How to go private for nothing
This young man has had more than £100,000 worth of private education for free, he tells James Connington
Private school fees are rising, pricing many families out of the market, but every year around a third of children who go to a private school pay reduced fees or even nothing at all. Day school fees often exceed £15,000 a year, with the cost of a seven-year secondary education topping £100,000. Boarding school fees are typically double that.
However, around £900m was handed out in bursaries and scholarships last year by schools that belong to the Independent Schools Council. Awareness of this funding is so low that a number of schools say they don’t hand out all the cash they have available each year.
At ISC schools, around a third get some financial help, but of this a sizeable proportion receive modest discounts based on having siblings at the school or for families in the Armed Forces. However, 44,000 receive means-tested scholarships and bursaries and 56,000 receive non-means-tested scholarships.
How do bursaries and scholarships work, and how can you get one?
Most independent schools, many of which are registered charities, offer some form of bursary or scholarship. However, the first hurdle for parents is getting their child a place at the school. This usually involves academic tests and interviews.
Scholarships are awarded for academic excellence or for special talent in drama, sport, music or art. Barnaby Lenon, head of the ISC, said “good schools will give you plenty of advice and direction” on how to apply and what is required.
Scholarships will rarely exceed 20pc of annual fees. A school can then decide whether to top this up with a bursary, which is paid according to a family’s financial situation. If a scholarship is not an option, many schools will offer bursaries to pupils who have done enough to earn a place at the school but would otherwise not be able to afford it.
“There has been a big drive to raise money for means-tested bursaries, and scholarship money has been reduced to direct more money towards these,” said Mr Lenon.
However, there is no single guideline or rule for who is eligible for funding as it varies between schools, making the system harder for parents to navigate. Larger, wealthier schools may publish a scale that indicates how much assistance they will give for each level of household income, but the best way to find out is simply to visit and ask a prospective school.
Mr Lenon said: “Make a list of the schools you’re interested in and check their websites for information. If it’s not there, arrange to go in and speak to admissions staff. You need to know what the system is before you apply.”
Complications arise when families have minimal income but significant assets, such as a valuable house. Schools’ policies on this vary, but they will at the very least query the situation. “Schools want to be helpful, but don’t want to be too generous to people who are, frankly, millionaires,” said Mr Lenon.
‘I’ve had £101,889 of schooling for free’
Theo Beckett, 17, has received £101,889 worth of schooling free of charge over the past seven years after he won a scholarship to Reading Blue Coat School.
He was orphaned at a young age and raised by his grandparents. His grandfather, Hugh Beckett, 76, said they didn’t initially realise that financial help was available. “Theo had already been interviewed and taken the academic tests, and the headmaster, Michael Windsor, then arranged for the chairman of the governors to come and visit us,” he said.
The “Foundation scholarship” that Theo was offered was means-tested and required checks on household income, but Mr Beckett and his wife, Pamela-mary, 79, were both retired and so met the requirements.
Jesse Elzinga, the current headmaster, said a £4m endowment left by the school’s founder provided for means-tested bursaries. Then, 5pc of all school fee income funds further bursaries.
Theo said: “I didn’t feel any different from anybody else at the school – there was a range of wealth but I don’t think that affected how people treated me. I’ve definitely had opportunities I wouldn’t otherwise have had, and would encourage families to look into the options available, as there’s no downside.”
‘My three children have all had a free ride’
One mother Telegraph Money spoke to, who wished to remain anonymous, secured free private education for all three of her children, aged 18, 16 and 13. Her son, the eldest, received more than £100,000 in fee assistance over seven years of secondary school.
His mother, a single parent, said she was told about bursaries by a friend who worked in a private school. “That’s when we started making enquiries and went through the process of applying,” she said. “He had to do the normal academic testing for admissions, then we had to submit all our financial details.”
Every year she has to submit proof
of income. If it increases, she has to tell the school. “He has loved it. In the early years there was an obvious difference between his home finances and other kids’, but it didn’t stop him having friends over,” she said.
Following her son’s success, she sought financial assistance for her two daughters, who now go to a different private school and also have all of their fees covered. Assuming that her two daughters stay at the same school until they are 18, the total value of the three children’s educations will be around £330,000.
Their mother said there was little awareness among parents. “None of the people I meet have ever heard of the possibility of getting bursaries or scholarships,” she said. “To make it work, you need an open environment to talk about money at home, and the children have to want to achieve and better themselves, even if they’re not top of their class.”