School fee hike - freaking out slightly

Heads can only raise the fees though if people can afford to pay them. Too high and the school won’t have enough people paying the higher amounts to cover their costs- so an own goal

reserve wise it seems to be split into restricted and non restricted - but def high numbers. And a surplus of income v expenditure of in excess of 4 million for the year. Which seems a fairly healthy amount to have spare.

I think most heads have no choice. Their biggest ongoing costs will likely have increased this year and will likely increase again next year. They may also be facing capital expenditure in the next few years, and the costs of things like building work have gone up a lot too.

What do you consider a very healthy reserve? I think a lot of people underestimate how much it costs to run a school, and the outlay of things like replacing IT, building maintenance, updating sports facilities and so on. Plus any pay rise across staff (e.g. to match state sector pay rises) can eat into this quickly.

That said, I do think raising their fees just because other schools are raising them is bizarre!

We are still in the baby boom phase for Year 7 places so the top London private schools are very comfortable in the current space. It could all change for them drastically though in the next few years…

I really think part of the reason people move out of London is down to the huge secondary schools and people’s fear of crime in them. There are some amazing state secondary schools in London too, but getting in is tricky. We have already started seeing lots of back door selection via music places in comps and lotteries etc and I think the top comps are going to be vying for the pupils of parents who may so far have chosen private but will be rethinking in the future.

So I think the next 10 years are going to be very interesting. If I were a head in a private school I would not be squeezing my educationally motivated middle class parents too much, quite the opposite.

@Intergalacticcatharsis Yes, very compliant parents and compliant kids make for easy teaching though. They have the time and finances to filter intakes to choose those. Our friends have been waiting months for a meeting with the senco at their nearly 30k a year day school. They keep defending the school. Moved their kid from state for far less than that.

I wouldn’t be at all happy with that explanation! Ours are clear (both in the governors’ reports and in comms with parents) that they are doing all they can to minimise fee increases, while ensuring that staff are fairly rewarded - both by way of salary and staying in the TPS etc. With a rise of 7% this year I think they have done well in current circumstances.

Yes, it is an arms race. Previously over facilities, now fees. I really think that parents need to start voting with their feet.

All these successful rich educated people just paying up blindly because it is their DC? All these business people just trusting the school that they are running an efficient business?
The way we do it in state schools is to volunteer, get involved, lobby locally for new schools. Speak to the heads etc., question the governors. I am really surprised sometimes how compliant some private school parents are.

Gosh 20% is massive! I do wonder sometimes if it is self perpetuating - our school made much of the fact they had checked other local school fees and felt they needed to raise them! Having looked at their accounts last night, they have a very healthy reserve and quite a lot of surplus income over expenditure. I’m not so convinced that our full raise was needed.

Meant "increase is so misaligned ..."

Agree! Which school is that? (Just wondering if one that had low rates and is "catching up"... as the increase is to misaligned with all the others)

@Sewingdufus 20% is insane!

That's a pretty massive fee hike - have they given reasons why? I'd be concerned the school is in financial trouble.

Does know what the fees for Winchester College 23/24 will be yet?

@rumbusiness Lol. Please work on your inference skills and stop taking what I say out of context. You know exactly that's not what I mean. I asked where the bursaries for the other refugees are and the poor kids from the other side of the borough.

They didn't say any of that. Their post was a complaint about rich people being asked for donations. Here it is, again.

constantly asking for donations to be added to fees to increase bursary fund for new pupils. All lovely but no regard to current parents and their struggles.

@rumbusiness - that is not what the poster insinuated. How many Afghani girls got bursaries or Iraqi children or Kurds etc in the past? The insinuations was that the woke headmaster is jumping on the Ukrainian bandwagon to further his own image above other matters. That is happening with regards to the Ukraine war in several spheres at the moment… hardly a controversial point. You can be totally opposed to the war in Ukraine but still be cynical.

Rich people asked for optional donations to help refugee children.

THE HORROR, THE HORROR

It's so weird that you typed out all of those reasons but left out the HUGE one, which is "we want our children to mix with The Right Kind of People".

20% fee increase from September this year. Such a steep increase probably identifies the school.

@Intergalacticcatharsis

Yh it's a male head with an obvious vision.
I can't handle the wokeness. Where's the free places for other refugee children or the dirt poor kids from the other side of the borough. Just because someone is a Ukrainian refugee doesn't mean they're broke. They never ran a campaign like that before.

Just had the email - SE London - 7.5%. Could be worse.

@Dodgeitornot - sounds like an extremely well paid headmaster too with a very clear vision…, at odds with some of the existing parent group?

Parents are a really important part of a school community.

I personally massively dislike the CEO style me me me type headmaster with a vision.
It is good to give bursary places but they should always be funded by separate campaigns/endowments etc well in advance and never by existing fees/pressure to donate. In a cost of living crisis those already struggling should be helped first.
I am not sure how I feel about free places for a Ukrainian refugees. Is a high alpha high performance environment like that actually in the best interests of a traumatised child? I hope they get loads of pastoral care and counselling and zero grade/performance pressure.

@Intergalacticcatharsis This has just happened at a well known selective in N London. School has a huge reserve, has just given lots of sponsored places to Ukrainian refugees and is constantly asking for donations to be added to fees to increase bursary fund for new pupils. All lovely but no regard to current parents and their struggles. Fees of course going up considerably and the school is opting out of having charity status voluntarily under the argument that it'll happen sooner or later so they want to prepare for it now.

@tinatea - if you are referring to Eltham College, from my research the headmaster there was paid around £250000 plus free house plus potentially discounts for own children. Paid more or same to the headmaster of Eton College…

No, the school I was originally referring to was even more than that, close to 400k for the headmaster! Quite astounding in these times. There is a thread going about Brighton College and it appears the head there is more 250k ball park.

Quite an eye opener reading the accounts of these schools.