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.

@mixedrecycling if private schools are a business, why do they have charitable status?

'Competing with schools from Uganda'.What does that even mean? Do you think Ugandans can't educate well?
Also, the likes of iGCSE are harder than the standard version. Schools often use them as they are a better preparation for A-Level. They are used around the world and although I haven't checked, I bet the normal curve of attainment is shifted to the right!

Social cleansing?
Bit rich from someone who sends their kid to a school unattainable for most!

Well as you can see you won’t get much sympathy here as many people are struggling with basic cost of living. Re home schooling though there are online schools now which mean you don’t need to teach the child yourself for home schooling. It’s not cheap, but it’s a heck of a lot less than a private school. I’ve got a friend who took her child out of mainstream school for anxiety reasons and she’s doing really well with this. Yes does mean leaving the child home alone all day but at secondary level that’s ok. Not sure I’d choose it as kids should be mixing but for this child it was the right choice.

have the school explained to parents why the huge rise? You’d be entitled to ask for a breakdown

£15k per year, Yorkshire.
Ours haven’t increased as much, I think it was 5%.
Everything is going up. I want him to have excellent teachers, small class sizes, good resources and buildings that are warm enough and not falling down. So happy to pay as state sector schools seem underfunded with stressed teachers, bulge classes, not enough resources and cold leaky buildings.
It’s hard though, if you can’t afford it. The last thing you want is to have to move a child, especially in the middle of secondary school, exams etc.

Private schools are abhorrent demonstration of privilege and really should have been banned years ago.

If you didn’t factor in that fees go up then I don’t see why I’m supposed to have sympathy. Inflation is over 10%, food inflation and energy rises are even higher. It’s no surprises the fees need to go up.

My nursery fees went up by 13%, some people I know had theirs increase by 20%.

Childcare is much less of a lifestyle choice given that you need two incomes to pay basic bills in most areas of the country.

If 15% of private school children left, the sector would be in crisis. Many schools would close. There would be more than 15% of the extra children to educate.

Even many labour voters have children in private school, so plenty would be cheeses off. Especially the kind that donate money. Many members of the labour party have children in private school. It benefits no one to see the sector descend into chaos and have thousands of children with no school places to service them.

You're brave posting this OP, you must have known you'd get a tonne of comments along the lines of glad they've risen, private schools are the reason state school is shit etc- people can't resist posting on threads like this with their unwanted opinions that don't even answer your question.

In reality yes 19% is a huge leap, but they are permitted to do it. I can see how it's frustrating when you're budgeted and probably factored in a few % rise, 19 is a lot. Can you see if there are any bursaries or scholarships that pay a % even if not the full amount? I'd speak to the school and explain its going to be challenging, whilst they won't stop the rise they might be able to suggest some support- nothing to lose in asking!

Oh gosh, if only we had a system that enabled free access to education for all.

Oh wait...

Here's an idea, put those unspent school fees into moving within the area of state schools that you deem to be tolerable, with cohorts of parents who come with private school expectations.

Well, most haven't, as I understand it?

Some do, because historically they were set up to educate the poor, and have morphed into educating the rich, and use 'helping local state schools' or 'providing scholarships and bursaries' as a way of wriggling out of the fact that they predominantly serve the rich, with a few crumbs for the (sufficiently talented to make them look good) poor.

Wouldn’t these kids be whisked off to far away lands? Or would their rich parents just be non-doms? I was always told rich people would flee.

That’s a big hike alright. Ours have gone up too but only moderately and only after they sent out a questionnaire asking about affordability which I thought was actually quite considerate.

however this isn’t the place for it OP. You should have started it in the education section as so many people are struggling with the basics that it’s insensitive really .

I don't think anyone's having a go at you because your child is at private school anyone would do the same if they had the money.

It's the things you're writing. You have to be careful with the written word, it can be interpreted in many ways

Why not move to a state school, and donate 50% of what you would have paid in school fees to the state school?

@mixedrecycling 75% still do. The number is going down but to say they're a business when they clearly aren't isn't accurate.

And for those complaining about private education: it exists, you can’t change that and some of us can afford it. Be glad we’re taking strain off a broken system…. Cos you know we still pay for nhs and state schools through taxes.

I was being facetious!

My friend did a German a level at our state school and it was only her. A level classes tend to be fairly small regardless of school.

If only state school budgets had been increased by 19%, think how much of a difference that could have made. If only there were enough teachers.

Our school day starts at 8:20 and finishes at 16:00. That’s a lot more teaching time than the secondary up the road.

i observe that some parents now at private schools have ended up putting their kids in because of bullying and unmet SEN around neurodiversity at state schools. Not because most private schools are especially good around ND kids needs, but just because the class sizes can be half the size and therefore more manageable for their ND kids.

Junior doctors (that's EVERY doctor who hasn't gone on to further training) wage starts at just over £14 an hour. Very unlikely that their kids are paying £17k school fees. Consultants, GPs, who HAVE spent many more years training, can be on much higher salaries, and whilst maybe not ultra rich, are certainly capable of double or triple the junior doctor salary. Same applies for nurses.

Your idea of 'rich' is very skewed op. Your 'average' doctor/nurse parent family are not paying £1.5k a month in school fees, that would cripple us.

That’s the reason we did it. My son moved from a class of 32 to 16 and has flourished. He was unable to speak (he’s autistic). It’s done him the world of good I don’t know what we could have done if my husband had had a well paid job.

And this is why the middle classes should have been listening when the poorer people started saying that they were being squeezed.

Did you all really think that you were so special and amazing that the elites- especially the new international continent-jumping families - wouldn’t screw you over as well?

Of course you did, that was the problem.

Welcome to the new imperialism, a restricted economy of two worlds - super-rich and plebs. Want to start listening to your own people now, and stop screwing them over?