Private schools are using home visits by inspectors to stop affluent families monopolising bursary funds.
The inspectors look at the state of home decor, the location of the property and the car on the driveway. One head said he also asked families about recent holidays to make sure that fee bursaries were not going to those who had little disposable cash because of expensive lifestyles.
Smaller independent schools in particular want their limited subsidies to go to deserving children and are adopting stringent measures to assess which are from the most needy backgrounds.
The amount spent on bursaries by members of the Independent Schools Council (ISC) has increased by £100 million in five years to £380 million. But while some large London day and boarding schools have rich alumni and generous bursary pots, which they can use to subsidise fees for middle-class professionals, others say they have to make sure that funds are more carefully allocated.
Kevin Fear, head of Nottingham High School, described the typical parents of his pupils as taxi drivers rather than hedge fund managers. His is one of more than 250 schools that use a company called Bursary Administration to help it to assess applications. Others include Eton, Winchester, Harrow and Fettes.
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Mr Fear, whose school charges maximum fees of less than £15,000 a year, said: “We work really hard to raise funds wherever we can. In an area like this we can’t put fees up to raise money for bursaries so we have to try to persuade alumni or any other donors. That’s why it’s so important that the bursaries go to people who really deserve it, because we owe it to donors.”
The school raises about £1 million a year for bursaries, which range from covering part of the fees to meeting the full cost. More than 100 pupils receive a bursary, which can be given to families earning up to £65,000 a year per household. Most have a household income of less than £30,000 and some were not earning at all.
Neil Robson, founder of Bursary Administration, said some schools wanted to help children from the poorest families; others wanted to subsidise professionals for whom school fees were just out of reach. He said: “Outsourcing the assessment makes it fairer for everyone. We’re independent and the same process is carried out whether for Eton or the smallest prep school.”