School Fees - how worried are you now

[Lifeiseveryday]

So when the VAT came in, I wasn’t too worried about school fees….maybe I had my head in the sand!
However, for next year, a number of schools near us have hiked both the fees recently, alongside the VAT.
I’m feeling much more nervous now about where the fees are going to end up and the impact this will have on children. School is affordable for us but I am not sure if it is ‘value for money’ anymore.
I know there have been lots of threads on VAT but I am more worried now, than when the policy came out. So as a temperature check, how is everyone else feeling? I have 8 more years of fees…

In London and the south east there are still enough wealthy people to fund and fill expensive schools. In other areas less so. All areas will see schools close, but proportionately to the existing number it will hit London and south east less hard.

One thing impacting London though is the housing market. It's much harder to build equity in recent years so affording a house takes up quite a large % of income particularly when you account for interest rates. A lot of London property is stagnating price wise. I think it's one reason for lower birth rates in inner London.

Agree with you. It IS a lottery. We've moved house to different counties three times in the last 14 years and each time the state secondaries have been appalling. We had already decided to home educate years before and I'm glad we did because the state system only seems to have got worse in that time.

I am quite worried by the shift in pushing children and families into home educating and online schooling, by default somehow. If local state is shite and private school unaffordable, then the former becomes the status quo. What the hell happened to universal state education for all?
This is a real danger those in charge should take account of. Especially given the recent Covid history.

Not only that but provision is getting very thin.

My DS wants to be an engineer. He's doing A'levels in maths, physics and DT. Our local college doesn't do A'levels at all. The local state schools don't have 6th forms. One state school 14 miles away offers Maths, Physics and art. No DT.

The closest state 6th form offering maths, physics &DT is 30 miles away. Last year they cancelled the school bus so I'd have had to drive him 14 miles to a railway station and then he'd have to get a train. His commute would be 90 mins each way. We're semi rural, but not the Outer Hebrides.

So we stayed with private because there really wasn't much of an alternative.

If the govt thinks they're going to have a STEM-based high wage economy with such poor provision, they are deluded.

Especially as they have cut Advanced maths + STEM out reach programmes

DC did 11+ for local grammars as well as one of the most expensive private schools in the country. With the VAT we decided to opt for grammar and totally glad we did this as can’t see where this is heading. Can also see these schools are desperate to attract overseas students as they’re not getting as much interest from home students as they used to.

@Araminta1003home schooling is also partly because SEN children are so let down in mainstream school. Everywhere I look there is no middle ground for my daughter’s needs. At our local comp she would get lost and be unable to come with the sheer size of it, it’s 300 per year group. Our local Pvte school is academically selective and she has a place but the culture disturbs me there, I don’t think they can really accommodate her autism it’s too demanding of her.

Any SEN schools where you need an ECHP and a big fight you’re looking at over accommodation as the needs are beyond her needs.

There is a book out there called SENbetweeners.

I'm surprised at the number of parents paying for private because of special educational needs.

One of my friends found that her daughter with special educational needs was persona non grata, because the private schools didn't want her potentially skewing their exam results. She got that impression.

@ThisUniqueDreamer some private's are like that but some are more SEN focused.

Many private schools are great for children with autism who are very academic, if the schools are not too pressured (socially and extracurricularly). They simply have the resources to accommodate needs more.
My DS with autism who has a very high IQ was at grammar school and fine there. State primary was more of a challenge, but then he did mature as well so it’s difficult to tell in hindsight. He overfocusses and wants to learn constantly and finds any rule breakers or those not focussed on their work (but more socially focussed) extremely frustrating.

That's really interesting. Maybe it is because our previous prep was so small (5-20 children per year) and part of a group (so could balance some savings across multiple schools).

It was our ex-head's first thought.

But as I say, our reason to leave was actually size, not cost.

Ours is pretty small by London standards, 250 kids. It has been taken over by a group, and we’ve been informed fees will be rising by another 4% starting september. However if you add that to the 8% rise last year and the 20% VAT, it all adds up. Obviously this has no effect on the super rich, only the middle class, which is why I find it so disgusting. Starmer’s government remains too cowardly to meaningfully tax the super rich.

Difficulties with maths and spelling are also considered SEN, I think around 30% of private pupils are claiming extra time due to SEN at GCSEs? So don't be surprised.

Hopefully this question will come out a sensitive but I’m curious if DC are diagnosed with SEN do you not automatically get a ECHP???

In my DCs class in primary there were 3 children with SEN one had complex needs had their own TA, one was Deaf and again had their own TA (all desks and chairs in the class had tennis balls on the bottom of the legs to stop scrapping noise - brilliant) and one with ASD. The school had a special class room within the school that allowed the children to go when the main ckassrooom or break time became too much for them. They all successfully transitioned to state secondaries where their needs have been met. There was 31 children in the class and I can honestly say that my DC to this day is good friends with 2 of them and they are in the process of taking their GCSEs this year.

