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.

@WomensRightsRenegadeMany bursary dc are bright or talented. How do you think schools decide who is going to get 100s of thousands of pounds? They don’t want dc who are not going to benefit do they? Most are academic, sporty or musical. Sometimes all three! Entrance tests inform bursaries.

@Itsjustlikethat You will find that many girls schools or newer schools do not have endowments of note. Or indeed none. The reason is that many women became housewives and didn’t earn much and haven’t given to their old schools. Obviously some do but the huge endowments are nearly all at the old boys’ schools because they have centuries of wealth behind them. You might also have no idea where the money comes from until you join the school and it becomes obvious but you can look at public accounts of course. It’s very difficult to judge but fee levels might give a small clue if you compare like with like.

Most schools do not have many kids on massive bursaries but what they do have is tons and tons of teacher kids on huge discounts and staff now insisting on the VAT paid for them too on the remaining amount. And none of it is charged as a benefit in kind either which is most bizarre given every other freebie people get at work is classed as a benefit in kind. And remember that often teaching staff are not “poor” and married to well off people. So if you want a big discount retrain as a private school teacher or go work there in some other capacity?

It’s not just teaching staff - the school gardener has kids on DC’s school - his three kids on 50% discount. Same goes for office staff - they can be getting more in fee subsidies than their total salary.

@Araminta1003 That’s correct and the idea schools are awash with bursary money these days isn’t what is happening.

I call BS @Treesinsummer If you really are sending your DC to a 25k a term school it must be Hogwarts because there are no schools in the uk with £75k a year fees. You are likely at a 3rd tier school at best because if you were at 1st tier school as you claim then you’d understand the very foundations on which they’ve been built, also none of these schools use fees they use the endowments.

@GentlePearlBear Little lesson. Brighton College - basic up to £82k (or £27.3k a term), Cheltenham Ladies College - basic up to £66k (22k a term before extras a term, Eton £63k (or £21k a term). And so it goes on with boarding schools. Add on extras and you are hitting £25k per child, let alone the costs when you have more than one. Get back in your bitter box.

£3000 plus of extras a term is a lot though. That should not be necessary. Fees are now shocking for boarding though.

@OhDear111 Extra curricular stuff mainly. Plus, the trips averaged out over the year. There are four options for various trips this holiday alone. And then activities at the weekend. It all adds up. Oh and then you can include charity stuff and the uniform.

Thats great google search you’ve done and by the way you are wrong including vat Brighton is £22,125 per term for full boarding. Extras of £3k a term again BS. There is nothing bitter about my post….just calling you out. As I’ve said if you were really paying for a tier 1 school……

So no not bitter…..how am I and about what????

I am making a general point regarding the fees of the various schools you claim "don't exist" because "no schools exist with fees over £25k". Basic fees approach that mark and then extras mean you pay that threshold. Regarding being bitter, I don't know why you are trying to pick apart a stranger on the internet on the basis they haven't specified the exact fees they pay or what exactly it's on. It's a ball park. Anyway, I don’t have the time or the crayons to explain this to you so please know that your comments are noted.

@GentlePearlBear absolutely

@Treesinsummer you are wasting your time and money 💰! That’s not the first time you have been call a bshitter

@Tobstar106 been called worse things by better people

@Treesinsummer you stated you pay £25k a term for one your DC and in total you pay £75k a term for all 3. What school in the uk that costs this much bearing in mind the £22k a year at Brighton is for u6…..with younger years starting at £19k snd bear in mind these figures are full boarding. That would equate to between £3 and £6k a term on extras…..must be the drying cleaning bill…..but hey your imaginary fees pay for bursaries at tier 1 boarding schools that have some of the largest bursaries pots from endowments. Hey but you can afford to pay £225k a year in fees but begrudge those who can’t afford the full fees a bursary…..thus I suggest you are at a 3rd tier school - a perfectly nice local private school where there are no endowments etc and the only way for the school is to use any profit they make on bursaries to ensure they keep their charitable status…..again what is am I bitter about????

God forbid fee paying children mingle with the children of staff or those on bursaries.

Wait, staff of private school whose kids go there expect the school to pick up the tab for their VAT increases?? That’s weird…

“Wait, staff of private school whose kids go there expect the school to pick up the tab for their VAT increases?? That’s weird…”

Well if you took a job based on a 70 per cent fee discount for your own kids, then post VAT surely you should still be getting 70% off the total (which is now headline fees plus VAT). If that is what the contract says. For existing contracts that is. So exactly how this is all panning out across different schools and how much discount they offer and to whom and what discussions are being had, will vary.
The point to note though is that so many private school teachers have their own kids in the private schools on big discounts so they are hardly going to be treating bursary kids badly are they, as their own kids are in the same boat. So whatever full fee paying parents think or do not think, bursary kids won’t be treated any different in fee paying schools by staff than any other kid.

I was legal guardian for my 15yr old orphaned nephew. He got offered a 50% bursary (with a City of London boarding school) and the rest was funded by charities the school had a relationship with. He was extremely gifted, orphaned and also had a connection with the school as his late mothers cousin was a governor.

He’d been attending a very average state school in Devon, whilst his father was dying at home.

His offer was unconditional - it was the December before his GCSE’s and he had just lost his father at 15. The old Headmaster about to retire spent an hour with him and said he’s clever. His GCSE’s will be what they will be. He still went on to get top grades in his GCSE’s, did IB (got 43 out of 45) and then went to Oxford which was funded by Oxford.

They have a brilliant programme for disadvantaged and under privileged under graduates (looked after children) and paid him to do an 4 week induction.

My nephew also got a laptop and other items from the school but for us it was the pastoral side as he’d been through some real hardship. They really looked after him. Our bar was low. That he could stabilise and get into a good redbrick. It was the school that suggested Oxford.

So his experience seemed to relate to his disadvantages and his talent.

@DivorcedButHappyNow You have highlighted a few important considerations. City of London is a wealthy area and it was not a girls school. He had a connection with the school. He is very talented. Charities could help out as he met their criteria. In my view, his case would completely meet the criteria for many schools.

When we looked into it for our local school there was a sliding scale - so 100% bursary was for people on basically benefits - - something like £16k a year, the bursary amount tapered of to £0 at around £50k a year.
They also looked at your spending - eg if you go on multiple holidays a year, if you have equity in your house you could release to pay towards school fees etc. Basically you would needed to have lived a very basic life with no savings otherwise you would not be deemed in need of a bursary.

Other schools may be different and if you child is outstandingly gifted in some way (not just same as everyone else passing the exam) they may throw more money at them but each year is a different assessment so if you get a payrise or something, that is then taken into account and taken off your bursary amount. Way to much stress for us.

You could look into other options - 30 years ago a got a scholarship that paid for my tutition fees and a bursary through the methodist church that paid for my boarding fees.

I see what you mean, yes. Tbh, though, most private schools don’t give as much as 70% discounts to many students who are just parents who couldn’t afford the full fee. A child receiving this much of a discount will usually offer something valuable to the school such as high academic achievement, as well as meeting the financial criteria.

Why would God forbid them to mingle? For what reasons?

@dragondrive It’s a comment that means better off people don’t think their dc should mix with the less well off - eg dc of teachers. It’s throw-away rubbish. It’s a sorry reflection on how some people view those who use private schools.

Many students won’t choose a university based on the % of students attending from private schools and I’ve commented on another thread where a poster said Sheffield University was not full of “private school twats”. It’s sadly the case that tolerance and inclusion are missing in some education commentators and their dc on these threads.