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.

I can’t comment on the few increases but my prediction is that a lot of the lesser known private schools will go bust. They will need to charge more than all but the wealthiest parents will pay.

Actually my heart does almost ache for you , but only because our local comp is amongst the top in England and is better than the local public school. 😊

I have to say the attitude to paying for private education on here stinks! It's another choice some people make, the same as those who spend their salary saving, spending on going out, vices whatever, but the venom because someone spends on education. It's crazy.

Yeah, but what are the house prices like in the catchment area? Did you go private by stealth?

@matisses6fingers This is what a lot of parents at the school do too. School starts at 8am without additional cost and officially finishes at 4pm. There are lots of free after school clubs and the library is open until 6/6:30pm with staff support available too. Given that the kids have the opportunity to take part in various sports as part of school, it takes away the need for additional activities outside of school. I'm starting to realise I posted this in the wrong place but I wanted to know if others across the country were experiencing the same and if iwbu.

he spent the first year of high school being assaulted daily by out of control kids. The school had zero power to act against these feral scum

I believe you.

This is a sad reflection on most high schools. If parent took an active look at the crap that goes on, you’d all fight for better education and not mock those who seek to pay for it.

Yes all kids deserve the same to qualify education but that’s not happening, and it’s not happening because some kids are feral.

@Orders76 yes private education is a choice, as is wearing diamond encrusted slippers. But do you have to be to set about complaining that the cost of your diamond slippers is rocketing when most people are struggling to buy clogs?

Private education will only be for the ultra-rich
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I was studying and felt guilty for spending time away from my child. Knowing the school had a ratio of 1:2 in the nursery and a maximum of 8 children in total made me feel less guilty about it.
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It feels like social cleansing

Do you not hear your privilege?

The stupid thing about the 20% VAT increase that’s gonna happen when Labour comes in is that it won’t affect the public schools (the target of this policy because it’s basically politics of envy). It will just put the smaller private schools under pressure. Many parents that put their kids in these schools make massive sacrifices and any increase in fees will drive the schools into the ground and mean the kids will probably end up in the state system. The parents at my DC’s school will just go with the flow.

I think it has been for the ultra wealthy for a long time, in the south at least.

I went to a private school in the north - they kept feed comparatively very low, around £7-9k per year, and always had as many pupils as possible on more than half bursaries (there was a set percentage - won’t say what that percentage was as it makes it obvious which school but double figures). I’m paying way more than that now on nursery fees. I was astounded when I found out how much private schools in London cost, especially the well known ones.

DH boarded because his parents jobs moved all the time and they decided as a family it was better for him to have continuity of education. We looked up his school fees as they are now and were horrified - £40k+. Not a well known school. He was on full scholarships throughout and his parents were constantly stressed about making sure they paid almost nothing between various scholarships and bursaries, as they couldn’t have in any way afforded the fees.

I can’t think of any normal ‘comfortable’ family paying £30k or £40k per year per child for school fees. It’s an astonishing amount. Totally out of reach of all but the very wealthy.

I think if you’re an earning hundreds of thousands of pounds, you can probably end up comparing yourself to those earning millions and think you aren’t very wealthy, you’re just comfortable. But you aren’t. You are very wealthy.

There is nothing shameful or reprehensible in paying to give your kids the best education you can afford, and no need for the pathetic comments.

In fact less shameful than spending your money on a nice house for your DC to live in or holidays for your family - as than only benefits you - whereas a well educated population helps society as a whole.

I hope whenever you need a doctor/surgeon/dentist/lawyer etc etc you check whether they were privately educated…otherwise you are benefiting from their private education.

OP
Your DC are at a school with fees of £15k+
They are having a potential rise of another £23k
You say it's annoying. But kids need teachers

Boo hoo.

It’s a disgrace that they’re charities. Of course there should be VAT on the fees.

It’s absolutely fine to make the choice to spend on private education.

What’s being called out is the faux poor ‘this is not a luxury’ attitude.

