Girls’ school bursaries shunned as parents fear daughters won’t fit in

GIRLS’ school bursaries for poor families are going unclaimed because parents fear their daughters will not fit in, according to a top headmistress. Gwen Byrom, incoming president of the Girls’ Schools Association which represents private femaleonly schools, said many free places went unfilled.

She said she suspected some disadvantaged families did not apply because they felt their children would feel ‘out of their depth’ in a private school.

It means money set aside for the poorest pupils goes instead to middle- class families, who are less afraid to apply. Private schools offer full bursaries for the worst-off and lower levels of financial assistance for those who can afford some fees.

If full bursaries go unfilled, the money is diverted to part bursaries. Mrs Byrom, who attended a comprehensive school, said she knew what it was like to be afraid of interacting with those who may be more privileged.

She said: ‘Why don’t more families come forward? There are social and psychological hurdles to applying to an independent school if that is not part of your background. There is a lot of social and cultural capital that is tied up with it.

‘Choice for school is sometimes reliant on knowing that there are people like you at the school. So families will go to something that, effectively, is within their comfort zone.

‘It is very hard to take a leap into the unknown – particularly if it’s a situation where you feel you are going to feel out of your depth. Parents wouldn’t want to put their children in an uncomfortable position.’

Private schools are under pressure to show they are doing more to help poor students. MPs have called for them to offer more bursaries, which can be worth up to £40,000 a year.

She said most independent school leaders would be in favour of more 100 per cent bursaries for the poorest, but it would not mean ‘parents would fall over themselves’ to apply.

Mrs Byrom – headmistress of fee-paying Loughborough High School in the East Midlands – said that independent schools were just ‘normal schools’ but had an image of being elite.

She said it was ‘easy to criticise’ private schools but many led a ‘hand to mouth’ existence. Earlier this month Tory MP Robert Halfon, chairman of the Commons’ education committee, said private schools should be forced to pay a levy that would be fed into providing more bursary places.