What is the usual annual increase in private school fees?

[Thing1Thing2]

Just trying to calculate the total cost of private education for the DCs.

What inflation factor should I use to get an accurate (ish) figure?

Thanks,

about 3%, varies between schools though, some are alot higher.

Our IFA advised us to allow for up to 10% a year.

DD had been in prep school for 4 years. We have had increased between 0-4%.

Also remember to factor in the normal price jumps between prep prep and prep, and then from prep to secondary, and later from secondary oto sixth form.

this year it was 3% for DD's school and 11.4% for DS's.

11.4%!! (faints)

10% is probably sensible

ours was up about 8% this year

Ouch - I've never had an increase of more than 5%.

11.4% - were they oversubscribed did they need to reduce numbers?

We are in London if that makes any difference?

Did not think it would be as high as 10%!!

The big hikes were a few years ago (when NI shot up), but still usually 4%-8%.

But remember this may be smoke and mirrors. Some schools had a zero increase last year 9
(concern for hard-pressed parents etc). Wish more would do this - especially as the usual culprit (staff pay) should now be largely out of the equation as no-one's getting rises.

Other smoke and mirrors is whether items such as school trips, stationery and other ancilliary items continue to be included (at least one local school used to have inclusive trips, but now bills them separately); also keep an eye out for cost of lunches (increases outside headline fees) and logoed uniforms.

Our school was 0% last year and 3% this year. Another local school was 10% this year. No one can understand how they justify it.

old thread all quite variable

Ours tends to be 5-7% and unfortunately last year both the boys went up stages so it ended up as a 10% increase on the previous year.

A local school which used to be described in the Good Schol Guide as a "bargain" got a new head and has had 10% rises for the last few years. I think schools not in the "cartel" are now increasing to bring fees in line with those in the cartel.

So it is a big risk if you are struggling to meet the fees.

Emmm ... thanks all. I think I may use 5% in my excel spreadsheet for planning purposes. But will model 10% as a worst case scenario.

Can I ask another question?

Does anyone do any financial planning / investing of the money for school fees?

We have already started saving and have a good amount put by. But we are getting peanuts from our Building Society account.

How do you do it?

You need to have different type of investments for different stages. If kids already here you need some short term investments - cash ISAs, monthly saving plans for the first few years, low risk, accessible therefore low return. 1-3 year bonds offer better rates too but obviously you don't know what will happen to interest rates in the mean time. Then more stocks and shares investments for the senior school years.

IMO I wouldn't go into private schooling for my kids without knowing I've got enough back up that I would never have to pull them out e.g. downsizing house or selling investments.

There is no usual ioe ! Has varied from 2-3 % to 8% like for like over past 4 years but in real terms between Reception and Year 5 fees have doubled due to increases from one phase to the next.

At our school we had a new head and there was a 10% increase in fees. However, it turned out that the old head had made no provision for the improvement in facilities in the previous fees so they had to rise if we wanted to have improved facilities. Since then we have had rises in line with the RPI of around 3%.
We do also have steps up in costs between pre-prep and prep, prep and senior and finally senior to sixth form.

We pay our fees monthly as we found the quarterly £4000 too much to stomach. Most schools have payment plans that are a lower interest rate than an overdraft. Our fees always seem to go up more than 5% and the school is still over subscribed.

If you are happy with the school, expect the head to stick around, and are unlikely to move, then paying fees in advance is a good way of insulating against future rises. Not all schools do this, sadly; but if yours does, the bursar will be able to give you the detail of how they run it.

We found fees went up relentlessly - 8% year on year throughout the secondary stage.
Reasons given varied but enhanced IT facilities, new sports hall were a couple.
We hadn't realised that this would happen, and in real terms it was much more of a burden than we had planned for.

oh - onimolap - I never realised that was a possibility. Definately something to look into.

But - why the question of whether the head will stick around? Surely if you pay in advance then your agreement is with the school and it should not make a difference if the head leaves?

DTs will be at the pre-prep for the next three years and we have enough saved up for that so it may be worth asking if they will do that. Won't make much of a difference at this age ... but every little helps.

Head is getting on a bit so I am not sure if she will still be around.

Ours didn't go up last year and have only gone up by a small percentage this year. However the costs of extras (including flexi-boarding which we use for DS) has gone up. Also, he's just going into the 6th form so there has been a slight hike in fees.

DD has left this year, but her school (a top 10 ps) fees have been increased by 8% - I'm sure glad she's off to uni!

We tried to pay fees in advance at DS's school, but they would have none of it. They used the money laundering excuse!!

I could be making a huge presumption here - but I agree with onimolap, and my reason for thinking of the head is.

You like the school today because how it is run effectively therefore you like the management style. New head comes in, school changes to not your liking, but you've paid for the long hall! Stuck now, do you stick with something that you no longer like, or do you fight the school for your money, or swallow the loss of the money?

poppincandy has said exactly what I meant. Every school I've been near seems to have changed heads, and a couple of times it has led to a huge change in elements of the school, including intangibles like its atmosphere. I would always strive to move children at a natural break point, but sometimes you just know it's no longer the right fit.