School fees have increased yet again, have yours?

[Shortdarkandfeisty]

And if so, are you happy about it? I'm fairly sure it's above the rate of inflation. Nothing we can do about it except pay but .

We uses state, but surely when choosing private you have to assume that fees will go up yearly by at least inflation and generally more?
Schools have to compete to be 'the best' and that means investing in ever improving facilities and extra curricular opportunities. Plus possibly pressure to give bursaries may mean that those that pay in full have to pay more (like care home fees.)

Depending how old your children are, if this is going to be a long term issue for you, you do have an alternative, which is to give notice and move to the state system. Only you know a) whether you can afford private, and b) how you view the cost-benefit trade off.

Yes ours have gone up 2.5%. As teen says, we expect it to go up each year.

What hasn't gone up (apart from salaries)? C'est la vie, I'm afraid. We expect about 4% these days.

Yes, but only 4 terms to go now! Counting down.

We're not sure yet. It tends to be a lot later in the year that we're informed (which is very naughty, really).

We had 5% two years in a row, then no increase, then 1.5% last two years. Luckily, we saved up for sixth form alongside paying year 7-11 fees and that's in an account paying more than 1.5%.

I'm sure ours will go up. Luckily I've just paid the last terms fees for the child on the more expensive school and feel might relieved. What started at £3300 per term 5 years ago is now a whopping £4850.50 at prep level. Plus last terms extras were over £500. Luckily we've paid without a problem and it was the best school for this DC for various reasons and it's an incredible school but I'm not convinced that paying £15k per year would be my default option if there was a suitable state alternative especially not from day 1.

Dd's have barely gone up in 7 years she has been there. Fees are £400 more this year than we paid 2010/11.

Historically Private School fees have risen by double inflation for the last 30 years.
Inflation is likely to hit 4% this summer.
Add to that the Living Wage, ERS NI and Auto Enrollment increasing the cost of support staff
and Brexit reducing the supply of support staff
its likely that a lot of schools will ramp the fees over the coming years.

And if Corbin has his way...! Eek 🐁!

My mouse pic didn't come out

Ignore the Corbyn "policies" - they are all pipe dreams as he has zero chance of becoming Prime Minister.
With him as leader Labour cannot even hold on to safe council seats.

"We're not sure yet. It tends to be a lot later in the year that we're informed (which is very naughty, really)."

Fee increases have to be announced before the last date on which to give noice to quit before they come in to force. That's been through the courts. Or rather, if they don't give you enough time to give proper notice, then they cannot hold you to the notice period (as long as your you give notice promptly after the increase is announced).

In practice this means the letters are all arriving about now.

If you can pay fees on advance, you can insulate yourself a bit (depending on T&Cs of your schools scheme)

Well, exactly, AnotherNewt. The year that the fees didn't increase at all it was announced in the last week of the academic year. I had had a feeling it was going to be 0% otherwise you can't hold parents to a term's notice, surely?

7-8% for the fourth year in a row. Parents are fuming. over-subscribed school just embarking on another unnecessary building project.

That's interesting wicker and talkingpeace

We can afford it but I'm still irritated that it's over inflation

It is always above inflation, often significantly so. You need to budget for that going forwards in addition to incremental rises as dc get older. We've not heard for 2017-18 yet. Fortunately only 2 years to go for us!

9% last year, 5% this year. No building work to speak of. No reasonable explanation beyond a variant of: we think we are worth it. Technically a charity.

One of our schools has just gone up 7.5% and I think its the final nail in the coffin for us. I've never particularly warmed to the school anyway, so I'm looking for alternatives from year 3.
The boys school went up 1.5%

DD1's school fees have just gone up to £45,560 for full boarding this year. Thank God she finishes in June.

Wow. Over £45.000? I have a child full boarding a well known school. It isn't as expensive as that!

Yes, I've been wondering if this figure had been grossly exaggerated or not, if it was a UK school. As far as I know, even the most expensive, poshest and famous UK schools charge less then £40K.

For example, the quoted figure is almost 25% higher than Eton, Harrow and Winchester!

Yes, it's a UK school. And yes, the fact that it is more than the most famous public schools is not lost on me. She went there because it was too late for her to go back into the UK system and do GCSEs when we returned to UK - she's doing the IB. I can assure you that I am not exaggerating the cost - fees hit £40K for full boarding last school year. Thankfully my employer pays around half the cost of the fees, but it still leaves us a fair whack to find.

American School Cobham is well over £40,000 for full boarding.

Recently looked in Hurtwood House which has a dedicated performing arts stream and is ££££. Many of the more specialist boarding schools cost more than Eton.

I went private and my fees were always quite low-ish compared to others (e.g. my brother's school) but then it's part of the GDST and having slightly lower fees than other non-GDST schools is part of GDST policy/that's part of their thing. For example this year (2016/17) my old school's fees are £5776 per term for the senior school, so that's £17,328 for the year.