southernsoftie, what the h* is this school playing at increasing fees by 9%! That is shocking, even in the good times! I would question why - it is your right.

I have a friend who said her school is increasing boarding fee by 2% and day fee is not increasing.

My DS goes to a private prep school & the fees are going up by about 5% in September.

My DH teaches at a private secondary school and he is NOT getting a pay rise in September.

Just signed up to a new school only to be told that the fees will go up by just over 9% in September (gulp) - hope the new buildings that are going up are worth it as am now wondering if we shouldn't have gone for the other (cheaper) option instead.

We received our letter a week ago. It was 2.9%.

ours are going up 3%. Teachers may well be on contracts that tie them to the national pay spines, or points above it so schools often cannot unilaterally decide not to increase teacher's salaries without being in breach of their employment contracts

Our DD is up by 4.5%, DS is flat. If you e-mail allaboutschoolfees.com they should be able to tell you the increase for your school.

At my school it is going on increased energy bills (we have fixed pricing which has now expired), resources, salaries and saving for rainny days as they are forecasting losing x% of pupils.

cazzybabs i agree i do earn more than teachers , i am cross that hte increase on fees is not linking ot a payrise for the teachers who on my opinion deserve it, where is the money going then ? oh yes the head is having a new house built for him and his family... as the price of electricity/gas and food is actually falling now why do they need and no ris ein salary costs why do they need to raise fees

And to be honset I am bit shocked of the attitude...well if I am not getting a pay rise no one should either...

my husband (not this year) but in the past has got bloody huge pay rises..its not that he works harder than me its just we have chosen different professions

if you want a payrise this year...maybe you should think about teaching...mind you I suspect even with your lack of payrise you are still earning far more than the techers at your child's school

Our fees are going up 3% and no the teachers are not getting a payrise bar the money they get added until they reach the top of the pay scale...same as in the state sector.

If you wish the best teachers you have match or better what they get in the state sector.

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Mummydoc, at our dc's school the teachers are not getting a rise.

Around a 5% increase from September

Ours went up about 7% at the beginning of the school year in January, but in comparison with UK fees they are very low. School trips are usually included (DS1 in Y10 had an amazing 4 day "city camp" the other week and we didn't have to pay a cent). There are also big sibling discounts, the only way for us to afford private schooling for 3 kids! In comparison to the public schools I think our school offers incredible value for money in terms of education so I'd scrub toilets if I had to to keep up with the fees

5% here , i am incensed, neither dh or i am getting a rise this year, don't know if teachers are getting a rise , will find out , if not will be even more incensed

Yes - but only by about 1% if that. We are getting school kitchens installed and better food promised so actually not bad if the promise is delivered.

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Ours go up the same % as the rise in teachers' pay (from the public sector pay award).

Ours are going up by about 4%.

4.6% from September. Additional increases on extras too - lunches, ballet lessons, clubs etc.

Ours is going up by a much smaller % than in previous years

It isn;t all doom and gloom though. We do have just under 2 years worth of fees in hand in an ISA (as long as the value hasn't gone down by too much as it is stocks and shares.

I just didn't expect to have to dip into the rainy day fund this early on.

People are saying that we have come through the worst now, lets hope things get better from here on.

There are no bursaries available in prep.. Dd goes into prep from per-prep in September so we knew that would be hard. Dh is self employed and our income has dropped this year.

The bursar did say that even in Senior School a family income of £40k was borderline for being eligible for a bursary.

I was expecting about a 3-3.5% rise. It has come as a shock.

ios any chance of a bursary or scholarship? 6% is a lot bearing in mind that we now have negative inflation and I don't know anyone who has had a payrise. I was pleasantly surprised as I was expecting something.

Ours rose by 6%, plus they started to charge for after school care last September.

It is going to be a hard year for us.

Just got our letter today. No fee increases for years R through 5, 2.5% above that. They also expect the school roll to be 5% lower for 2009/10 compared to current year for pre-prep and junior prep.

We've still not had the letter. Getting a bit concerned now. I suppose it will come with the school bill which will inevitably arrive during the holiday

Blimey arfishy!!! 9% is a HHHHUUUUUUGGGEEEEE rise in fees. Is that a 1 off? or do they rise by that every year?

Where do your Dc go to school? Is that just an annual rise or does that include a rise between the school years too.

How have the school justified such a substantial fee rise? Has there been alot of improvements or changes to the school?

If our school had a rise like that I would be asking for an explaination.

Sorry for all the questions but 9% just seems a huge rise!!

Ours went up by 2%. Head said he need to keep teachers salaries attractive otherwise they would leave (where would they go).

TBH - I get a bit tired of teachers expecting to made an exception year after year. All pay rises are being frozen within my company (very large multi national).

