School fees going up loads! Anyone else?!

[Abuildingwith4wallsandtmrinsid]

Regular poster who has name changed for this post.

My DC’s school is putting up school fees by over 7 per cent from September 2022 for existing parents, more for incomers.
Is this the norm now?!! I realise prices are going up but shouldn’t they try and contain costs/be as lean as possible? Apparently they need to build their bursary funds and go green. We have tons of parents who already struggle with the fees.
Other DC thankfully in state school. I don’t think it is good value this whole private school thing. But once your kid is there you are trapped.

How do you think they can recruit and pay good teachers, keep the heat on, maintain their buildings, etc. How do you think they pay for these things?

Ah, if only the government would ask the same questions and give state schools that are alreary barely scraping by the same increase in funds!

From a completely outside perspective, with increase in general costs of living and increase in school fees, won't that drive a lot of pupils away from the private sector? Would they not be better to keep the increases as minimal as possible to try to maintain pupil numbers? Or perhaps the average parent who can afford private schooling is not going to be too badly affected by cost of living increases.

The parent who puts their child in private school will be wanting to keep their kids away from the sate sector for as long as possible.

Don't misunderstand me. I 100% support state schools - I spent my whole career teaching in the state sector, but year after year of underfunding, stupid pointless government initatives, over ambitious and underskilled SLT, growing behaviour issues - very much fuelled by ridiculous behaviour policies - no, the state sector falls far below the facilities and opportunities offered in the private sector.

It's not right. It's not fair, and the divide gets bigger and bigger.

And whilst parents like the OP work the system by putting their privately educated child into the highly selective state sixth form that unfairness continues.

I think its useful to compare paying fees to paying for First Class Travel to say New York.
Is a First Class Fare worth it? To most of us - no. A bit of champagne, a slightly bigger sleeping set up, a more rarefied person sitting next to us, a bit more attention from the air stewards. Frankly we'd rather keep the money for the sights and sounds of the Big Apple.
But to those who have big incomes it is worth it of course, they arrive slightly more refreshed and hell, why not.
Does that mean every passenger in 'normal' seats isn't going to have a good time in New York. Of course not.
OP you made a very caring and admirable decision age 11 for your DC. If he is no longer in need of the careful attention to his medical needs or the smaller classes, then there is absolutely no need to keep paying and your other option sounds great.
Just like all the passengers on the plane end up at JFK in the customs queue, so all the middle class children with supportive parents end up at the same good universities and with the same fortunate life prospects.

Thank you @Chocalata- that is very much how I see it - first class, five star hotel etc. And even if you pay for those in real life, you can end up with poor service, occasionally.

However, the vast majority of parents in the school my DC attended do not fall into this rich bracket where fees make no difference, nor would they ever go to a five star hotel or on a business class flight. On the contrary, they struggle and some massively so. Many are Asian (60
Per cent of DC now BAME heritage or mixed) and seem to believe they need to pay to get a seat at the table of English society for their DC for the future. I feel they get tricked by the marketing. I also feel SLT, all white male at the school, treat this parent body worse and all too happy to just take their money. Just as SLT all too happy to get rid of staff 5 odd years before retirement because they are a bit slower than they used to be.

And I am sorry but I do not believe that most independent schools were like this 20 odd years ago. Yes, you had to pay the fees but there wasn’t this huge marketing machine that drove everything and huge turnover of staff. There was more focus on actual teaching, teacher wellbeing, the pupils etc rather than status and league tables and swanky buildings for brochures.

Sorry to disappoint you, but the private school I was at 30 years ago very definitely focused on marketing as a priority. Large amounts of money were spent on the parts of school that prospective parents were invited to see (some of which pupils were only allowed to access very occasionally with special permission) to the detriment of spending on other things (many of our teachers had long conversations with us about it; in retrospect I suspect they may have been hoping we would tell our parents and provoke complaints).

And the focus was all about results - pupils were "managed out" if they weren't achieving as required; pastoral care as it is now was pretty much non-existent - if you couldn't cope with the workload or had personal problems, it was tough basically.

@Abuildingwith4wallsandtmrinsid
Sounds pretty icky, but businesses don’t tend to think too much about who they are taking money from - British Airways doesn’t mind who pays to go first class as long as they pay their ticket fare. As for marketing - all businesses do this. We all know that the super face cream isn’t going to really make us wrinkle free or happy - but we enjoy buying in to the illusion until we run out of money for other basics. It doesn’t sound nice to be selling these families the idea that it will give them a place in society - but that is how aspirational marketing works, and these businesses rely heavily on it as the ones with Olympic style facilities are in the ‘luxury goods’ end of the spectrum (and should therefore be VAT payable IMHO). That aspirational marketing isn’t just targeted at POC by the way, it targets all those who feel they would like their children to have a bump up societies ladder.

I’ve worked in private schools for nearly 20 years. Costs going up. Heating, insurance etc. parents expect more and more from facilities. Also big issue with pensions at the moment in private schools. Fewer Russian oligarchs around as well…!
Charitable status gives them a tax break. Don’t knock it and expect more!

You're lucky to have the choice to give your children (sorry... Actually just one child) such a leg up. Many many people don't have the option, even if their children are disabled.

And private schools are businesses even if you don't think they are or should be. So yes the people who use that service should have to pay for it just like every other business.

Good point re pensions @Walton45123 Op have you asked whether they are coming out of the pension scheme? The bigger than usual increase might be about that? Also this might mean they are no longer able to attract too teachers - many are eying up move to state for better benefits.

