Financial help

[T.i.p.s.y]

Please forgive my ignorance here but do any non boarding schools offer bursaries if you have an income over £30k. Have only just started looking into this (eldest dd is 9) and found her senior school Lady Eleanor Hollis do not offer anything if joint income over this amount and only if under £20k that you get a proportion. Is this the norm in your experience?

Thanks

Richmond

I think this is very tight! Normally schools take into account outgoings such as mortgage, council tax and interest payments on loans or credit cards. They deduct this from your salary and then deduct 70% from the amount left. If the 30% remainder can cover school fees then you have to pay, if not its measured on a sliding scale. There is no way that I could see £30k covering school fees. My suggestion to you is to ask for a bursary form, fill it in and see what they say. I don't know if I mentioned but some of the schools we approached said they offered nothing but when they tested my son or we said he'd had an offer elsewhere then they soon changed their tune and we had offers ranging from 30-90% and none of them were means-tested. Until things change I do think that they will bend over backwards for a very bright child. If this is the route you want to take then I would start trying to teach her work above her year group now. Normally I'm not an advocate of tutoring but if you need a large amount of financial assistance then I would say it is a must.


Entrance
Tough and oversubscribed by three to one. Girls are examined in maths and English and general knowledge. Hard to cram for. No sample papers available. Then interview (girls only – no parents) for those who have made the grade academically. Interviews described as 'general – we are looking for doers,' says head. 'What can they bring to us? They must have time to do things outside pure academic study – success in one area will spin off to others.' School is not interested in heavily coached girls who will then struggle to keep up.
Up to one third of the places go to girls joining from the junior school. Junior pupils must pass the senior entrance exam, transfer not automatic. Other main feeders are private preps including Newland House, Rowan, The Study and Bute House. About 20 per cent from state primaries. For the sixth form there are entrance exams in maths, English (essay, comprehension and analytical thought) and a subject of candidate's choice, followed by interviews for those who pass exams.

Personally unless your child is very gifted I would consider a less selective school where there may be more chance of getting more help. This school can very much pick or choose who they want. Good school though.
PM me if you want to discuss DD's abilities.

[richmond]

Thanks Tipsey that's helpful. The head at the Junior of LEH is only supposed to accept girls into the Junior who she thinks will get into the Senior (for example last year every girl got into the senior from the junior). However my dd has found it quite hard going on the English side (not the maths where she is in the top 3). However fees wise we are struggling (have 2 other younger children being privately educated) and the jump to senior school fees looks impossible at the moment.
Interesting what you say about financial offers after the child has been tested - I can see that happening in some schools.

Richmond

[T.i.p.s.y]

I assume you have thought of other options, but depending on how young your other two are, could they go to state school until 11 which would free up money for DD. You could supplement their education in other ways. If it came down to it I would definitely prioritise secondary school above primary school, even if the area one lived in meant the primary school wasn't great.Not ideal, I know! Are you considering GS too?

[KES Parent]

Please forgive my ignorance here but do any non boarding schools offer bursaries if you have an income over £30k. Have only just started looking into this (eldest dd is 9) and found her senior school Lady Eleanor Hollis do not offer anything if joint income over this amount and only if under £20k that you get a proportion. Is this the norm in your experience?

Thanks

Richmond

Any chance you can move to Birmingham? You can get a bursary with an income up to £70K just for one child at the KE schools, and up to £80K I think for more than one. Or you could just go on the dole and get it all free. A fantastic scheme if you have got lots of cleverish children - they definitely don't have to be scholarship standard. The full fees aren't even terribly high compared to most independent schools - around £9K a year - so I don't know why they have gone out on a limb like this. (I'm not talking from personal experience unfortunately, as this exceptionally generous scheme only came in when DS was in Lower Fifth - before that it was like most other schools so we didn't qualify. They wouldn't consider children already at the schools who weren't already on assisted places unless they were workaholic geniuses, sadly not an accurate description of my DS).

[richmond]

KES - I cannot imagine moving due to work, even though the scheme you mention does seem very generous!

Tipsey - I think if it comes to it that is what we will have to do and take the younger ones (or at least one of them out) and into state. I do plan to try eldest dd for a state grammer (Tiffin girls) next year - she is going to be assessed by a tutor next Sat to see if she is suitable to be taken on and she would be tutored every week on vr and nvr until the exam next December. I liked the atmosphere in the school and they seem to do well academically, although you cannot compare the facilities to the likes of LEH or other independents I have seen (but you only have to make a voluntary contribution each year).

[hopeforthebest]

oo

[richmond]

Thank you hopeforthe best - certainly food for thought

Richmond

[Loopyloulou]

Worth pointing out that for a boy with a musical leaning a choir school should be considered. 100% government bursaries are available through the Choir Schools Association, and even the ordinary non-means tested full fees are very often heavily subsidised by the religious authorities (music scholarship, you might call it).

[nuelly]

This is a lot to take in. I was comfortable preparing my son for GS exams with a back up plan of possible independent education if this fails. I am now bewildered with choice of independent schools boarding or day , bursaries or not. Not sure where to start.
Not sure where to start with the independents .
If I'm this stressed ploughing through all this info , I wonder how my boy will cope.

[T.i.p.s.y]

Boy will be fine. Get a glass of wine and ask away!