School fees have risen by 19% in the space of 12 months

[Findingfactsaboutfees]

AIBU to think this is outrageous ?! Fees are exorbitant anyhow and in the last 12 months we have had an increase of 19% by way of 2 increases in a 12 month period. Fees per year for the senior school are £16690 per year and do not include state of the art facilities as other local schools do. The junior school fees aren't much less either! This is a school in the north of England. If you are paying for education, where are you based and how much do you pay? I wonder whether it is comparable.

Private education will only be for the ultra-rich if fees continue to rise at the rate that they are. It is unsustainable for most working professionals who are comfortable but not ultra-wealthy! Parents locally have tried to take their children out but can't as there are no state school places to be had within a 12 mile radius. The only other option is home schooling which isn't possible when the parents are working full time. We're not yet at the point where we are thinking of taking our child out of school but hearing the plight of those who are in the process of trying to is worrying. I've always been a labour voter but if they do go ahead with the introduction of VAT, I fear it's going to get even worse.

Absolutely not.
The point is
135,000 kids is a lot to find any sort of place for
So
Something would have to change
I didn’t in any way suggest they get first dibs…?

No, obviously it won’t apply in other school years. In reality though, it would take a few years for the full effect to be felt because a lot of parents would wait until the next natural break in education to move their child. Those primary pupils who would have gone to private secondary will enter the state system at 11. Some will finish GCSEs then switch at 6th form. For parents who can’t afford that, a fair few would choose for one parent to give up work and home educate until the next stage of education, or join groups of other private school parents and pay for tuition as a group.

I'm interested as to whether you'd apply the same logic to someone who was upset about e.g. the rising costs of their children's private dental treatment if they felt forced into using the private option despite a free version being theoretically available but, as we all know, in some areas the free version can be a massive pain to access, and the limitations on what's available means that for some families the fight to access the free version is more expensive in terms of time and emotional energy than just paying for the private service. I wonder if VAT will be slapped onto private dentistry services as they are obviously a luxury too when the nhs version is free (for kids) or so much cheaper (for adults).

@Poopoolittlekitten I fought for my child's education. The council wanted to send her to the worst secondary school in my borough. I put her name on loads of waiting lists, went to loads of school waljabouts, did my research (again) and studied league tables. Eventually she was offered a good state school in the neighbouring borough where she has excelled. I find it insulting that you think parents without the means to afford private school are somehow lazy and not bothered by their children's education, when it's not the case.

And where would this money come from? There isn't enough to cover the kids in state at the moment, there certainly isn't spaces in my child's school. There are places in failing schools (where the money needs prioritising) so there are spaces. Your kids can go to these schools not fill classes to excess and deprive our kids of their education.

@SmallFerret so a post showing that I put my children’s education before everything else is, according to you, a post showing that I only value money and privilege 😂😂😂

Are we playing aspiring upper-middle class bingo?

Plight of the fee paying school parents, social cleansing, a working class background, used to vote labour, not actually impacted by cost of living crisis but with time to pontificate on it while other struggle to buy basics.

Can I call BINGO?

The point of the thread is, is the rise in fees reasonable?

I’d say it’s unavoidable. A private school is business. The very end goal is to make a profit. The increases in fuel/food etc will have made a huge dent in their profit margins. No business will accept this. They either charge more or reduce their services (sometimes both) to offset the costs business.

Private schools are in a position where they can’t really reduce their services, because those extras are a large part of why parents choose to send their children there. If those clubs, extracurriculars, wraparound care etc become comparable to state school, in either availability or quality, then they’re no longer a selling point of private school.

My dc is in ks1 at a state school, so gets free school dinners. But my friend’s dc attends a private school where paying for dinners is compulsory. Assuming my dc was older, and I had to pay, the private school meals cost approximately double per term. She naturally expects a higher standard of food for this money than she would get at a state school. But this now costing the school more to provide. The ‘business’ aspect of the school isn’t going to willingly reduce its profits, so this increased cost gets past to the ‘consumer’, in this case the parent.

That quote is taken - out of context - from my post and you can see my original post and responses to this point. I just wanted to respond to you to say that I hate the fact that it might make you feel like you are failing your children. Wealth distribution and numerous state services in this country are failing - all - kids, not you. My point was only that in the context of us having a relatively high income (which I don’t deny is extremely lucky) that is what we chose to spend our money on instead of other things. It doesn’t make me better than any other parent or mean I love my DD more. It is just the very lucky choice we have.

But when they start paying VAT on their fees and lose their "charitable" (ahem!) status, more money in the public coffers and a government who actually elect to fund education properly, THAT is levelling up.

So you think that private school parents are going to be happy with a failing school, to leave space for your children and ensure your children aren’t deprived? They won’t be. As I’ve said, at the ages of 4, 11 and 16, they will fight for the best state school places, using the money saved on education to pay for tutors and expensive houses in decent catchments. Parents who could currently get into those state schools will then complain there isn’t space for their children. There’s already that problem with the grammar system - deprived families don’t have the same chance of getting a space as middle class parents who can afford tutors and houses in the catchment. Shifting the private sector to the state really won’t help anyone.

The "something else" that is already changing is the state school population, which is rapidly shrinking, as mentioned upthread.

Private schools are businesses. They can charge what they want and consumers can decide whether they want to pay or not.

@Plumbear2 that isn’t going to happen is it though. People will be buying houses in the catchment areas closer to the highest performing schools. They will be putting even more pressure on the state grammar schools (there’s always a few from my DC’s private that decide against grammar even where they get a place but the fee increases may sway it in favour of the grammars).

Maybe for a few in year transfers it will be true but most parents who find themselves priced out of private schools will be looking at the best alternatives. It will be the same as the changes to the tax rules for buy to lets. The biggest impact will be felt by the poorest who will be pushed in the worst performing school.

Exactly
Where would this money come from
And how much are we talking about for the tax payer to fund
Heres a calc
£7460 per pupil / yr ( 2023/24 ) x 135,000 children = £1,007,100,000/ yr

(obviously that’s before the cost of building extensions to schools, extra classrooms or new schools.)
Obviously that’s not all the kids at private school either.

So as it stands private school parents are happy to foot the bill and pay taxes for others to go to state.

More money in the public coffers? Even the most optimistic forecasts estimate that tax changes in the private sector would raise little over 1% of the current state education budget. How is such a tiny increase going to improve the state system?

Private school parents are not doing the rest of us a favour. You are paying to buy privilege. That is the point.

Admittedly, not the wisest move, but just because it's on the AIBU board, does that mean you have to click on it?

I agree - anyone who doesn't like it here is free to fuck off at any time.

It’s a privilege to wear designer trainers
To have up to date tech
To go on foreign holidays
To have any sort of holiday at all
To own a house
Its all relative…….

We live in a democracy which allows people to spend their money however they wish. We are not communists.
Do we really want the Government to start eeking away at all our choices, if so
move to North Korea.

@Neededanewuserhandle we already have a problem with doctors leaving for positions abroad. Are you happy for them just to fuck off? To countries like Australia which actually does subsidise private schools.

Or Finland, who outlawed fee paying schools. Wouldn’t be as dramatic as saying NK though.

Finland isn’t communist!

Its precisely this type of mentality which makes you poorer.

What you are suggesting would in fact make the education sector worse off.

Not better.

You are not solving the funding problem with this latest emotional outburst.

How many times does this have to be said?

No wonder the UK is sinking. Critical thinking seems to be beyond most of the population.

Wouldn't the money come from the savings in the state school population dropping by 12% over the next decade?