Private school fees - are they negotiable?

[Macaronsandcupcakes]

Has anyone ever negotiated private school fees? I don’t necessarily mean because of bursary. Someone recently told me that fees can be negotiated, especially with more than one child attending - is this a thing? Is it school dependent, ie if they’re oversubscribed it’s unlikely. Would love to know everyone’s thoughts. Incidentally with two children what is a bursary threshold on income likely to be?

West Country schools are negotiable for sure. Some by a huge margin

Do Tell - do you have some information on that?

The school is full with waiting lists. No discounts.

This is a financial advisors private school section.

I’m pretty sure it’s not full & definitely no waiting list.

Yes but these are not negotiable unless you have an exceptional talent that they want. For both, you have to apply and be awarded the reduction through a strict (and for scholarship competitive) process, so it is an award not a discount in that sense. They are fully in control of who gets what, not the parent.

Do you think your children will qualify for either?

In which case you have to question its sustainability

One child has an academic scholarship, but it doesn’t come with financial benefit.

its a very old boys school. They have introduced co-ed in sixth form. I imagine if numbers slip they will have to consider going fully co-ed - so I’m not concerned about long term sustainability - but perhaps I’m being naive.

I don’t think any of us really know. However, you should be able to look at the schools accounts and see what their reserves are like compared to peer schools? Also their income and costs.

I've worked in independent schools for many years and have not heard of fees being negotiable. It sounds like a total minefield. Parents at these schools are v competitive and would be outraged by the concept. Many of them may be rich but they still have a close eye on the pennies.
There is often a fee discount for employees' children. At my most recent school, lots of mums were keen to work as classroom assistants and I'm sure it was for the fee discount.
In general, as a business, an independent school will have worked out the cost per pupil and yet will want to have competitve fees so I would think there isn't much room for negotiation.

I told a school that we had decided not to send our DS due to their fees being too high for us - as I thought it better to be honest and not waste their time - and they came back and asked me what we would consider paying. They are a relatively well-known good school that seems to have retained their numbers in recent years, so I don’t think that they’re desperate for pupils - and knew nothing about my DS other than than his school year, so it wasn’t that he has a particular outstanding quality that they wanted!

I live in an expensive part of the country (SE). The only private schools I have ever known to negotiate were ones who were desperate for any bum on a seat. I’d be concerned about a school that needs to negotiate on their fees.