School fee hike - freaking out slightly

State schools keep costs down by increasing class sizes etc, though. And many state schools are at breaking point. (This is not me slagging off the state sector, I work as a teacher in a state school at the moment). A lot of the costs going up will be the same for private schools.

And the really big cost cutting measures (e.g. leaving the teacher pension scheme) are very unpopular with staff and will make it hard to recruit new experienced staff when needed.

I can see schools moving to a more pay as you go model- most now have fees that are all inclusive of exam entries/extra curricular/lunches etc.

I would imagine if they took all of this out, parents could evade VAT on those fees BUT then I assume you'd get issues with people who'd sign up on a baseline cost, and wouldn't be aware of the costs of the extras, which might not be very viable for anyone.

Printing brochures and programs isn't a major expense for schools, though. You'd have to be printing thousands and thousands for it to have any real kind of impact. Many schools have in house reprographics (or at least good printers) so can do most of the actual printing in house. And once you have a template, it's relatively easy to update year on year.

I agree with you though, it's long term experienced teachers who make a school, and also being able to attract new ones when they leave who will want to stay, plus obviously being able to attract maternity cover etc. It's increasingly difficult for secondary schools to find people to do maternity cover- I guess for some private schools, especially big names, people see it as a foot in the door. But how many people can risk a temporary contract vs a permanent one (even at a less desirable school) right now?

I'm not saying maternity cover makes a school, but if you can't find someone to do it, it can make life really difficult for the department.

We had letters from both my DCs schools.
1 GDST in SW London and 1 Large Co-Ed in London. Both 'academic' and 'highly sought after' in Mumsnet world. Both increasing by 7.5%- not as bad as it could have been..

I'm sorry the state sector has failed your kid and thousands of others like them. Your kid is extremely fortunate to have a parent with the motivation and ability to give them the best possible education - but as I'm sure you are aware, many other kids won't be that fortunate even though their parents also want the best for them. I'd probably do the same if I were in your position - it's more a comment on the dismal state provision than anything else.

The graph I linked to lists income by percentile, not amount - so at 100 it is referring to the richest 1% of households in the country, not those earning max £100k (though even this view is limited as it only looks at income, not family/inherited wealth, etc).

@PerSeer I agree re the 100k households. Id understand if it was 100k per working adult. 100k for a household isn't much now and if that's the top percent, it just shows the dire state of salaries in this country. If that's the top earners, the middle class is now on UC than.

I have DC at an independent and I am neither rich nor do I pay for a luxury product. DC is neurodivergent, and indys actually do provide SEN services that states don’t, so I am working like hell 24/7 to be able to pay the fees as that is the only acceptable alternative.

This amazing 20sthing blogger at the Times seems to label the “richest” family households with maximum 100k income. That’s two young intellectuals earning 50k each in London. Not exactly the richest, are they? Yes Mr Calver’s chart defines that as the top of the crop. The snobbery is appalling, and this new generation of a so called journalist seems to be proud of his work of misleading millions.

@belladonna22I am sorry if someone hurt your feelings, but your use of language is similarly disgusting.

@tinatea That's strange. As you've not started yet you may not be fully on their database. Worth emailing them about it.

We are due to start a independent school in September for my 4 year old and knew that at some point yes fees would increase. What shocked me was the school didn't notify me of the increase, I accidentally stumbled upon the fee increase via their website.
I can see that most people here have had notifications via email which was my expectation also. The lack of communication has left me with slightly ruffled feathers and we haven't even stepped through the door yet.
This can't be normal can it?

I said I’d update when we had our fees info through - around 10% increase. South east.

@nowinhouse you're clearly purposely not reading the part where I said independent schools help the local schools with sports training.

This wouldn't up provision in state schools. There are no teachers to supervise additional provision. It will just be a reduction in school sport across the board.

@nowinhouse I'm not forgetting that. Why do you think I said they can help subsidise local sports? I'm under no illusion that state school sports is dire in most places.
Helping the local community and setting up ways local schools can take part in fixtures would benefit all kids, including the ones in the independents and would save time and money on fuel. It's ridiculous how far some schools travel for fixtures, not to mention the cost of running them.

I think you are forgetting (in my area anyhow) independants are more inclusive for sports. My local state secondary is very much A team only for fixtures whereas the indis put out A-E teams regularly.

There are local fixtures in my area but they are A team only and irregular. I have friends that have moved state to private purely because their child never got to represent the school in sport.

@belladonna22 Tbh most of the popular, selective independent schools in London already have quite high numbers in classes. It's not unheard of to have 26 in a KS3 class. They tend to get lower in GCSEs for the optional subjects but that's the case in state schools too. My daughter is in a state school and currently has 8 in her DT, 8 in music, 18 in science and her the most is 23 in English. This is less than some of her friends have in private schools. Shes in the lower/middle sets but still, the class sizes isnt really something private secondary schools have room to change for the most part.
I don't include preps in this as they can be tiny, however most parents who would struggle with fees, save up for secondary.
I think for the most part those that can afford private prep, would be fuming if classes became much bigger than 15 in that age range.

Regarding staff, many private schools are overstaffed. I am not talking about excellent quality maths teachers, but admin staff, multiple languages & sports offered - that kind of thing. That will have to go in some cases. It is sad for modern languages, for example, but needs must. Less choices does not necessarily make for a lesser education in all cases.

All the research shows that at secondary school in a selective environment 20 vs 26 in a class makes no difference. The teacher just has to mark a bit more. If you have better paid better quality experienced staff that actually can pay off.

Maintenance of facilities is hugely expensive and that has to be addressed, of course. However, state schools cope with not repainting every second term etc , maybe private schools will have to cut back a little bit. Allow packed lunches more etc.

