Private fees increase

[Madeinsuffolk]

Hello

We are looking at sending children to private school but have noticed that every year the fees increase by approx £100/150 a term looking at the last five years of fees.

However, 2022 to 2023 the increase for reception was £300 a term.

I am not referencing the increase as you move up a year but the cost for year 1 in 2018 vs 2019 etc.

Is this normal for a day prep?

Is this a covid legacy hangover?

I’d be so grateful for any insight you might have as to what is a typical yearly % increase.

thanks
x

How much is the fee? Anything up to 10% is typical but may be more as cost of fuel, salaries, maintenance etc increases disproportionately

We've just had our fee letter through and it's just under 10%.

It's £25k plus next year, think it was about £18k when my son started six years ago.

I'd imagine that the fuel price increase alone would mean that a bigger than usual increase was necessary.

Allow 3-5% on top of inflation. That's always been the advice, but after a spell when inflation has been unusually low for a considerable period, people have rather lost sight of what a rise on top of inflation looks like.

And remember it can be higher if something like an NI hike occurs again, because staff costs are a huge proportion of the costs of running the school. Also energy price increases, which both drive inflation and increase the schools costs.

Our school was historically around 5%. Fees were frozen during Covid, 8% increase for 23/24 with warning to expect at least the same increase for 24/25.

2023/24 reception is 2500 a term. Year 6 4500 a term.

Most schools have had a bigger than usual increase this year due to inflation (cost of supplies, energy, salaries to varying degrees). It does go up every year, so you should factor that in. Our school increases roughly align with inflation, but it might be a bit more or less depending on specific economics of your school.

When you say "historically" just how far are you looking back?

Because I doubt very much that school fee increases were as low as 5% pa before the crash in interest rates in 2008 and the unusually low inflation since.

Between 2008 and 2022, rates were less than 2%, hence rises in school fees being about 5-7% (3-5% over inflation) with some flatlining for a year when covid disrupted physical attendance, but stepping up the year following.

Interest base rate is now 5% and core CPI inflation around 7% (other indices higher). 8% is pretty low against this backdrop, and unless inflation changes sharply, unsustainably low (it would be a real terms loss to the school to have increases below inflation)

Pre covid our increases were 6 - 8% per year
Basically, if you start in reception and play to stay to year 13, the fees will double in that time, taking into account the annual increases and jumps usually at years 3, 7 and 12

and in fact the school that my daughter is at has more than doubled - fees in 2011 were £3300 per term and now are upwards of £7000

At my children's school it's 4K a term in reception but by the time you hit seniors it's over 7 and for sixth form 9.

We've had an 8% fee increase this year and it's normally 4-5% but the last 3 years have seen above that and in the September 2020 after Covid we saw two increases that year. My children are about to finish their education in the next 2 years so we are hanging on and sacrificing to finish what we started. I don't see it being average increases the next few years and could end up with VAT on top too.

About 6 years. We were lucky enough to have a lovely village primary so we’ve only paid for senior school.

Full boarding is now over 13.5k a term, and day pupils over 7k. It’s a significant bill for sure…the end is in sight for us though, thank goodness!

Our fees for the next academic year have just come in. They are going up 20% this year, and that's without VAT (and it's already an extremely expensive school).

You need to factor in huge increases now.

That's sharp practice.

They are meant to inform parents of fee increases before the deadline for giving notice in time to leave (without penalty) before the increase comes in to force.

But yes, with CPI at about 8% and RPI at about 11%, and school fees historically being around 5% over inflation, plus more if there are other notable increases (eg when NI changed in the early 00s, now it's things like energy bills and pensions costs) - then rises of that order don't surprise me

Yeah it’s not ideal but it is what it is.

You need to also factor in the VAT changes that are expected if Labour wi the next election.

With labour shortages, especially in teaching, wages may have to rise by more than inflation to attract staff too.

Not just if Labour win, also if Tory infighting means that they go for it as a policy. Not unthinkable - Gove has spoken in favour, and who knows where he'll end up when the feuding ends (if it ever does - the Tories never seem to learn)

I think it's coming. The only question is when, and at what rate.

Assuming we remain outside EU, of course

Ours went 10% this year and we have been informed next year will be 15%. A lot higher than we were told to expect!

Can I ask is this making anyone re consider private schooling? We were/are considering private for secondary but I don't think we could keep up with increasing fees at these levels. I'm re thinking state plus tutoring now.
I assume if you are able to cope with a 20% hike money is no object ? So only private school for super rich now?
We have 3 years before we make final decisions.

No I would not reconsider. I know how far the DC have come and also what the alternatives are if they weren’t in the private sector around where we are.

No. @buzzybea25 We won’t reconsider, although we are on the last few years. Our school is how every school should be, and i still consider it money well spent. Great teachers, nice friends, excellent results.

However, I wouldn’t make our lives miserable to do it. We are happy without extravagant holidays till they’ve cleared off to Uni, but don’t make particular sacrifices otherwise.

Not reconsidering- having seen a massive difference for our children since moving to private we would happily cut back on other things to enable them to continue. I also think the condition of the state sector is dire and likely to get worse over the next 5 years regardless of who is in charge politically.

fee increases haven’t been as bad for us, but we are planning proactively for more substantial rises in years to come (we have 10 more years left!) which include preemptively cutting back on things in favour of savings/ investment accounts, asking grandparents to put money in a more accessible account than jISA in case needed for school fees, and potentially looking at options to increase income.