Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

No idea if we can afford it (TBH we can't afford the fees for our first son - we can only pay them thanks to a flexible mortgage)

But we'll have to find the money if ds2 gets a place (kinda crossing my fingers that he won't get a place )

But we haven't paid a registration fee. Only a couple of weeks till we find out!

ailurophile wrote:I may have got this wrong, but aren't you both (Pinkhebe and Eowyn) waiting to hear whether your children are offered a place for entry this year? So you've applied, paid the registration fee, and your children have gone through two stages of assessment... all without CH having provided you with sufficient information to calculate whether you'll actually be able to afford a place if it's offered?

This is unfair (particularly to the children), and unacceptable.

Yes Ailurphole, we also both have children already at CH. Not only do we not know how much our younger children may cost us, but due to the changes in how the bursaries are calculated now, from when our older children started, if our younger ones do get in, they will be assessed differently to the older ones! Confusing or what!

No idea if we can afford it (TBH we can't afford the fees for our first son - we can only pay them thanks to a flexible mortgage)

But we'll have to find the money if ds2 gets a place (kinda crossing my fingers that he won't get a place )

That's a sad and rather counter-intuitive coda, Pinkhebe! But I understand exactly how you feel: once we had both our sons at CH the assessed contribution became increasingly unaffordable year on year. We tried to discuss this with the school, but were simply told that if we couldn’t afford the fees we would have to remove our child/ren, which we were eventually and very reluctantly forced to do. Things got a little easier once DS1 moved back into the state system for his sixth form; but although this actually worked out well for him we still feel rather guilty that we were then able to offer his brother a choice over whether to stay on at the same stage. It’s so difficult as a parent – you really want to do the best for your children, and offer them the same opportunities, but the CH assessment seems designed to make this virtually impossible if you’re what the current government likes to call a ‘hard working family’ (aka the squeezed middle!).

Let's just hope that the elusive and very unhelpful bursary table will soon be replaced with much clearer information, and a financial assessment that makes a CH education genuinely accessible to families from all walks of life.

DS2 didn't get a place, which is quite right really. But admissions sent a very nice rejection letter

Neither did DD, been told to approach KES! Devastated!

We got told that too

No devastation though in this house - I would have been having a mild panic attack if he'd got in. He really would have struggled with the languages and English.

Hope you have a good plan B Eowyn, luckily for us the state comp, although not fab academically, should suit ds.

Just pm'd you Pinkhebe

Does anyone know of any sibling that got in? As far as I can make out no one who posted here did, nor did the others I know of from school.

Has the School ever issued a statement on their policy regarding siblings entrance ?

In the 'good-old days', siblings seemed to have no trouble at all on gaining entry.

Is this 'money' thing rearing its head yet again ??

J.R. wrote:Has the School ever issued a statement on their policy regarding siblings entrance ?

In the 'good-old days', siblings seemed to have no trouble at all on gaining entry.

Is this 'money' thing rearing its head yet again ??

The sibling policy was removed from the website a couple of years ago John. And yes it would certainly seem that the dreaded M word is rearing it's ugly head!

It was always just as competitive for siblings, in my time as a parent anyway, and I know lots of families whose second child did not get in. But if a sibling did get in then the assessed fees were halved for the child whilst both were at CH. Thank goodness this was the case, and I feel extremely fortunate that both mine attended CH, had a wonderful education and it was just about affordable (but only just). The uncertain situation re fees now must be extremely worrying for parents.

I can assure you each individual case was looked at meticulously.
I am sorry to learn of the disappointments of some.
Quite a high proportion of siblings have been offered places.

Does anyone know of any sibling that got in? As far as I can make out no one who posted here did, nor did the others I know of from school.

Yes, I do know of one......

Sadly, my DD was not successful, I have made an appeal and it's been over a week and we've had no reply or acknowledgement of my email.
I'm also confused as our letter from CH said the if we were to apply for King Edwards then we would not be able to appeal. However there was no mention of appealing first and if there was still a chance to apply for kings after the outcome of the appeal.
Time is now running out as all applications to kings need to be made by Friday 21st.
This is so odd and CH need to be clear about the whole appeals process and state how long it will take. Can someone from CH shed more light on this?