Bursaries

Bursaries - schemes for assistance with fees

Bedford High School for Girls welcomes applications for the Senior School from new parents who genuinely require some form of financial assistance in order for their daughter to join us.

Although our bursary funds are not large enough for entry to the School to be wholly "needs blind", we do help a number of girls every year to come to the School whose parents would not otherwise be able to afford the fees.

The school awards committee, which includes Trustee representation, has a finite sum available to award at their discretion, and many factors, such as a pupil's performance in the entrance assessment papers in January or her performance in the Junior School, are taken into account before deciding on the level of award to be made.

All awards are means tested, subject to verification and annual reassessment. The decisions on awards are made during the Spring Term and communicated to applicants on a provisional basis subject to final verification of their financial assessment details.

In addition to providing assistance to new pupils, we recognise that independent education is a significant long-term commitment and that parents' financial circumstances may change for the worse during their daughters' time at the School. A proportion of the available funds is earmarked each year to provide assistance to parents under these circumstances. Priority is given to girls who are in public examination years (GCSE/A-level/IB).

In order to give potential applicants an idea of the level of assistance that might be available, the Trustees have set a scale that could provide for up to:

• full fee assistance for assessable income of less than £15,000
• 90% assistance for assessable income of around £26,000
• 75% assistance for assessable income of around £32,000
• 50% assistance for assessable income of around £40,000
• 25% assistance for assessable income of around £45,000
• no assistance is available for assessable income levels above £50,000.

Parents should be aware that the scale set by Trustees is a maximum award, and the awards committee may make the offer of an award lower than that indicated by the means testing process in order to help as many families as possible.

Please also note that the Bedford Charity operates a centralised assessment basis, and requires the completion of only one form, whichever school(s) is/are being requested to consider an application for assistance. The information contained in this form will be available to the awards committee of each of the relevant schools.

However, although the assessment system is centralised, each school operates its own bursary fund. This means that assistance awarded by one school is not automatically transferable to any other and so, if parents are considering moving between schools, a fresh application for assistance should be made to the new school in the same way as for any other applicant.

Alternatively, if you have any questions about the form or the application process, please contact the Fees Office at the Bedford Charity, on (01234) 369510.

The deadline for bursary applications to enter the School in September 2009 has passed. Applications for entry in September 2010 should be submitted by 31 December 2009.