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.

@RussianSpy101
I am privately educated so I know how much some children get from it and how little others do. I look at my friends now and boy are we in diverse range of careers. Some flourished at school - some had serious mental health difficulties in the very same school - others were just - well - average and others put in an average amount of effort others didn’t even touch extra curricular. Some got expelled. Some didn’t even go to Uni. You really are being very narrow minded if you think that the equation is -
Pay fees - make most of all opportunities at school - go to top Uni - have a very good job - be happier than would be if went to state school.

@Chocalata I don’t think that’s the equation. Nor do I think, as I previously pointed out, that we all send our children to private schools to get them into the best unis. Not my reasoning whatsoever.
Neither is your formula.

but even the 'obscure, provincial private schools cost thousands

They certainly do.

- and parents are not shelled out those sums for nothing

We did. Tens of thousands to achieve what was easily achievable by state school pupils.

then why didn't you send them to one?

@itrytomakemyway

then why didn't you send them to one?

Because the local state school was dreadful. I should have obviously qualified “pupils from a decent state school”. His state school educated wife went to the same university and got a much better degree.

Ours has gone up 11.5% in some years and 6 or 7.5 in others.

I do not think we should just accept that they think they can keep putting fees up whilst states schools have done the opposite, funding decreased compared to inflation

Isn’t that a massive reason why you would use a private school - inadequate funding of state schools? The lower funding of state schools isn’t a good thing.
Also “state schools” haven’t done the opposite, they don’t control the amount of money given to them. You make it sound like spending per child in state schools has gone down due to better efficiencies and lower costs, so private schools should be able to do the same.

Again, my argument is not against state schools. Many do an amazing job in what are often the most challenging of circumstances. My responses are to posters who are saying parents will vote with their feet if fees are raised. No, many will not because they are giving their children a huge advantage in life, including that of avoiding a struggling local state school.

I am also responding to the comment that paying private school fees is like flying first class, but that all on the flight end up the in the same queue out of the airport. It is ridiculous to claim that all kids are in the same queue. Look again at the stats on student make up in top unis and in top jobs - privately educated people outnumber state educated people significantly.

7% of UK students go to private school. 29% of MPs were privately educated.

The elite remain elite and have little interest in making a fair system for all.

7% is the proportion of students who go to private school. The proportion attending private secondary schools is much higher. Closer to 15%?

I wonder how many families will be forced out of the private sector this year due to financial constraints and where the state places will magically appear from for them.

That said, DS’s school did well out of COVID with lots of new families joining because their children didn’t get the support during home schooling.

@Abuildingwith4wallsandtmrinsid

What I expect is an indication from others whether this is the norm this year? Are other schools doing similar with fee increases? They normally announce it nowish so people can give notice if they want to.

@Mumtofourandnomore indicated her school went for a 15 per cent increase last year.

What is interesting to me is that our head is all about his vision for the school and where he wants to take the school during his career to make a mark as opposed to doing what is best for existing students, parents and teachers. Lots of senior staff are leaving.

Private schools use a loophole to register as charities so they pay less tax. They exist to make £.

@itrytomakemyway
But what you will know from your own private education is that the vast majority of people you went to school with are really just plodding along in a very average fashion I expect - not Prime Minister, not running HSBC… some lawyers, some doctors - nothing that can’t be achieved from a state school.
My DB was at Eton and gets tarred with the Boris Johnson brush - but most of his old school friends are estate agents/ lawyers / marketing. Really not the elite stat/ at all, but rather average white middle class males who haven’t gone on to do much. One went to prison and one went to Oxford on the extremes.

not me - I went to a state school.

@itrytomakemyway
Ah ok. Well you are doing well enough to send kids private - well done your state school.
Maybe when your kids have finished you will have this slightly wider perspective of the reality of what most of their peers go on and do. It won’t be quite what the marketing brochures claim will happen, and neither will it be particularly in line with those stats.
Most of them will end up doing just fine. But you will be surprised how few prime ministers are in their year.

My children did not go private. Both did very well in their state school. I also taught in the state sector for 30 years. I am stating that private school children are more likely to succeed because it is a fact. they are over represented in the top unis and top professions.

Those stats that you dispute came from the government's own website and from the Sutton Trust.

@itrytomakemyway

Those stats that you dispute came from the government's own website and from the Sutton Trust.

You’ve completely missed the point.

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.

20% of children attend private schools for 6th form. Over the last few years Oxbridge has been upping the numbers of state school pupils towards reflecting this 80/20 split. In 2021 the Cambridge state school intake was 72%, up from 59% in 2011.

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

Because rugby (Union) and cricket are private school sports.

89% of the UK national team male footballers attended state schools - that rises to 94% for the women.

67% of UK Rio 2016 medalists attended state school.

These threads often ignore the fact that many parents are not primarily sending their kids to private schools because of what will happen to them afterwards (in terms of uni or job), but what their exoerience will be like while they are there. I have a friend who's currently pulling her son out of a grammar school to go to a private school because she's disappointed in the quality of his education in a broad sense. Doubtless he'd still get the same grades in the grammar - but the sport and extra curricular opportunities are pretty poor, and the teaching/learning is uninspiring - lots of spoon-feeding and constant assessment. He'd probably get just as good results in the grammar - he may even find it easier to get a good university offer - but for her that's outweighed by the day to day experience of his next six years at school.

@cantatata finally someone who gets it!

Oh I get it. Still does not make it fair for children who have no choice but to go to a failing state school because their parents cannot afford to pay thousands of pounds every year.

Private school gives children advantages. Yes, of course bright, hardworking students can do well even in struggling state schools, and less able, less hard working students don't do well in private schools.

Of course it's not fair. It's not fair on the children who attend failing schools or the teachers who teach in them. Neither is it fair that some of the children in state schools have private tuition and ski holidays and weekend drama clubs and big houses and supportive parents, while others have none of those things. Nor that some children go to fabulous state schools and some go to appalling state schools. I was merely pointing out that it's a common misunderstanding (not by you) that the people who pay for education are doing so because they think they can buy a ticket to Cambridge or a seat in the Cabinet

@newmummycwharf1 the 7% figure has been around for c.20 years snd is quite crude. My understanding is that 7% of schools are now independent, down from c.30% of schools c.50+ years ago (1960s - I forget the precise year). As you say, many children attend a fee paying school for a portion of their education. In grammar school areas this tends to me younger children. In other areas the number increases as children get older. Then some parents pay for 11-16 before their kids go to college at 16. All in all I have heard figures suggesting 20% of children receive some private education at some point and about 15% are in private education for sixth form. About half of 16-18 year olds taking vocational courses designed to prepare them for a career without the need for a degree, this means c.30% of students taking A levels with the view to studying at university are likely from the private sector. Admittedly this is a back of the envelope calculations based on some broad assumptions, so not wholly accurate, but likely more accurate then the 7% figure you hear so often.

@itrytomakemyway no it’s not fair. But life isn’t always fair. Ultimately, we do all our best for our children.