Private school has put DD's fees up by 29% - I am right to think this is obscene?

[helenelisabeth]

I am livid, in fact I am on the verge of taking her out of the school.

The fees will go up in September, they have not given any reasons to why they have risen so much, no new techology or sports hall etc.

We got our letter at the start of the Easter holidays.

in our LEA you can get Early Years funding in private school reception until the term your child turns 5 - any chance this might have been the case with your dd?

Scienceteacher - it's over 12 months.

Agree, it isn't the MOST expensive school but for where we are, it is (North West). They still should not be increasing it in this way, they have to pre-warn people surely of such a huge increase?

Seeker - you are right but 29% is OTT.

Geekgirl, I was going toask that too. A lot of private schools utilize this scheme.

If fees are right for area before rise then still can't see a good reason so far. I would still be looking for answers fromt he school.

they should also have given more notice - at least a term's worth.

I would imagine you won't be the only parent feeling this way - can you speak to some of the other parents? A joint approach - maybe requesting a meeting with the head may be the way to go. It does seem a lot and it seems late to let parents know.

My MIL was head of a small private school in the NW - she would NEVER have condoned this.

Seeker you are not right - almost all schools (with only a very few exceptions) are NOT-FOR-PROFIT organisations

The steep increase could be due to not receiving the nursery rebate maybe?

It can be quite interesting to read the school's annual submissions to the Charities Commission. They are all published on the CC website, although it seems to take a year or two for the reports to be published.

They give you an idea of how the financial side of the school is run, for example their attitude to the funding of capital projects.

So now the state schools are good enough...

private schools are for rich people. fraid youll have to suck it up.

Not quite true. You don;t have to just suck it at all. 29% is OTt even for private schools, and as the paying customer, paying for a service, you are entitled to find out what you are paying for and why costs have risen so much. As you would do if paying for other services and the cost suddenly went up so much.

dh had a discussion with our Bursar when ours were announced, part of it is towards funding capital projects, anticipated fuel cost rise plus a couple of extra members of staff. You do have the right to question it.

I would certainly write to question it, if the reason wasn't clear.
The increase this year was about 10% at our school-actually meant 22% and 16% increases for my two this year, because of ramping up the year fees as they get older. We have queried it but the Head has explained that it's "brilliantly competitive" and maybe Reception's actually too cheap. Last year Reception fees went up 2%, but with losing vouchers and year ramping, we actually paid 10 % more in fees, + missed 2 terms of vouchers. The Chair of our parents association objected strongly about the 10%)at the Governors meeting. But at the end of the day it's a business decision.
It may help if you can rally support from the other parents, I doubt that they'll change it but at least you'll have perhaps set out your concerns ahead of next year. Ours is actually to pay for stuff at the Senior School. It's a very popular school, with many only children whose parents are less price senstive. That said, we're happy with it.
I think that it would have been helpful for us to have appreciated the impact of year on year increases beforehand, but caveat emptor etc.

I'm in the NW & that seems very cheap for school fees. Also, not uncommon to have a larger jump between kindi & Y1 as they do take vouchers into account.

FYI, avg price round here (N Cheshire) is around 7k for Y1.

If as you say, you get smaller classes but can't see what else you get for your money, then take her out. She'll be fine! And you'll be laughing all the way to the bank!

Not all fee paying schools qualify for the Early Years vouchers, due to amount of weeks they cannot (due to longer holidays) offer education for.

I've got the hump with ours too. DD attends part of a shared facilities (pre- prep, boys and girls in one site but three schools iyswim) school and traditionally the boys prep was much more expensive due to a) they have Saturday school b) they do longer days c) they have much more expensive sports equipment and more match fixtures and d) (most gallingly) the boys prep get preferential choice of all pitches, halls, equipment etc to the point where our girls have to miss PE for over a week whilst the boys are rehearsing a play in the biggest sports hall.

They have been raising our fees by 15% per year for last 2 years - as opposed to boys raise of 5% - to bring girls in line with the boys fees.

So now we pay the same for shorter hours and second class status due to sex - great!

I find it odd in the extreme that you are getting your DAD to write a letter to the headmaster. Please try and do this yourself!

MP, I have sympathy though. I know that you, as a professional wordsmith, may feel confident with your grammar but I always get my DH (a fellow wordsmith type) to proofread mine .

Daft bint alert!

School have not put up the fees 29% - I forgot to take into account that DD had the vouchers taken out of her first term fees therefore reducing her fees 17% for the whole year. Good lord, I told the majority of the mums, at least I have given them a good laugh.

BUT they have upped them 13% which is still quite high. I am not removing her now though.

Morningpaper - as soon as I re-read the post about getting my dad to compose a letter for me, I felt an incompetent fool! What I meant by getting him to write it for me was that he would know the correct way to approach the matter - I wouldn't.

Unquietdad - there are four decent state schools in our area, we didn't move here until 3 months before she started reception and she couldn't get a place at any of them. I may have been able to get a place there now as children do drop out. My options where either the local school which had a place for her but does not have a good reputation or sacrifice luxuries/expensive makeup/gym/magazines etc and send her to a very good private school. What decision would you have made?