Letter to School Requesting Consideration for a Scholarship

If your family has financial hardship difficulties that is making it very difficult for you to cover your child or children's school fees, there are several options that you may face. Obviously the most serious one - and the one that you will probably want to avoid - is to take your child out of their fee-paying school. Another option is to make an application for a bursary - which is means-tested financial award to allow children in families with financial difficulties to attend private schools- and a further option is a scholarship. A scholarship is a financial award that is usually not means-tested, but is based on a child's academic ability. An application for a scholarship usually involves an interview and/or examination. Only some schools award scholarships, but these are becoming more common. In many of the UK's independent schools, up to half of all school pupils receive some kind of financial aid, either bursaries or scholarships, to help cover the cost of school fees.

How To Discover More About Scholarships

In schools that offer scholarships, these may be awarded by the school without a child being 'put forward' by their parents. In schools which are academically-selective, scholarships will usually be distributed in the traditional school entrant years, for example when a child first starts at their new school, either at year 7 or 12 in a secondary school, or reception or year 3 of a primary or preparatory school. Yet if your child has shown seriously good academic results, and/or your own personal financial circumstances have changed since your child started at the school to the extent that a scholarship might make the difference between your child staying in the school or leaving, then it is certainly worth getting in touch with your child's school to enquire about the possibility of receiving a bursary.

This letter format laid out below shows how parents can contact their child's school to ask for information about their provision of scholarships. The letter is based on a fictional family's contact with their school.

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The School House
School Lane
Schoolville
England

5 February 2008

Dear Headteacher

My son Benji is studying in year 10 at The School House. He has not so far received any financial aid in his time at the school, but he has come top of his year for the past two academic terms, and I'm writing to you to enquire about the school's scholarship provision after our financial circumstances have altered and we are now having real difficulties covering the full cost of the school fees. I am now in the position that I am having to consider taking Benji out of the school, despite the crucial stage he is at in his education, so before I go further down that track I would like to enquire about any scholarship schemes that may be available.

I look forward to hearing from you. You can contact me, Father, on 0131 2343 9049 or 0723422342, or email me at father@parents.com, and hopefully we can meet to discuss some possible options to face the future.

With thanks for your time and best wishes

[signature]

Mr Redrow, father of Benji Redrow

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The Next Step

Now that you have read through the advice above, you might want to put it into practice. Our School Fees Letter Writer lets you write about school fees, payment plans, bursaries, or financial difficulty. Takes 2 minutes. Try it now →