vat on fees- can we have another thread with numbers/type of school ONLY?

[dietcokewithice]

I think it would be very useful for many of us to know what other schools are planning, but it's difficult pull this info out from the other thread as it became full of debate!

Be great if people could just post along these lines - eg

'15 percent rise from Jan '25 - London girls private'

'8 percent rise from September '24, rising to 12 percent in January '25 - North East boys private' - or whatever.

Our school (London co-ed) is raising fees by 4 percent in September. No info yet on what they will do from January '25!

thanks

@WS2009 no problem, and yes. I just don't think the fact that school fees are now 20% more expensive changes the principle that bursaries are a good thing. Maybe new bursaries could be reduced temporarily while current parents who hadn't planned for higher fees get more support, so there's more money available for bursaries for current families who are closer to the edge? But I wouldn't want new bursaries to stop totally. I don't want Labour's pointless vindictiveness to harm current students - but I also wouldn't want it to stop new children having a great opportunity.

@potionsmaster I too agree with bursaries in general, and would like them to continue, but I don’t want my effective contribution to RISE because of vat in an already difficult financial environment. Eton are I think saying that if base fees are £50k, they’ll charge full fee paying parents £60k rather than (assuming 10% vat claim back for calculation purposes) the base fee decreasing by 10% to £45k and then the 20% going on top of that making the total fees £54k inc vat. I am effectively being asked in this situation to put £5k extra in the bursary pot? It seems ill thought out and treating full fee paying parents with impunity.

I'd be surprised if they get 10% reclaim - maybe as a one off with backdating, but not year on year. Regardless, I see their position differently. I think they're basically saying: the government is choosing to make private school 20% more expensive. That's going to make the pool of people who can afford full fees even more exclusive. That's not our decision, and we regret that. But we're not going to spend the money we can reclaim effectively subsidising fees for very wealthy people who can afford the extra. Instead, we'll use it to continue subsidising the fees of those who can't afford it - and that might now include a greater proportion of parents, including those who've already joined as well as new families.

So yes, they are asking you to contribute more to the bursary pot, if you can afford it. And if you don't want to do that, presumably you vote with your feet. And if you can't afford it, you may now be eligible for a bursary. It's a very bullish policy, but I think also quite a principled one.

Did this large house happen to be in the catchment of a very good state school?

@user149799568 it was round the corner from the school they left. They sold it.

We are at the end however if we had longer I would be pushing the school re bursaries. In my experience, at an average Indy not the likes of Eton, they are given to middle class but just can't afford types. In one example the mother worked part-time, I'm not happy to pay fees for others when we are only just being able to afford ourselves. The problem is that schools use bursaries to buy in talent which raises results and the profile of the school.

Another fall out from this, if bursaries go, is in athletics. Evidently 33% of Olympians attended private school. It will be interesting to see if this is affected.

7.5% from January term, all-through co-ed in North of England.

West Midlands selective girls' senior school.

Net rise 18%. Fee reduction 2% - vat on top 20%.

School VAT increase amounts - NappyValleyNet: a mum's guide to SW London Life SW London but some more figures here

Sad but a sign of things to come I fear. Are they prep schools by any chance?

No, both all through but one is much larger than the other.

6.5% from Sept 24 and the indication is 16/17% on top of that from Jan 25. Small prep - home counties.

School finally let us know…

Net rise 18%. Fee reduction 2% - vat on top 20%.

non selective prep inner London.

One thing our school did say along with the 14% increase from January was that they had not yet been able to sort out whether there was any potential clawback from recent capital expenditure. So just maybe there might be a bit of further mitigation. Or maybe not. But some of the variance in increases might be due to some but not all schools being able to recover some input VAT on eg building projects.

Even if they're pretty confident that they will eventually be able to recover VAT from past capital expenditures, it may take quite some time to get the credit back from HMRC. Some schools may want to wait until they've got it "in the bank" before they use it.

It’s very obvious the thread is about private schools.

I'd just like to point out that the political leader insisting we need to make painful spending decisions including cutting the winter fuel allowance and putting VAT on education is the same one that has accepted £100k in freebies.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/18/keir-starmer-100000-in-tickets-and-gifts-more-than-any-other-recent-party-leader

We're all in it together. Not.

Girls school part of large group - 12% from Jan
Independent prep school Sussex - 18% from Jan

Feeling a bit meh about the prep school. 5 terms left, we can just about do so will.

Abingdon School outside Oxford have just announced a 10% increase. I think they've done really well to only pass along 10%.

London girls's senior school - 12% rise from Jan, 2025.

Haven't found out for our school yet but locally it ranges from a 9% increase to a 17%.

Indie prep I mentioned above is doing 14% for two terms and then I reckon, now with the NI will go full 20% from Sept.

5 more terms then state for us.

My daughter's school will be adding 20%. Independent faith school.

We’ve had 13% confirmed from January. But still uncertainty on what this means for extras like instrument lessons. London girls secondary.

The capital good scheme has now being announced and it looks like the scheme allows schools to reclaim the VAT on qualifying projects over the past decade. It may well be worth having a look at your school’s accounts if they have been building big stuff (science labs, sports centre, 6th form buildings) and letting them know you will be there expecting some further mitigation from that. There will inevitably be counters to that now like the increased employer NI issue for staff salaries, and fudge factors like how many years they choose to spread any such benefit out. But there should be a transparent calculation of it that parents should be able to see it and an application of it by September 2025.