Private school fee increases

[HotelCalifornia78]

I am considering putting my two through private secondary school and thinking of fee increases each year to factor into our budget. I know traditionally they say budget for 2-5% per annum but over the 13 years my children would be in secondary school this obviously represents a massive increase in fees. For those of you who have sent your children private do you remember what the fees were when they started secondary to now and how many years that represents? (Whether they’ve left or still in attendance). I want to budget realistically as the fees will be a large proportion of our take home pay. Thank you!

Save all that money up and give it to them for their first home or for setting up their own business when they hit 25 or so.

Secondary school plus a tutor is good enough for most bright kids. That's what I've learned having sent two privately.

One is not academic and the other wants to leave and go to bloody art school now she's 16!

I wish I hadn't bothered and had saved it all up.

@FortunesFave 'Bloody art school'?

Private schooling is not just about the academics. It is about the confidence and connections that children will make. It is about the richness of extra curricular activities.
I am glad your daughter has a passion. Please make sure you encourage her, and never make your children feel like they have 'wasted' their private school education.

OP. Private schooling is extremely expensive, especially with all the extras. It may be worth just sending them privately for part of their education (dependent on the quality of your local state schools).

2-5% is very accurate. Assume otherwise at your peril.

Private school fees have increased far beyond inflation for decades, and continue to do so. We’ve not had an increase of less than 2% and it adds up fast.

[quote Einszwei]@FortunesFave 'Bloody art school'?

Private schooling is not just about the academics. It is about the confidence and connections that children will make. It is about the richness of extra curricular activities.
I am glad your daughter has a passion. Please make sure you encourage her, and never make your children feel like they have 'wasted' their private school education.

OP. Private schooling is extremely expensive, especially with all the extras. It may be worth just sending them privately for part of their education (dependent on the quality of your local state schools).[/quote]
Oh well I'm only venting. Of course I encourage her all the way. I got her a weekend job in an art gallery....buy her all the art materials she needs etc. Tell her she's fabulous.

The confidence thing is not guaranteed though. And there's also no guarantee they will WANT to take part in the extra curricular activities.

Neither of mine are naturally confident despite our best efforts. And please don't think it's because I"m a shit parent....I have done everything in my power to instill them with all the confidence in the world...through love and encouragement and positive non-judgmental encouragement.

To expand....I wish I'd saved all that money. I wish I had in there in the bank to keep for them to buy a house.

An artist doesn't generally earn much after all.

2-5 is bang on

Unless you can easily afford it I wouldn't. I am certainly not against private schooling. Move somewhere with good schools and get a private tutor if necessary. Far more cost effective.

I would say 2-5 % although ours have been frozen for next academic year

Put it in you pension and save the difference. Honestly unless you can easily afford it, it’s madness.

Thank you all for your responses, lots of varied views. I will include 5% budget but we will sit down and discuss other options for the money and it’s best use before committing.

Just to help a little:

My parents were lucky enough to come into a hefty sum of money and paid up front for my education from Yr6-Yr13 and therefore didn’t have to pay any increase in fees.

By the time it came for me to choose if I went to the local college or stayed for 6th form money was not in the equation as the fees had increased so much that either option was “free”. In effect, over the course of 5 years, the fees increased so much that what would have previously paid for 7 years of school only paid for 5...

Wow that is quite surprising SeaScape!

It'll never be as little as 2%. I would assume 4-8%. Effectively the fees will double between reception and upper sixth if the last couple of decades are anything to go by.

@SeaScape98

Just to help a little:

My parents were lucky enough to come into a hefty sum of money and paid up front for my education from Yr6-Yr13 and therefore didn’t have to pay any increase in fees.

By the time it came for me to choose if I went to the local college or stayed for 6th form money was not in the equation as the fees had increased so much that either option was “free”. In effect, over the course of 5 years, the fees increased so much that what would have previously paid for 7 years of school only paid for 5...

very few schools offer this now. you can pay in advance and your money will accrue interest, maybe around 2.5%, but most won't hold future fee increases.

There have been periods of time when fee increases were more in the region of 7-10%. This was the case around 12 years ago and went on for several years.

I would work on a basis of around 5%. You need to be sure you can cover it, so err on side if worst case scenario.

Remember to compound when doing your calculations.

