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The School provides financial support to selected boys in the form of scholarships, bursaries and exhibitions. Scholarships are available to boys entering the School in Year 7 and in Year 11 and others are available to boys within the School. Entrance scholarships are awarded each year to a number of boys entering Years 7 and 11 and are allocated after the completion of a competitive examination and an interview with the Headmaster and Director of Studies. In general, such scholarships are awarded to boys considered to have high academic potential, who will benefit substantially by attending the School, and who will in turn make a significant contribution to the academic life of the School. Factors other than purely academic potential may be taken into account. Three means-related scholarships are available (one of which is for Boarding) for entry into Year 7. They are awarded to boys who apply considerable effort to their studies and who will contribute significantly to the life of the School, both inside and outside the classroom. The Shore Foundation RAI Grant Music Scholarship provides an opportunity for a boy entering Year 7 with outstanding musical talent to attend Shore and exercise leadership in this area. Financial incentives are also offered to a number of boys undertaking instrumental tuition in Year 7. Should a scholarship for entry to Year 7 or Year 11 be offered, acceptance will entail payment of the Registration and Enrolment Fee. These payments confirm acceptance of a scholarship. Boys who have already enrolled or who currently attend Shore Preparatory School will have paid this sum previously. A number of exhibitions and bursaries are available to boys within the school who are progressing into Year 11 and Year 12. Such awards are made to selected applicants after consideration of their potential contributions to the School and an assessment of their likely performance in a variety of areas of School life in their final years. Occasionally, boys may be invited to share an award. All scholarship, bursary and exhibition holders are expected to display academic progress in keeping with their abilities and to take a full and constructive part in the life of the School. All awards are reviewed annually and are continued if the boy is considered to be making outstanding progress. Most of the awards are named after members of the School community who have made outstanding contributions to the School in a variety of ways over a long period of time.
Detailed information on the application process can be found on the Academic and Music scholarship page. Please contact the Scholarships Office for additional information. Tel: +61 2 9900 4746 Email: scholarships@shore.nsw.edu.au
Details and application forms for Senior Bursaries and Exhibitions are obtainable from the Assistant to the Headmaster or by visiting the Internal Bursaries scholarship page. The time of application and return date will be advertised through the Shore Weekly Record.
The historic position of the AAGPS has been that schools ought not to offer sporting scholarships. Shore continues to endorse this stand and does not target the enrolment of gifted sportsmen, nor does it subsidise their enrolment by way of fee reduction. Shore does offer academic, music, indigenous and means tested bursary and scholarship opportunities, nearly all at the point of entry at Year 7. Why does the School make these distinctions? The reasoning is based upon three principles: the educational nature of games rather than as a means of promotion of the school; the equity issues that arise for other boys and the cost to other parents of subsidising sportsmen. A sporting scholarship is “the provision of a specific place in a school for a student of exceptional sporting ability, the place being entirely, or for the most part, decided by that student’s sporting ability. This is usually accompanied by tuition fee reductions, wholly or partially.” The fees may sometimes be paid by third parties. The critical issue is not who pays such fees, but the rationale for the place having been offered. Rather than take responsibility for developing talent a school looks to acquire it. School sport, or to use the traditional name “games”, is primarily undertaken for educational objectives, and the prime purpose is to provide wide participation at a good level for all boys throughout the school. These objectives include the development of a healthy lifestyle, teamwork, sportsmanship in its highest forms, self-control and character. On these points it would seem to send a mixed educational message that when faced with a relative weakness, one would buy a solution rather than work towards developing one’s own talents or potential talents. At this point the amateur and educational tradition moves towards the values and strategies of professional sport. The high profile nature of inter school competitions is often used as a measure for marketing and publicity, matters which are less likely for academic and music scholars. The purpose of sporting scholarships is primarily to gain advantage in prestigious sports at first team level. The integrity of the competition at a senior level is destroyed as it becomes impossible for other schools to have any hope of success in the competition. Shore believes it has an obligation to all schools in the AAGPS to ensure that the playing field is level. There are profound equity issues for boys and families who have supported the school financially and through their own commitment to excellence when the “sports scholar” displaces a boy. For example the boy who has played A level cricket throughout his junior years suddenly may find himself displaced from the senior squads by a new arrival, whose place in the school has been granted and paid for on the basis of sporting ability developed elsewhere. This too would send an anti-educational message about loyalty and perseverance. Academic and music scholars leave room in the “top sides” for others, and do not disadvantage them in this way. The discount or subsidising of fees is always paid for from other sources, and therefore any significant sporting scholarship programme will drive up the cost base of the school and the fees will be subsidised by other parents. It is for the combination of reasons outlined above that Shore maintains its historic position of not offering sporting scholarships and continues to advocate this principle within the AAGPS.