Just wondering... how do you think the financial turmoil will affect private school applications this year?

[PrincessPeaHead]

It was difficult enough to see who the hell could afford boarding fees of £8800 per term in a boom economy... now? Do you think there will be a big move from boarding to private day options (cheaper) or in fact also a big fall in private day applications as people try for grammars/use the good local comp ?

Just musing really.

Even my dd's dance school is way down on numbers this term - 2 classes have been dropped entirely. This is the kind of "luxury" that state school parents are dropping.
I know of a few people who decided at the last minute not to send their children to private secondary school (after an excellent state primary) because they didn't want to have to take them out later. Many children round here take local private school entrance as a back up to 11 plus (my ds did). A number take both then turn down grammar place. I imagine more children will be taking up grammar places this year.

st helen and st kats SOUNDS like it should be catholic but in fact is C of E. The school next door (Our Ladys of something or other) is the catholic one in that town...
yes I think it is v good. In a boom year I don't think my dd would get in because of her maths, but I think I may just put her in for it now....

PPH - does your DD do extra maths tuition?

Just interested in this comment from LM

"entry to the grammars is so competitive, if you get in then you have almost certainly got a scholarship to one of the local independents"

Our independent does "scholarships" but they are means-tested, and people with a household income over a certain (low) level need not bother applying.

Our local (as in 5 miles away) state grammar school however is really rather good, and not supposed to be too difficult to get in.

The problem with state grammars is in having more than one child. See in my situation I would bet a large amount of money on DD getting in anywhere but have an uneasy and queasy feeling about DS's English. What do parents do about that?

Quattro - if you are comparing your DS' English with your DD's, stop. Compare his with his male peer group. That is the relevant group he will be competing in for entrance to grammar school.

I used to wring my hands about my DSS's French (their mother-tongue), until I realised they were top of their class bar a few girls.

We have already lost a few pupils at our school due to money worries.

At the DSs' school, they had their open day today and it was a heaving as ever. I don't think that school will worry too much because they can simply lower their academic threshhold.

DS2 was on the waiting list for the Iceland trip, and came home on Friday saying that a place had come up. I'm wondering if it is because a family simply can't manage the cost. I said yes immediately to DS (it is a fab trip - wish I could go), and then thought that it was a lot of money for us to come up with too, with all the rising food and energy prices we are having to absorb.

Obviously if a family is down a salary, they are not going to be able to do school fees. If it is simply a case of managing with inflation, they will find ways of cutting back, as will the schools.

We just spent the morning at a local independent school Open Day and it was heaving. But then the state options are very poor. None of the other parents looked obviously loaded, but the headmaster did stress that the majority of pupils come from the state system at age 11.

"The problem with state grammars is in having more than one child. See in my situation I would bet a large amount of money on DD getting in anywhere but have an uneasy and queasy feeling about DS's English. What do parents do about that? "

Apparently mats results in the 11+ are 'more important' than English. Ask some teachers locally.

I have been wondering about my DS's primary school and whether it's going to be in trouble. It's right in Canary Wharf (about 100m from the Lehmans building) and I guess that quite a few of the kids there have at least one parent working in the financial sector. I suppose time will tell. They had to add a third reception class this year so I suppose if numbers do fall off it will be logistically quite easy for them to just combine three classes into two.

Unfortunately the whole school is due to move at the end of this term as the current location has become too small for the numbers, I hope that the school won't be financially overstretched if they have budgeted for a certain number of fees but lose 10% or 20% of them.

Quattro, I don't know whether our particular area is unusual in that the schools belonging to the Whitgift Foundation offer bursaries on a sliding scale to anyone with a family income up to £70k. This in particular has an impact on single parents, as in the case of divorce, it is the income of the resident parent including any maintence payment that counts towards the £70k limit. The income of the non-resident parent is ignored (other than the maintenance).

As i understand it whilst the basic fees are over 12k per year (day), over half the parents pay less than that. And some of the scholarships are on the more generous side (50%).

We are really worried about being able to afford the school fees. We have approx 2-3 years worth of savings for the fees assuming we wouldnt be able to pay out of current income and a large amount of equity in the house. However we are thinking of keeping our older son in his boarding school and when our younger son turns 7 next year moving him to our local state school which has an 'outstanding' Ofsted report. Our older son is a natural boarder but I dont believe our younger son is. We are also thinking about moving and releasing some equity.

I would love our life to be exactly as we had planned but sadly that isnt always the case. Of course once things pick up we will think again but it might be that having one in the private sector and one in the state system could work.

When demand drops, prices drop, just like house prices. Expect the same for school fees.

I'm not convinced that good private schools will reduce their fees to be honest. They might keep them static but I cannot see reductions...

"When demand drops, prices drop, just like house prices. Expect the same for school fees."

Erm, no. Schools may have to reduce classes or let staff go, or even close, but essentially the fees you pay pay day to day running costs (which if anything are going up). School fees are not really a commodity.

Bear in mind a large number of schools are run by charities so they're not all run at a profit which could be cut back.

Message withdrawn

Our school has cut back on capital projects to ensure that the fee increase is kept to a minimum for the next few years. Very sensible imho. We have just started in reception and for the first time ever there are two classes. However the commitment to take a place would have been made before this credit crunch. Not sure it affects this age but I know in older years parents are giving a lot of thought to 11+ rather than continuing in day school. We would only stay private beyond year 6 if ds is scholarship material or thick!

Quattro, I have friends who do a mix of private and state for their children depending on what is best for them. The children seem happy with this arrangement too.

I heard that applications were up hugely for the private Royal Grammar School in Guildford this year - I think it has about 180 places and had 2000 applications - because the fees are around £11K a year so parents were deciding to try to get their sons into RGS instead of schools like Charterhouse and Cranleigh where the fees are much higher. So there will be people choosing cheaper private schools and deciding that their local state school isn't do bad after all.

Lets face it, at the moment there is room for discussion. However, if we are entering a depression like the 1930s we'll be worrying about food and clothes, not what private school we can afford (or not).

Like all markets in luxury items, it'll be squeezed for a while. Some people will still be able to afford the fees - those who are well off enough not to even notice the "credit crunch" much.

The ones who will suffer will be the middle-class parents who have only just been able to afford it by saving up and not having holidays, etc.

They'll have to take the plunge into the state system and maybe find it's a not so bad, it's a nice-a place, ah shaddapaya face.

I can't say - on the whole, all things considered, and given all the real tragedies in the world - that my heart is bleeding unduly.

A lot of the middle-class parents who can only just afford it work for the public sector and are therefore less affected than others - teachers, doctors, nurses jobs are safe.

Dp and I are teachers so it hasn't affected us really except for fuel and food costs.

In fact, people always go on about money in teaching being so bad and at the moment I actually feel quite lucky.

Yes, but it's not just about how safe their jobs are, surely? It's about how far the same pay goes when there are more expensive things to buy. Private school fees, as a luxury item, should be first for the chop.

A couple of private school heads told me this week that families are pulling out their dcs all over the place. This is London and they're relocating.

Not in my house, UD!
I'd sell the house torelease the equity before pulling them out of school. School fees last to go here.

2nd after the mortgage here. I don't consider education a 'luxury'.