Private education is always a privileged, luxury choice. Always.

State schools need to learn from Private Schools. The most important thing being, keep the scummy kids OUT. You assault someone, you're gone. There and then. No appeals, no move to another school, nothing. Mark their cards, fast track them to jail, and look to habituatize them as soon as possible. Remove them from society and prevent them having children who go on to ruin the education of another generation,

No issue whatsoever about anyone going private, it is the whinging that it’s expensive when that is the whole fucking point or you’d have the “feral kids” (charming phrase, btw) mixing with your little angels.

The poster yesterday complaining that if she bought a £1.5m house, the mortgage repayments would be expensive and that would affect their standard of living (not that it wouldn’t be easily affordable, they were earning £15k per month as a household, just that they wouldn’t have as much spare money), was similarly annoying.

Expensive things are expensive. This should not be news to people, but daily on MN there are posters feigning shock and horror that they have to fit their outgoings to their (always massive) budget.

That does seem quite steep. For comparison ours went up by 2% two years ago, 5% last year and are now going up by 7.5% so the two year increase for comparison with your 19% is about 13% across 2 years. It's painful but I don't feel it's unreasonable - it's a fair reflection of how their costs are rocketing and it's not like they can choose not to pay their staff or their bills. If inflation gets back under control then hopefully next year's won't be quite so high. If it is we will be looking at state for 6th form.

If you seriously need to move to state you can. The LA is obliged to find a place somewhere if you apply for one, and if it's more than 3 miles away and the closest school with a place, they have to pay for transport too. You aren't obliged to keep paying if it's becoming too much for you.

Rather than being angry at the independent schools who are doing their best to provide a good quality of education at the real cost it takes to provide it, my anger is solely reserved for the government which chooses to massively underfund the state schools such that their provision is woefully inadequate, and for the voters who tacitly approve of underfunding education every time a general election fails to return a government that has decent and workable policies to something about it.

while you moan about fees you can “comfortably afford”, @Findingfactsaboutfees and food bank usage rockets, a Bank of England economist tells the plebs they need to “accept that they are poorer” while earning more than £180k a year. Honestly, I have no idea who there aren’t riots.

Inflation is running at 20 % for many things.

Private schools are in trouble from what I hear from people who work in them.

I have plenty of friends who went to private school, who now have kids of their own. They all have the sorts of dazzling careers that a generation ago you'd expect them to send their kids to an independent, but none of them could consider it and that was before all the fee rises and COL increases. Only one friend considered it would have been the grandparents footing the bill.

I can't say I'll be losing sleep over it though.

No issue whatsoever about anyone going private, it is the whinging that it’s expensive when that is the whole fucking point or you’d have the “feral kids” (charming phrase, btw) mixing with your little angels

This with bells on.

I wonder how delighted everyone would be who pays for private schooling if the fees were dropped to a couple of grand a year? Great huh, no more having to spend too much of your hard earned cash. Then your kids could fight it out for spaces with all the local plebs who could then afford it too.

You're paying for exclusivity. So stop moaning and pay it.

Private schools are a way for both parents to have a full time fulfilling careers without relying on regular childcare as the hours the children are out of the house are so much longer. That’s why so many doctors use them in our area. The difference is the private bus leaving at 7.15 dropping back at 18.30 or walking to the local state school at 8.30 for 8.50 and getting home at 15.15.

Our local private midlands went up about 6.5% last year, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was similar this year.

i think the schools need to wise up, they’re very wasteful. They don’t need fleets of mini buses and grounds people.

they’ll need to think about where to cut back!

I don't see the increasing cost of private school fees as a matter for great concern. I am more concerned about the thousands of children in state schools who go to school hungry and poorly clothed. Many families are struggling badly and I can't raise any sympathy for those who now find themselves struggling with private school fees.

You pay for small class sizes, regular contact with teachers/extra facilities. Im sure there are some who do like the exclusive/social circle element though