luck OP.

It'll be for highest scoring applicants academically or under a scholarship ie. Music, sport etc. if she's good but not amazing I can't see it happening. Also agree year 10 isn't the best time for this either.

Bursaries are for financial need and may be up to the 100% OP needs, though unusual

Scholarships are smaller and aptitude based

In a school I knew scholarships were for the most brilliant academically, but bursaries could be for pupils who were capable and deserving with some sort of interest or flair to share with the school community.

That’s how most schools work these days (they didn’t in the 80s and 90s).