Over the course of a secondary education, increasing by close to 50% from start to finish isn’t far off what it can be.

Yes, increases are more cautious now, but rarely under inflation (these Covid years of rebates and temporary freezes are v unusual) and often significantly above inflation.

Open thing to be aware of is the significant increase in employer contribution to teacher pension a couple of years ago....it went up by over 40% and out big pressure on fee bills. Some schools have withdrawn, but do look out for that as not being a positive....tends to be schools with less secure finances and although they save money on pension contributions they are then far less attractive as an employer. Currently less than 15% have withdrawn, so those schools are likely to struggle further to recruit.

Fees are a massive commitment.

Personally I would only commit if you can easily afford it, including the fee hikes (other hikes at key points such as move to KS2 or KS4 behind the standard yearly increases) and extra curricular stuff, without big sacrifices to your lives, which includes your own pension contributions. If you can easily afford it, the great. If it will be a struggle or mean big sacrifices, don’t get into it.

My daughter in in Y7 and we have had fee increases between 6 and 10% every year since reception.

My children's school and the one I work at are both increasing fees by 3% this year.

The pension problem will push the increases to nearer 10% I think..

We've had an increase of 10% over the last 2 years. We don't have to pay anything on top of that for clubs etc... though.

Having had a small insight into private - and now in an outstanding state school which is pretty high up in country's league tables, I wish we'd have stayed private (left as were never intending private, was a financial struggle for us, but a place came up at the state school we originally hoped for). Now private school is full - state school cannot compete as it caters to the least able, with lip service to extension activities. This seems common. If you can already read and do basic maths, first couple of years of school teach you to coast which brings up problems later when you finally have to "learn" to learn. If you can afford it, do it!

I have been working in private education for quite a long time, but my own DC go to a state school. I would say don't do it unless you can comfortably afford it. I've seen many families struggle with the fee increases and it has caused a great strain on their families- children have had to be pulled out at crucial times or the family had had to move to a home that is less suitable for their needs. If it isn't a comfortable reach for you to send both your kids all the way through then consider a state school - many are excellent. Pension increases may push fees up further than the usual 2-5%

I see people’s finances all the time and can always spot school fees even before I’ve seen the entry on the liabilities lists. Great earners and I always think ‘where’s it all gone?’ Fees just keep coming. If one of you HAS to work to afford it, that’s also high risk.

It depends on the school, and you can't generalise really. School fees are governed by market forces of supply and demand as well as the costs of providing the services, and the individual school will be making cost-benefit calculations about whether incurring expense X will make the school sufficiently more attractive to parents that the required fee-increase to fund the additional benefit from that expenditure won't put too many people off. Schools that can readily fill their intake with bright and enthusiastic pupils from an application pool that is 3 or 4 times the number of places available can readily afford to tinker with the cost-benefit balance like this, and they won't suffer too much if they get the balance wrong. However they also have less incentive to innovate new but expensive ideas if the improved offer can't result in more pupils because their intake is already at full capacity.

Less popular schools that generally fill up their yeargroups with pupils who didn't manage to secure a place at the top tier schools and who often have year groups that are slightly under capacity have less of a safety margin because if they set fees too high their income could suffer immediately - but at the same time they have more incentive to consider investing in something new that would put up fees a little but would make the school significantly more attractive, if they can use the money in a way that makes it more likely that they will recruit more pupils.

It also makes a difference that some fee-paying schools are charities - no one is making a profit, the fees pay the cost of running the school and anything left over gets ploughed back into the school) whereas some are profit-making businesses.

The school attended by my DC didn't put up fees much (increases of less than 1%) for 3 years in a row, but has regretfully needed to impose a 3% increase this year. I am sure there are schools that impose inflation-busting rises every year, but that's not universal.

Save up starting now as if you were already paying fees. It is sensible to have a buffer of at least a year's worth of fees for all DC in savings just in case of disaster. If you have this in-place before the eldest DC starts at the school then it is ok to dip into this savings pot over the coming years if fees increase a little faster than income - so long as you have options to increase income to catch up.

"State till eight" is a good motto imo - no need to incur the additional expense for the first few years.

@sparemonitor

It'll never be as little as 2%. I would assume 4-8%. Effectively the fees will double between reception and upper sixth if the last couple of decades are anything to go by.

The OP is just talking about secondary though.