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From left, Evan Fuller, Naashkii Soler and Digvijay Mavai were the winners and runners-up of St. Michaels University School 2021 Best School Year Ever contest, which awards scholarships annually.
With two children enrolled in private school, Cheryl Major wondered at one point if she would be able to keep up with the costs of both kids’ education.
“My eldest had already been in private school for a couple of years and when my second daughter came into the same school, it became challenging financially,” recalls Ms. Major, who lives in Victoria, where her kids go to St. Margaret’s School, an independent all-girls school. “I wasn’t sure I would be able to keep the kids on for the long term.”
Ms. Major’s dilemma, which she was able to resolve with help from St. Margaret’s, is one that’s familiar to many parents whose children are in private school or are about to enroll in one. With school fees ranging from several thousands to tens of thousands of dollars a year, private and independent schools are a significant financial investment that the large majority of Canadian families can’t afford or simply won’t consider because of the cost.
Yet private-school education is not as out-of-reach as most people think. Most private and independent schools have financial support programs that include merit- and needs-based scholarships, bursaries, payment plans and discounts.
In recent years, many private schools have also expanded or revised their financial programs to give parents more options for funding their kids’ education. According to the Canadian Accredited Independent Schools, financial aid among its more than 90 member schools has increased by 40 per cent over the past decade.
“We’ve increased our financial aid because COVID hit a lot of families hard,” says Giselle Fernandes, who leads admissions at Mississauga, Ont.-based Holy Name of Mary College School, where annual tuition and school fees range from $21,095 for Grade 5 students to $21,845 for those in Grade 12, plus a one-time capital improvement fee of $3,500. “We have a lot of families who own businesses that really suffered because of COVID and some of these families came to us because they just needed a little bit of help until their business recovered.”
To support these families, Holy Name of Mary provides bursaries, with eligibility and grant amounts determined through an application process handled by an external organization. The school gave out between $3,000 to $17,500 a recipient in bursaries during the pandemic, Ms. Fernandes says.
Carrie Hughes-Grant, head of school at Holy Name of Mary, offers this advice to families wondering if they can afford to send their children to private school: Ask for help.
“Contact the school and ask what kind of financial support they offer,” she says. “There are so many kids that would benefit from an independent school education but because their parents don’t want to ask for help, they miss out on the opportunity.”
Parents worried that requesting financial support might expose their hardships to the community should know their application will be kept confidential.
“Their documents go directly to a third-party company that specializes in evaluating school aid applications,” Ms. Hughes-Grant says. “Based on the information that’s sent in, the company gives us a recommendation of how much they think the family will need.”
A family’s reluctance to ask for financial support is something Ms. Major understands. She recalls her own hesitation when she started to feel the strain of paying for private school.
“But once I mentioned it to the school, they were immediately so supportive,” she says. “They said, ‘We love your family, and we love having your daughters in the classroom,’ and they told me to be sure to apply for financial aid.”
The amount of financial support her family has received from St. Margaret’s has varied from year to year, Ms. Major says.
“Some years I’ve needed it more than others,” she says. “What’s really helped is being able to have a very frank discussion with the school, where I can say, ‘This is where I’m at this year.’ ”
Another important detail for parents to ask about when planning for their kids’ private education is if the school offers discounts on its fees. At St. Michaels University School in Victoria – where Ms. Major works as director of communications and public relations – families with more than one child enrolled in the school get a 5-per-cent discount on tuition for each additional child.
The school also extends a discount to families who pay their fees in full, Ms. Major says. At the same time, a 10-month instalment plan – which comes with a $50 administrative fee per instalment – is available to families who need to spread out the cost over the year.
Some schools also offer discounts to families who refer other students to their schools. At the Lycée International de Calgary, a private French school in Calgary that teaches kids from preschool to Grade 12, this discount amounts to a $1,000 referral bonus applied against fees for the following school year.
Frédéric Canadas, head of school at the Lycée, says parents should make sure they understand every possible source of support. At his school, for instance, students whose families hail from France can apply for financial support from the French consulate.
“Because we are accredited by the French government, the French families in our school could apply for needs-based support directly from the French government,” Mr. Canadas says. “Depending on what they qualify for, that support could range from 1 per cent to 100 per cent of tuition.”
Even when their kids don’t have the most stellar grades, families who need help paying for school should submit a scholarship application, says Ryan Wood, principal at Rosthern Junior College, an independent school in the Saskatchewan town of Rosthern, just north of Saskatoon, for students from Grades 10 to 12.
“Our scholarships criteria is usually a blend of merit and academic, but there is a certain art and science to the way we decide on who gets it,” he says. “So it doesn’t necessarily always go to the one with the highest grades.”
Beyond academic performance and financial need, Rosthern also looks at what value a student can add to the school, Mr. Wood says.
“If we see that a child has something to contribute to our sports team or choir, or to our service trips, then we’ll work with the parents to bring that child here,” he says. “I can almost say with 100-per-cent certainty that I’ve not said ‘no’ to a student who I believe should be here, because at the core of this is a value exchange – our students get value from their time here and they in return bring tremendous value to our culture and community.”
That same desire – to attract students who can add value to the school’s culture and community – is one of the reasons St. Michaels University School runs its annual Best School Year Ever contest, which awards a full boarding scholarship worth up to $68,000 to two students entering Grades 9, 10 or 11, as well as two finalist prizes worth $45,000 each.
Over the past eight years, more than 60 students, including this past academic year’s school valedictorian, have come to the school through the contest, Ms. Major says.
While marks are taken into consideration, what the school looks for when deciding the contest winners are students who are ready “for something bigger and who show passion for something, whether that’s academics or sports or art,” she says.
“The contest is just one of the many ways we’re trying to remove barriers to access our education,” Ms. Major says. “We recognize that wonderful students come from all sorts of financial backgrounds, and thanks to our endowment and legacy funds, we’ve been fortunate to have the ability to bring many of those talented students into our community.”
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