Energy costs have gone up a lot but teens tend to be too hot anyway. If you have more kids in the classroom and smaller classrooms you actually need to heat less…

I just think the private schools are going to have to do what the state schools have had to do and get their act in gear.

Moreover, keeping the middle class parents and the teachers’ and doctors’ kids there is really important because they tend to add to the high grades and keep the standards up.
London, in particular, has a lot of working professional parents paying school fees and has a lot of international parents from Asian background as well that push their kids. It is in the interest of schools to keep those kids and parent groups as they tend to be high achieving. Obviously that is a vast generalisation - but keeping the hardworking aspirational parent group in your school and their kids is vital to future success.

Private schools in UK really need to avoid just attracting rich kids because that is what has happened in many other countries and academic standards fell greatly as a result. No matter how good the school and teaching the child needs to have a high IQ and supportive parent to achieve well, typically.

Parents are entirely in their rights to get together and make these demands, but what I'm saying is that if the biggest line items in the school's budget (staff, facilities, energy costs) are the ones increasing by 10% or more, it's hard to see how they can avoid passing on those costs. Yes, they can make cuts elsewhere, but they are unlikely to make a huge dent versus the big and fast growing items. And surely you don't want schools to start firing teachers and increasing class sizes to keep costs down?

I just feel like lots of parents weren't concerned with "fairness" when they were able to buy their kids a better education than most others, but now that they are starting to find themselves on the other side of the affordability line, "fairness" seems to have moved up the agenda. People usually think that "fairness" just means them getting what they want and think they deserve, rather than any objective measure!

That was meant to say high quality staff and pastoral care

@belladonna22 - OK well there is a very oversubscribed very well known successful school in London in a very nice area where the parent group have gotten together en masse recently to complain about school fee rises… the parent group is not all bankers, lots of media & creative types etc too. I am not going to the name the school but I think you are incorrect in your assumptions that parents want to keep paying for a luxury product. What they want is value for money and fairness and a good return on their investment etc and high quality stuff. Not nice to have luxuries.

London is indeed its own market but if we see further crises in the global financial sector, god knows what is going to happen.

@belladonna22 i couldn’t see on the graph what level of income they said the wealthier parents each earned? Anecdotally I would say our school is full of middle class both working parents but often grandparents help with fees etc - so not sure this study takes full view of this. Plus the bursary data used is 2015 so not current. It would be interesting to see what it is now.

The Sunday Times had an interesting article out over the weekend looking into who goes to private school - while the schools would suggest it's most middle class parents who would therefore struggle with a 20% rise, the data suggests it's actually mostly wealthy families who could absorb the cost: twitter.com/tomhcalver/status/1647528103546159104?s=46&t=5I31IBMAm0ZMPLlHoP8xBg

@belladonna22 i guess it depends on the numbers of kids on bursaries - at our school it is not a handful but a significant percent. I agree it would be a very sad outcome.

Private schools are a premium luxury good and are priced accordingly. While some schools may need to keep prices down to remain viable, where I am in London most private schools are oversubscribed so shouldn't have a problem finding people to pay the fees. Indeed, if one school starts cutting back on its offering, it will drive the full fee paying parents to competitors. I couldn't imagine being asked to pay £20k per annum but not getting a coffee at an open day?! Besides, most costs go on staff and facilities (including energy costs)... I don't think scrapping some glossy brochures is really going to move the needle.

People pay these fees because they want something more than they can find in the state sector. If the private schools cut back, their relative advantage will diminish and more people will question if it's worth it - like how BA cut back on its service in order to compete with the likes of easyjet on price, to the point where it's no longer viewed as "premium" and therefore can't charge a premium, leading to more cost cutting... it's a vicious cycle.

As for cutting bursaries, again that's not going to move the needle in terms of overall fees and it would be a rather immoral and small minded thing to do. Let's not give a handful bright youngsters a chance to excel so that the "struggling" middle class parents don't have to give up their holidays abroad?

I agree it's painful watching prices spiral upwards (on everything, not just school fees) but I chose a premium product when a free one was available, so I feel like I can't really complain. Nor would I want the school to water down the product I'm paying so much for!

Still waiting for the fee increase letter here - term starts on Monday so it is starting to feel tactical now and I'm expecting a whalloping great rise.

@Dodgeitornot - also although I am a Labour voter I cannot in the current circumstances get on board with the VAT on independent schools at this point. We were in a totally different position previously, before Covid and the cost of living crisis. Killing off a sector and the weaker players in it at this point at the cost of mostly hardworking families and children, a big no no from me.
I also think the early reports and analyses done on this pre Covid already painted a bleak picture. It is a lot worse now. Preps in particular (primary level) will be a disaster if it goes ahead.

The rich private secondary schools will be fine and the rich parents will prepay before the VAT comes in and the schools will sit on a lot of prepaid money and will hire the right financial advisors to make that money work. They will also use Capex and VAT spend on that to set off the VAT payable by parents. So the whole thing will be totally unfair.

@Intergalacticcatharsis I agree with everything you and the pp have said about this. Ultimately private schools are in the same pickle state schools were in years ago when budgets were first slashed. They had to get creative. Ultimately kids are going to school to learn in a safe and warm environment. All the other extras are nice, but biting the hand that feeds you won't do the school any favours. Too many private schools are wasting vast amounts of money.

The fixtures thing is actually a really good example of this. The money spent travelling could easily subsidise sports coaching sessions for local schools and get local fixtures going. A lot of this is a balance of pleasing those snobby parents Vs keeping the books balanced.