Wow arfishy - 9% is a lot.

PTA meeting here tomorrow so will be asking head what plans are. She is very vague though!

Yes, ours went up 9% .

DH has already told me that I need to earn at least as much as school fees plus tax next year. They haven't told us about fees yet - I think they like to break the new people in gently.

We don't know yet but I did phone the bursar to ask about notice periods.

We have until 15th April to decided whether the dc stay at school after summer.

If dd stays she will go up from pre-prep to prep so there will be an increase. I'd like to keep ds in until the end of pre-prep but that may not be possible if we move dd due to pick up times etc.

Apparently with an income of £40-45k now we may be over the bursary threshold but they rarely give them for prep anyway.

Had the letter today.

Pre-prep is going up by 3.3% (£80 a term)
Prep is going up by 3.5% (£90 a term)
After school care is going up by 7% (25p a day)

(singersgirl - perhaps we cld apply for a jobshare in a local pub to augment income for fee rises... )

Am grateful to MNers because before DS went to an indie I had read load of threads advising that school fees rise faster then inflation, so at this stage...am not overly agitiated, will see how things go over subsequent years(tho' we did this wkend decide to sign DS2 up with an 11+ tutor to try him for (free) grammar instead.... )

You also need to take into account that schools have suffered exactly the same increase in gas and electric as we all have - therfore a 5% increase will not go anywhere near covering those costs before you even throw in the staff costs, increased insurancxe costs etc etc etc

I don't know anyone who either has got or is getting a pay rise this year and I know plenty who have lost their jobs (although I don't know any teachers). I will be very surprised if we had a fee increase at all this year.

One school has a rise of 4%, the other of 3%. Lower than average increases. Pupil numbers in both schools steady or even increasing.

All schools increase their fees each year. The biggest cost, by far, is the salary cost of employees. Most independent schools have salaries tied to public sector salaries (either the same, or with a small % above). For that reason, they need to match the annual Public Sector Pay Award.

Ours are not going up at all in September but will be reviewed in January instead.

We'll hear about it sometime soon. I think it comes with our extras bill.

Previous increases (we've been there since 2000) haven't been more than 5-6% so I hope it won't be any more, esp since they are currently 're-structuring'.

Ours have risen by £150 per term, not too bad, last years rise was huge in comparison

But yippee, Pre prep late stay is now free!
Pre prep finishes at 3.30 and prep at 4.30, Im at work at 3.30 and its a pain collecting twice so lots of parents use late stay so having it free is going to save us all a lot of pennies!

The Steiner School we left in January was raising fees by 'something in the region of 12.5%', Very unhelpful of them to be so vague (not).

Their fees are low though in the first place.

The 6% will depress my husband inordinately.

MrsGofG, we've accepted the place so I guess our sons will be in the same year from September.

Waiting to hear but I suspect there will be some dort of rise! We usually get told in June. 6 and 7% seem very steep rises? Ours is around 4% usually.

Ours is 4.2% - I was expecting it to be around 4% so that's fine.

Where are they going?

6% seems pretty steep. Have they tried to justify it?

AND next years history trip is £1,700

Letter today - 6%

DD's will increase by 2.5% this year. Her fees are cheap in comparison to other local private schools. With the Reception vouchers coming in, it makes it even better!

Yes, ours has by about £150. It has increased every year by about this amount.

DD's school increases fees approximately 7% each year. In light of the economy they have decided to increase fees 'only' by 4%.

We were initially advised by our IFA to aalow for 10% increase per year in school fees, so to see 3% ones is fab

Thanks guys. I was up in arms about potential increase here but it does seem as if lots of schools are increasing fees.

Yup, got a letter home today saying that in September the fees are going up 3%.

But they seem to be investing it in the school as we can see the difference around the place.

Don't know yet, but it seems rather much to hope for a price freeze. Would be nice though.

Just had the letter and it is 3%

Imagine so, don't know by how much yet though

School has said it will try to impose no increase this year.

No idea yet; will get invoice and notice of any increase sometime during Easter holidays.

I do expect some rise. There was no rise last year at all, but they decided to start charging for after school care instead.

Our fees will go up regardless of any % increase as DD is moving from preprep to prep.

Was going to start a thread on this, just had ours which is just under 5% but now inclusive of more "extras" . Another local school is not increasing its fees as it has merged with another smaller one which already charges less and they need to catch up.

our eldest has not yet started but the school he is going to are not increasing their fees

Yes, both my dcs' schools plus the one I work at - all increasing. But not by much.

Doing a bit of a survey! DS is at an international school and we are aware that fees are increasing. Just wondering if other schools are increasing fees in this economic climate.