Eton’s new fees

[IWantedThereThereButItsGone]

Heavens …

Eton College will pass on full cost of 20% VAT to parents

https://www.thetimes.com/article/3fbec730-288c-4a14-b91e-a042c94c7ca1?shareToken=3cff257bc445f9764343feeac522241c

It’s good that current bursary recipients won’t be financially affected (and how I empathise with those parents who must have been worried) but I wonder what the effect will be going forward. The new fees are staggering - perhaps it will change the tenor of the school?

@ItIsSoVeryComplicated i think you will be terribly disappointed to find that the vat raised will go nowhere near a classroom it will not increase state education provision and probably when the sharp elbowed ex public school parents start tutoring for grammar schools It Will take places away from state kids well done Starmer you total cretin

“6500 new teachers doesn’t sound like that much…wouldn’t the money be better used helping keep experienced teachers from burning out and leaving?“

I think the way forward for ex teachers under Labour is become a train driver. Up to 87k a year! If you can handle a classroom and Ofsted, do the training and should be a walk in the park.

It is sharp elbowed and broad shouldered, by the way @Parsley1234

Did an article linked above feature someone actually comparing the impact of VAT on fees to that of the mine closures? And it wasn't satire?

Self-awareness and perspective not featuring heavily on those private school curricula, then, I guess.

@Araminta1003 I'm sure it will be by the time Oct budget comes around

Am I reading this right? You don't feel sorry for anyone over the age of 50 regardless of their circumstances? Why?

Oversubscribed schools like Eton, where parents battle to get their kids in, will be fine. Behind all of those who can no longer afford the opportunity will be a long line of.uk.or international families desperate for the brand. It's the smaller country private schools struggling to fill their intake of 15 each year that will close or have to consolidate.

@GoingRoundInOvals

Its the boarding school topic on MN - in no way is it a private forum!

I've always said it, the only people this punishes are those who really live frugally in order to afford school fees and all this does is make the gap between rich and poor bigger

What sort of 'living frugally' allows you to afford £53k fees? It's a bit insulting to say an extra £10k widens the gap between the rich and the poor, I highly doubt there are many proper poor people at Eton. Even those with a 70% bursary are still paying very high fees and cannot be described as poor!

Let me play a sad song on my tiny violin.

There are probably still mumsnetters who will try to make everyone believe that those that can no longer afford Eton will now be slumming it in a state school.

At “worst” they’ll go to a slightly cheaper private school as you’re talking tens of thousands for bursary kids so there will still be tax receipts from all these pupils.

Your average private day school, which is where the vast majority of kids in the private sector go, isn’t anywhere near 53k. That’s what the OP means.

I still wouldn't describe the demograph that can afford your average private day school as poor. A quick google tells me the average is £6,977 per term, which is far from poor.

I mean, it would be hard not to insult the intelligence of someone who lacks the awareness to know that 2.50 for Prit stick and painkillers is impossible if you are, for example, using a food bank.

Don’t be silly Araminta, as Mummie would say.

The problem, by the way, is not the expectation that schools or the NHS will fund thus stuff, because most people don’t expect that. The problem is that life is very expensive and wages and benefits haven’t kept up.

No, but neither are they paying anything like 53k which is what the PP cited.

I have a friend who has two at Eton, one at Marlborough and one at Sherborne and is mildly irritated about the extra 20%. There are a lot of very rich people in this country.

Eton has a teacher student ratio of 8:1 compared to 17:1 among state schools. So could have easily made cuts innexpenditure - or simply taken on more students - but preferred to pass the rise onto parents. Strange that, as people always argue that private schools excel because of their superior attitudes and discipline, rather than their small class sizes/superior resources. If Etonnhad simply cut their class sizes to 17:1 they could probably have cut their fees by 20%+, never mind needing to raise them!

80% of Eton 6th form got As or A stars in 2023. I guess if you are rich then it's worth it.

She had 4 kids in 4 years?!

If Etonnhad simply cut their class sizes to 17:1 they could probably have cut their fees by 20%+, never mind needing to raise them!

They'd probably have to build bigger classrooms, though.

She has a set of twins! Not the two at Eton.

My son's grammar school had 74% at A star /A this year. Totally free. I'll wager not much difference in Oxbridge entrances either although Eton will have the edge on US offers. . You're paying (through the nose) for the brand.

You are lucky that you live in a grammar area! Also 80% is better than 74%.

The problem is that the gap between rich and poor is huge at the moment. So a little extra money on fees at Eton can have a huge positive effect in state services.

I think that people on the boarding school forum probably don't understand what it's like to be in desperate poverty. They probably also don't realise how dependent they are on poor people doing jobs that keep society ticking over.

Conversely, I struggle very much to understand how one woman can crack out four kids and have them all at £63k a year schools.

They have a queue outside waiting to get in, why would they not charge the full VAT