Anna Selby looks at a little-known type of scholarship that will help keep the school fees down - if your child has the voice of an angel, that is

In the mid-1980s, the private sector was educating around 56,000 pupils. Now, that number has risen tenfold to over 600,000. As the figures rise, more and more parents are finding that school fees make up a significant proportion of family expenditure - to the extent that they run house prices a close second in dinner party chat. It is hardly surprising then that there is the keenest competition for the few bursaries and scholarships still available since the demise of assisted places.

Yet there is one form of scholarship that is actually short of candidates - choristerships. This is particularly surprising as not only are they unusually generous, but they also start at a uniquely early age and see children through their entire prep-school life. So, what's the problem? According to Jane Capon at the Choir Schools' Association, most parents simply aren't aware that choristerships exist. 'We're living in an increasingly secular society and people don't actually go to churches or cathedrals and hear choirs sing.'

Bad press
Truro Cathedral has initiated an outreach scheme with 80 children from local schools, in the hope that it will find a budding chorister amongst them. But even if it does, there may be parental resistance to the idea. Unfortunately for choir schools, while all over the country they are quietly - and usually very successfully - going about their business, the only time we do get to hear about them is when they're in trouble.

The current Westminster Abbey Choir School scandal - where five boys have left and more are rumoured soon to follow - confirms all our worst liberal prejudices about boarding schools. An enquiry is going on into the 'bullying and emotional abuse' of boys by staff, with children being harangued in the middle of the night and sent to bed in tears, not permitted to telephone their parents.

Changing practices
The brutal Tom Brown's Schooldays image is thankfully far from the reality in most cases, however, and chorister boarding takes place in small, cosy dormitories with large playrooms filled with toys and train sets. Because practices have to be fitted in around all the other demands of the school day, choristers have traditionally boarded and mostly they still do. However, there has been a strong trend away from all boarding over the last decade and this has hit choir schools hard, particularly as they require boys to board from such a young age, starting at eight or even seven. (Not only are smaller boys more likely to suffer severe homesickness, parents are reluctant to miss out on their childhood with a regime that allows them, in the most extreme cases, access only for tea on Saturdays.)

Maggie Hartley, whose two sons have both been choristers at the (non-boarding) Temple, regards the idea of boarding with horror. 'We'd never have sent them away,' she says. 'We love them too much.'

This is a common cri de coeur and, hardly surprisingly, the non-boarding choir schools are being regarded more favourably - though they often require more of a commitment and a sizeable investment of time from choir parents, simply getting boys to practices and services on time. Day places are still in the minority, however, offered by, amongst others, Hereford, York, Tewkesbury, New College Oxford, Bristol, Norwich, Gloucester and the Temple and Chapel Royal in London. A few choir schools also take girls.

Reaping the rewards
At all choir schools, choristers receive an unparalleled musical education - by the time they are eleven, they are real professionals. They often sing in concerts, radio and television broadcasts and recordings and - even more glamorous - go on tour to exotic locations (the Temple, for instance, most recently went to Brazil).

The financial rewards are considerable, too. Almost all the choir schools offer choristers at least a 50 per cent reduction in fees, and 60 to 80 per cent is not unusual. Most of the schools are preps and continue the scholarships during a boy's entire school life, even if his voice breaks prematurely. Subsequently, most choristers get music or academic scholarships in their senior schools as they are generally trained in at least two instruments. In fact, of 197 choristers who left their choirs last year, only eleven went on to pay full fees in their next schools. It needn't even stop there - many of the older universities offer choral scholarships to ex-choristers, regardless of their chosen subject.

How do you get in?
What you need is a strong, clear voice and a good ear for picking up and remembering a tune - and, of course, a real enthusiasm for music. Choirmasters tend to look for boys with obvious enthusiasm and energy - not just a sweet voice - as services and rehearsals can amount to a sizeable workload for an eight-year-old, who has to fit his singing around school, homework and sports practice.

Most choir schools have traditionally used an annual voice trial as the selection process. In essence a competition, the boys sing a prepared piece or two, play an instrument if they have learned one and sing back tunes, chords and scales or clap out rhythms. They usually do an academic test, too, because it is unlikely that someone struggling with their schoolwork would be able to cope with the choir as well. Now some schools make the voice trial as informal as possible and are happy to listen to boys by appointment throughout the year.

The increasing informality is all part of a trend that aims to draw boys into the slightly foreign cassock and cloister culture. Once there, though, the boys usually take to it with enthusiasm and are just the same as little boys everywhere, their minds mostly on football and PlayStations, just happening when they open their mouths to let out a divine sound.

Information
Temple Choir, London
020 7353 0172

Hereford Cathedral School, Hereford
01432-363511

Choir School Association (for a complete list of choir schools)
01904 624900