Top teachers

@Abuildingwith4wallsandtmrinsid fees have now increased at the school our DC go to.
I’m happy to pay the increase. If you’re not, or can’t, pull your DC out and send them to state.
Surely you factored in potential increases when you chose independent?

@toomuchlaundry

Surely we should be trying to get more funding for state schools not trying to get private schools funding per pupil closer to state school funding. That is going the wrong way

Absolutely we should. This is like complaining your diamond shoes pinch @Abuildingwith4wallsandtmrinsid.

I am genuinely bemused by posters claiming that a private education gets their kids into the same 'queue' for universities and job prospects as all other children with middle class parents.

It absolutely does not. How many people in the current cabinet went to state schools? What is the ratio of state:private students in Oxbridge. Even with the recent drive to offer more state students places the figures I have seen say that 30% of Oxbridge students went to private schools. Sounds fair - until you find out that only 7% of UK children attend private school.

They are not in the same queue. They are not even in the same waiting room.

@itrytomakemyway
It is early days and they have some very interesting plans for the next 10 years. There are some absolutely stellar state educated children at UK universities, it doesn’t hold well supported children back - OP’s child will do just fine.
Most children who attend UK uni’s went to state school (yes some eg Oxbridge have slanted percentages to fee paying applicants - but watch this space long term!)

Yes state school funding is down, but parents who don’t pay fees to school do pay for tutors, clubs, trips, books etc - so they are well educationally very well funded!

It's early days!!! The have had decades, centuries in fact, to do something to address the inequalities.

I looked it up by the way. "Britain’s most influential people are over 5 times more likely to have been to a fee-paying school than the general population..... 29% of current Members of Parliament come from a private school background, 4 times higher than the electorate they represent....
Amongst the other best paid most influential jobs the % who were privately educated -
Senior judges - 65%
Civil Service permanent secretaries - 59%
The House of Lords - 57%
Foreign and Commonwealth Office diplomats - 52%

Of the 100 most influential news editors and broadcasters, 43% went to fee-paying schools. Similarly, 44% of newspaper columnists were privately educated.

37% of international rugby players and 43% of England’s cricket team.

It is impossible to argue that a private education does not jostle you to the front of the queue. And that is why these schools will keep putting up their fees.

Independent schools have all the cost hikes that individuals and business have, eg energy costs.

In addition, teachers have been booted out of the Teachers' Pension Service, and pension costs have gone up dramatically.

As the majority of independent schools are charities, their income just covers cost with very little contingency.

I am sure that your school will have already cut 'back office' costs in order to maintain teaching and learning.

@itrytomakemyway
I can assure you that you are not going to be saying the same thing in 10 years time. Change is slow.

The fact remains that most of the current students at UK uni’s went to state schools. So these schools are sending children off well equipped to cope with tertiary education. And the OP’s child is going to get into a good uni without a fee paying sixth form - because he is bright, because he will go to a good State school and - this is the most important one - he has engaged and supportive parents. He doesn’t need that money spent on him (he can fly standard to use the earlier analogy!)

@Chocalata of course the majority of those at university went to state school. 93% of children are state educated.

The OP is intending to move her privately educated son into a selective state sixth form. Do you honestly think he does not have an advantage over a state educated child trying for the same place.

And do I think there will be a massive change in the next 10 years? Frankly - no. I worked with sixth formers for 30 years supporting them with uni applications. I could count on the fingers of one hand the students who got into Oxbridge. The Sutton Trust is making progress on this at a snail's pace.

Yes, the number of state educated students in uni is growing - the numbers of unis with places on offer is exploding. They are not all good though!!! I bet there are very few privately educated students in the former offers offering unconditional offers to get bums on seats.

Being privately educated gives you massive advantages. Yes, there are some amazing state schools out there. And they are amazing despite what is thrown at them. Just think what they could do with the funds available to private schools.

sorry that should say "in the former polys and FE colleges"

@RussianSpy101 I am aware of the stats. The point I am making is this - if Op wants her DC to go to a good university she only needs to look at the vast majority of all the DC at universities to see that you can get there from a state school! So there is no need to pay.

@itrytomakemyway the most popular Uni that people went to from my boarding school was Bristol Poly (as it was) Oxford Brooke was probably second (their parents would then bray about them going to ‘Bristol’ and ‘Oxford’)
The old polys were massively popular with fee paying children!! The dim ones anyway.

It is impossible to argue that a private education does not jostle you to the front of the queue. And that is why these schools will keep putting up their fees

It depends which fee paying school you’re talking about. Eton and Harrow put you at the front of the queue. Obscure school in provincial town, not really.

Also the people holding all those jobs are overwhelmingly male @itrytomakemyway so they don’t give a true picture as far as private education is concerned.

@Chocalata the majority of us aren’t paying to guarantee entry to a top university. You get so much more than that from a private education.

It really doesn't matter which actual stats I put on here does it? Private schools give those attending a massive advantage. That is why parents pay for them. The average cost of a secondary school day place is around 15K - more than double that for boarding school.

Even the most hands on, supportive parent is paying only a fraction of that for tuition, books and online learning for their state educated child.

Those who favour the private system can pretend all they like - but even the 'obscure, provincial private schools cost thousands - and parents are not shelled out those sums for nothing.

The facts are there for all to see. Privately educated students are far more likely to get into a top uni, far more likely to get the best paying, more influential jobs. The private schools know that some parents will want to push their children forward in the queue and they know that they will keep paying if the raise costs.