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means-tested scholarships/bursaries

Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2006 1:46 pm
by Guest
Does anyone have any experiences/comments about this. I've heard the forms are quite detailed and a lot of very personal financial information is required (to put people off, some say). I might be considering this option next year so and would like to be prepared! All comments, things to keep mind, are welcome.

Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2006 12:37 am
by Guest
We filled one in last year. Yes, the information required was very detailed. We knew that we were unlikely to get any financial assistance but at the open day we were encouraged to fill in the form anyway as 'we had nothing to lose'. I wish in retrospect that we hadn't done this as it became apparent in a talk with the bursar (while my son was being interviewed) that we were above the threshold for bursaries and the conversation became slightly difficult. I felt uneasy that we had made the application even though we had been following the advice of the school.

Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 1:51 pm
by Anon
I apologise if these appear to be daft questions, but I am new to this:

'If you have significant equity in your home, are you expected to borrow against this, or do they simply take into account income when assessing means-tested scholarships/bursaries? If income, is this gross or disposable income?'

I know some schools have fixed % reductions for scholarships, and others have an income threshold (which is relatively low) above which the child is not eligible, but some others are silent on the issue.

Can anyone shed some light?

Bursaries in London

Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 5:28 pm
by Nou
I have looked into this for schools in London only, so I can't comment on the rest of the country. In general they seem to award full bursaries to people with very low incomes such as people on benefits or single parents on a low income. As far as I can see, they only take net income (after tax and employer deductions) into consideration and not fixed assets such as homes, though some take investments and savings into account. I also think that schools tend to award them to only the more able or talented, i.e. where the kid can be a real asset of the school!
Normally scholarships do not cover other expenses such as lunches, uniforms, trips, music lessons are very expensive at independent schools and you also need to budget for this when deciding whether or not you can afford it.

Posted: Thu May 11, 2006 12:59 pm
by Guest
Totally agree with the above for London schools. Basically, irrespective of whether you can afford full fees or not, if your child displays what they're looking for they will make you an offer. You should definitely keep in mind additional costs, especially if you do not want your child to feel left out.

Posted: Thu May 11, 2006 1:08 pm
by Guest
My youngest child got a scholarship from an independent school. In the prospectus it said that they were means tested so I thought it was of no particular value because we aren't on benefits or anything. I rang them and they said no, it wasn't means tested, it was because they wanted her to go to the school. Be careful with scholarships though, because my daughter's had strings attached - had to stay until she was 18 and had to keep up her academic achievement. We didn't take it in the end because she got into grammar school, but it was a worthwhile amount of money to save had we gone the private route.

Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 12:51 pm
by Guest
"conversations" tend to be slightly difficult or not at all when it comes to this subject.

Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 1:11 pm
by Guest
Uhhh?

Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 1:50 pm
by Guest
exactly! (re: above)

Keeping it secret!

Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 2:31 pm
by Guest
My child was offered a "scholarship" at a local independent school - this was when the school first opened and they were trying to attract more pupils. The school told me to keep it secret or other parents might get jealous. I told various friends etc as my daughter suddenly left her state school but I thought this was safe as they were not connected with the school. Hey presto, within a few weeks, the school started to receive phone calls asking for "a free place like so and so". Other parents of kids at the school went to the head teacher furious that we had a scholarship and their kids not (incidently both my husband and I are low paid public sector workers). As a result we are still ostracised by some parents even though we struggle to pay fees to send our younger child there. When they deign to talk to me it is normally to say how badly off they are (only one car and two foreign holidays a year - when we don't have one of either!). Moral of the story - only tell your closest friends who won't blab and tell your kids not to breathe a word!