Private school bursary - how it’s decided?

[dragondrive]

We’ve received an offer from a private school with a 25% bursary. I’m really grateful that my son passed the exam and was offered a place, and I do appreciate the bursary.

That said, given our financial situation and what I disclosed, I was honestly expecting a bit more, as 25% still isn’t affordable for us. I thought bursaries were means-tested, so I’m feeling a bit confused about how this figure was worked out.

Has anyone been in a similar position? Is there usually any room to ask for a review or an increase? A friend mentioned that other schools sometimes offer much higher support in similar circumstances.

I’m also wondering whether bursary levels are based purely on finances, or if a child’s academic performance or competition plays a part as well.

I’d imagine every school has their own criteria for working out bursaries but 25% sounds brilliant. Many schools have had to reduce financial support in the wake of VAT/falling pupil numbers so to be offered any discount at all is a bonus. While bursaries are means tested most schools have a maximum they will offer and this is usually capped at around 25-30% so it may be that you’ve been offered the maximum.

Is the bursary for one academic year and then needs to be reassessed annually? If so you really need to consider how you would afford the fees if the bursary is withdrawn next year or a few years down the line. My DCs school have made it very clear that the bursary isn’t guaranteed year on year and could be withdrawn in future.

Also scholarships (with a fee reduction) are usually based on academic performance and aren’t means tested. Bursaries are usually means tested but not based on academic performance, but obviously schools differ in what they offer.

25% is quite a generous bursary. Schools only have a limited amount of money and many people applying for help. It’s a choice between giving a few a lot, or trying to spread the support around. Also, has already been said, you have to consider whether the support will always be there and take into account that the fees will only go up.

Not all schools give a full bursary. When my daughter was applying we were offered one at 5%, one at 25%. I thought of them as a sweetener really - they’d like your child to go because they performed well in the exams, but at the end of the day, it’s a business so they don’t give out many (or maybe even any) full bursaries these days.

Bursaries are means tested in as much as anyone who could afford the tuition is not in the running (though they would be in the running for scholarships for high performance in academics/sport/the arts) but not so much as they are looking to make everyone who applies but can’t afford the tuition able to come for
free. 25% is a great bursary in this economic
climate. Like PP mentioned, check if it is for the whole time at the school or reviewed annually. Schools have differing opinions on this - I’ve worked fundraising at schools that offer the scholarship as a full package for all the years, but they have to fundraise all of that before the child joins the school. Each school will also have a division of how they gather the funds for both scholarships and bursaries. Often the PTA (under whatever name) are raising funds for bursaries and in effect paying the tuition for you, while the scholarships are more like a
coupon and the school is just making less cash from their scholars in hopes they will represent the school beautifully in some way - exams and sought after uni places, winning sport titles, performances, exhibitions, even possibly future fame.

If 25% is not enough to make it possible for you but it’s getting close, you could approach external sources for sponsorship, but again you’d need to have a plan if you can get the funds for this year but not next, etc.

100% bursaries are very rare in the schools in my part of the country, and every student I know who has had one has tremendous story of overcoming something in life combined with a specific talent, so essentially they are also a scholar and proven to have extraordinary work ethic by the entrance age to the school.

I think if you need a large bursary you need to apply to more than one school. Not several - that would be exhausting for you and your child - but enough to be able to gauge which school really, really wants your child. I have seen a situation where one prep school offered 80%, the next offered 100%, which prompted the first to increase its offer to match. The family took the school they liked best. And then achieved a 100% bursary at senior level. Obviously that’s a fortunate position.

Also, the schools I’m talking about are some of the wealthiest in the country with bursaries funded by centuries old endowments. To my mind it’s a waste of time and energy looking at the sort of school that has to scrabble for the money to offer awards.

If you genuinely will not be able to send your child without a larger award you have two options: go back to the school and ask, or try other schools. But think hard about whether you are actually choosing to preserve your lifestyle. Because thousands of parents go without things they’d like in order to pay fees.

There will be a finite fund of money to allocate. They may give smaller amounts to more children or larger to fewer, depending on number of eligible applicants. You might be able to negotiate if others turn places down releasing funds or another school were to offer more but bear in mind that may not be sustainable next year.

It really depends on the school, how much they have to allocate and how they assess. I have a friend who applied this year and was offered 90% by SPS and 0% for CLB

I think 25% is pretty good and as others have said could be the top amount that they will offer so that they can offer it to more.
Not meaning to be unkind but if they offered a little more (say another 5-10%) you still have a lot to find each year (assuming it's for the whole time they are there). Fees are only going to go up, so more each year and that doesn't take into account uniforms which are usually expensive and all the other add ons which come with going to private school.

I would really think about the longer term affordability.

Well it is means tested but there is still
a limit to what school can offer. They’re not paying you to send him. It’s a business and they need to at least cover costs. And even if your child is a certified genius they will not be that desperate to have them that they lose money because of it!