The reason I am giving our experience of State Schools and SEN - I accept that there are a lot crappy state schools however there are also a lot out there that are amazing for children with SEN. So don’t give up on hope.

What do you mean that having difficulty with spelling and maths is considered SEN ?

That's completely incorrect. In order to get reasonable adjustments for external exams there is a very rigid set of requirements. A school can't just claim a child has "difficulties with engkish/maths" to get reasonable adjustment eg extra time. These requirements are set by JCQ and awarding organisations are audited on them.
The travesty is that more state schools aren't applying for reasonable adjustments for pupils who qualify.

Haha, no you do not automatically get an EHCP with SEN. It is a ridiculously difficult process and can take years due to backlogs and combatative LAs who fight literally every application. Even when you get one they are often not worth the paper they are printed on if it isn’t ultra specific about what resources are required. Many opt out of EHCPs because they don’t want to put their kids through years of distress needed to build evidence that they need extra support, and of those that do manage to get EHCPs a significant portion will opt out of school because even with an EHCP the support isn’t sufficient (or isn’t adhered to as intended)

if it’s clear and complex needs you will maybe get less resistance/ more support, or maybe those just got the ball rolling earlier than those of us who only identified the need for support after children started school. If your child is dyslexic or less disruptive presenting ASD then forget about timely support.

I’m sure there are well supported send children in the state sector, but in my local area I would estimate that 9 out of 10 send children are failed by the current send system.

Our school have a number of send at both high and low ends academically- it really depends on the school. There are many non-selective indies that are well known to cater to specific splds like dyslexia, where high grades might be more challenging.

We are ok at the moment and thankfully eldest DD is year one of A Levels and youngest is starting GCSE years. If we were starting out now we wouldn’t be going private, the year on year increase is hefty before the VAT is added. We have just been advised of another 3.5% increase for September onwards fees. It doesn’t stop there either does it, school trips and extras are expensive. Wages haven’t gone up in line with these increases. It’s still such early days with regards to VAT, give it a few more years and we will see the true impact. Less new joiners into the private sector meaning lower pupil numbers. Parents needing to save money will not commit to out of hours clubs. External club providers won’t have the number of children they need to make it viable. I totally understand your concern OP.

In answer to the original OPs question - I’m dreading what the new fee increase will be for September as have been told that it will be between 3 - 5%. Luckily DCs are in 1st snd last year of GCSEs and they only went to private school since year 9.

DC wants to stay for 6th form but also be happy to go back to their old state school as their old friends will be there for 6th form - they would miss the sports. So if they both go back to state we only have 1 year of fees left but if they both stay until end of Alevels that’s another 3 years with 2 of these with double fees - it’s going to be manageable with adjustments !

I have to admit if it wasn’t for the extra curricular I would have kept them at state especially now with VAT.

I’m curious if DC are diagnosed with SEN do you not automatically get a ECHP???

An EHCP? No, they don't! If you have an additional need requiring extra support you will usually go on the school's SEN register as 'SEN support' but only a small percentage of those will need an EHCP. Diagnosis has little to do with it.

Hopefully this question will come out a sensitive but I’m curious if DC are diagnosed with SEN do you not automatically get a ECHP???

No.

Getting an ECHP also cost state schools significant money - thousands of pounds. They can’t apply for all the children who need one at once - they can’t afford it and have to prioritise. Ed Psych availability is difficult with wait times for the necessary assessments taking a long time. Finally people can earn more at Sainsbury’s than being a child’s one to one support so recruitment is also hard.

Depends on the school. They tend not to have a problem with stereotypical high achieving autistic kids, and dyslexia etc can be worked around so exams still go well, but they may balk at the ADHD children who disrupt classrooms/move a lot/may act unsafely in a classroom environment.

I have one of the first, now happily attending a highly academically selective private school. I also have one of the second, and the only private I think would properly have ‘fit’ her recently closed as non-viable. It was lovely, nurturing and able to adjust to its students - hence why it closed as that costs too much.

DD1 is in Year 2 at a London prep and DD2 is starting at their nursery this year, so we have years of fees ahead of us. I have to admit I was a bit shocked when adding up the total cost for 2 dcs until uni age, with an adjustment for inflation - it's certainly a life-changing amount and enough to make most parents think twice.

We are fortunate to be able to afford it (due to investments from earned income, not family money) and I'm keen for the dcs to stay in the private system although we are in catchment for an excellent comp if we need it. I'm not worried about being able to afford it but I'm slightly anxious about the viability of our prep - it's not a big name and fairly small, so it could struggle especially as it's quite central, where there are low birth rates. But there are plenty of other preps nearby so lots of Plan B options.

Most families at our school aren't super rich (oligarch types) - perhaps a few very high earners in law and entertainment, and the rest high earners like us but a tier below that. There is not much talk about leaving the private sector, they grumble about the fees but all are managing to absorb it (and still have nice holidays, houses etc). It's a very international cohort but not in jet-set way, and most families are settled here.