25% off our school fees would still leave us having to pay £20,000 a year. They’re extra £6000 off would be nice but it wouldn’t be the deciding factor for if we could afford it. Don’t forget to factor in uniform, trips, fee increases and the possibility that the bursary may be withdrawn at any point.

At some schools a bursary is only awarded if the child is also in receipt of a scholarship. It’s therefore seen as a “top up” to make it more affordable for extremely talented children. Others do needs blind admissions and then look at bursary funding afterwards.

The reality is though that most private schools are feeling the pinch financially. It’s far better to offer four bursaries at 25% and hope the balance can be found (so the school gets 4 lots of 75% fees), than offer 100% to one and not have the others accept because of affordability. A 25% bursary in the current climate is extremely good.

A school will be in the position of weighing up one 50% bursary vs two 25% bursaries, say. Is it better for two children who need an element of financial support to be able to attend, or for one child who needs a fair bit?

It’s a seven year commitment for the school so over £200k for a full bursary. The school my kids are at appeals to parents each year to fund a bursary by donations and they never get even to 50% of a full school career bursary. The money is finite.

Welcome to reality. Many schools have either stopped or drastically cut back on bursaries because of the current government's chippy VAT on school fees policy. My close friend is a bursar for a large chain of independent schools and says that many of the existing parents who used to have standing orders to donate a couple of £100 a month (sometime much more) into the bursary fund have cancelled them and are now using that money to pay the extra VAT. School like Eton etc are supported by bequests and very rich family estates etc but your average day school gets most of its bursary funds from existing parents and alumni - many of whom are paying grandchildren fees and so will have also diverted bursary find to VAT. Well done Labour, you've actually made it harder for poorer kids and made private schools more elitist.

Anyway, as others have said, a 25% bursary is actually very, very good, especially the current climate. If you still can't afford the fees, then im afraid you can't afford private school for your child.

As PP say the pot is finite. So yes they are means tested in the sense that you have to prove you need one, but no they are not means tested in the sense that you will get offered as much as you need. They will calculate what to offer based on how much they want to offer to other kids as well, what they think you and the others will accept, how much they want your kids vs others etc.

Scholarships may also come out of the same pot (this depends on the school) which means some schools may be prioritising scholarship offers to attract top talent rather than bursary offers to kids who are good enough but not exceptional.

Many schools are financially nervous at the moment due to impact of VAT and the reducing birth rate, and won’t want or be able to reduce their fee income by offering lots of very generous bursaries.

Also (being a bit cynical) I suspect part of the motivation behind bursaries in the past was so that private schools could demonstrate their charitable/inclusive credentials and use this to argue against anti private sentiment and unfavourable tax changes from the govt. Since this govt has already applied unfavourable tax changes anyway, this may have reduced the motivation for bursaries. Or to put it another way: if we’re going to get treated like elitist bastions of privilege, we may as well act like it. This is just my speculation however.

Excellent post

Sounds like a fantastic bursary, you are obviously in a much better position than others that applied lucky you.

In truth it’s not lucky to be offered a bursary that still leaves the goal unachievable.

Some schools (Eton, for instance) make it clear they will withdraw the offer of a place if they are not able to offer a bursary that they feel will realistically enable the family to pay the fees. So you need nerves of steel when you apply …

But with fees over £60k now, it’s a fabulous prize if you get one.

@Eucatastrophilia This chimes with our experience. We had to demonstrate that we could pay the remainder of the fees not covered by the bursary plus have a plan for how we would cover 100% of the fees if the bursary was withdrawn in future (for us this would mean selling our house).

OP out of interest, how much of the fees were you expecting to be covered by a bursary? DCs school make it very clear on their website that 30% is the absolute maximum and anything above this is only considered in extreme circumstances (e,g. death of the fee paying parent).

25% is very good these days.

Hmm - you see, we wouldn’t have applied to a school with such a limitation. I’m accustomed to places that are well set up to offer several 100% bursaries, and where at least 20% of pupils are in receipt of some level of bursary assistance.

Hi @dragondrive my DC received a head master's award (c15%) and then we applied for a bursary, which I think was around c45%? I would write back to them and thank the school for their offer and you love their ethos / what they can offer your DC / highlight the school's good points, and just see if they are willing to up their bursary offer. We still pay quite a lot per term (I think just over £2.6k per term instead of the full, normal price), but my DC is thriving in their school.

Gosh, where in the country are you that you have several accessible schools with this sort of offer?

(somewhat rhetorical; you do not need to out yourself)

Well, they’re boarding schools, so may not meet your criteria for ‘accessibility’. Also senior schools. And I didn’t say ‘several’ schools - I said several bursaries. (I mentioned one above.) I do know prep school bursaries are thinner on the ground.

They usually look at your finances in some detail, presumably you had to submit tax returns etc - as others have said, bursaries are going to suffer due to VAT.