School fee hike - freaking out slightly

[wingingthings]

I'm under no illusion that we haven’t been very lucky to be able to send our 2 children privately. However, we've done this without foreign holidays, new cars and making sacrifices- we shop at Aldi etc. Choices we've made happily and it's been fine. We also worked on the basis of 5% inflation each year. We just got the fees increase letter of 12.5%. I'm freaking out as this pushes us very close and will still have another 5 years to go. Curious as to others experiences this year??

"However, we've done this without foreign holidays, new cars and making sacrifices- we shop at Aldi etc"

This is such bullshit. This doesn't add up to private school fees for two children.

This is not bulls**t. It is a reality for a lot of middle class families. Families will stretch, maybe the bursar will help if the child
is exceptional, but going private does involve significant sacrifices in terms of holidays and entertainment for most middle class families.

@bibbitybobbityyhat you’re right - those choices don’t add up to school fees. What they do allow though is spare cash per year (eg 10k which would otherwise be saved) to have 5k added to from those savings allowing school fees to be paid.
and it’s those parents (ourselves included) who will feel the squeeze.
other parents I have spoken to this week were saying how their 8k holiday was now costing 10k. I suspect they can manage the increase more easily than us.

And I am not in any way minimising the fact we are privileged to consider doing it in the first place.

I have kids in two different London day schools and the increase is 11%, one school has made it clear they want to look after their teachers to retain them, and to be honest, the teaching team is great and very stable, plus both sets have amazing facilities.
both schools froze their fees during covid as well, and we got some rebates as well.

Not bullshit. Factor in a couple of new 4x4s, 2 or 3 holidays. Sounds like OP chose their path but sadly didn't factor inevitable economic strife.

When did MN get so mean?!

Most of the population can't afford three holidays and two 4x4s, even without paying school fees. Only households with a very high income would be able to afford those things.

I think users of private schools will need to have a careful think about exactly what they consider their reason for paying for education (and schools, likewise, will need to think about “What are our users’ commonest reasons for paying for education?”)

For each individual (or school), is it mainly about:

a) We want a faster-paced, more challenging academic curriculum than most state schools are able to offer, and peers that are academically above average across the board.
b) Our child has issues with attention space, focus, bullying etc., cannot cope in big state classrooms and needs a small-scale nurturing environment with more personal attention.
c) We want a well-rounded education with marvelous sports and music facilities etc.
d) I and my partner work big busy well paid jobs with long hours; we want good academics, personal attention, extra curric, wraparound care provided as a convenient one-stop shopping trip so we can both focus on our careers.
e) We wouldn’t normally have chosen private, but we’re in a difficult situation where the only state schools available for us are really bad/scary etc.

Some of those motivations offer the potential for increasing class sizes and/or selling off/monetizing some of the facilities without parents refusing to pay for it (for example, it’s possible to deliver a fast-paced curriculum to academically-selected kids in fairly large class sizes), some do not and are very much about seeking a premium product.

No doubt we will see private schools making decisions about what their target markets are, and budgeting accordingly. Or going under in some cases.

Do you know if all GDST are increasing the same? We are waiting to hear from ours (in SW London, which might be the same as you) for our DD, starting in Year 7 in September.

@QuiteAJourney - not sure about all the GDSTs but I think it's the same one as your DD is going to!

@whathaveyoudonelately Many thanks 😊

Our GDST school in SW London will increase 7% (exact.. 7.00 something) next academic year

GDST has always aimed at keeping things as affordable as possible for parents.

https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search/-/charity-details/306983

If you look at this, out of thousands of employees only one earns 250-300k.

Meanwhile, plenty of headmasters of secondary schools in London (mainly male) are on 250k per year. Some even more.

Everyone should be reading the accounts of their private schools in detail, every year.

Is this a co-ed in south east London by any chance?

Thanks for the reminder. I'm totally doing this.

@tinatea - if you are referring to Eltham College, from my research the headmaster there was paid around £250000 plus free house plus potentially discounts for own children. Paid more or same to the headmaster of Eton College…

No, the school I was originally referring to was even more than that, close to 400k for the headmaster! Quite astounding in these times. There is a thread going about Brighton College and it appears the head there is more 250k ball park.

Quite an eye opener reading the accounts of these schools.

@Intergalacticcatharsis This has just happened at a well known selective in N London. School has a huge reserve, has just given lots of sponsored places to Ukrainian refugees and is constantly asking for donations to be added to fees to increase bursary fund for new pupils. All lovely but no regard to current parents and their struggles. Fees of course going up considerably and the school is opting out of having charity status voluntarily under the argument that it'll happen sooner or later so they want to prepare for it now.

@Dodgeitornot - sounds like an extremely well paid headmaster too with a very clear vision…, at odds with some of the existing parent group?

Parents are a really important part of a school community.

I personally massively dislike the CEO style me me me type headmaster with a vision.
It is good to give bursary places but they should always be funded by separate campaigns/endowments etc well in advance and never by existing fees/pressure to donate. In a cost of living crisis those already struggling should be helped first.
I am not sure how I feel about free places for a Ukrainian refugees. Is a high alpha high performance environment like that actually in the best interests of a traumatised child? I hope they get loads of pastoral care and counselling and zero grade/performance pressure.

Just had the email - SE London - 7.5%. Could be worse.

@Intergalacticcatharsis

Yh it's a male head with an obvious vision.
I can't handle the wokeness. Where's the free places for other refugee children or the dirt poor kids from the other side of the borough. Just because someone is a Ukrainian refugee doesn't mean they're broke. They never ran a campaign like that before.

20% fee increase from September this year. Such a steep increase probably identifies the school.

It's so weird that you typed out all of those reasons but left out the HUGE one, which is "we want our children to mix with The Right Kind of People".

Rich people asked for optional donations to help refugee children.

THE HORROR, THE HORROR

@rumbusiness - that is not what the poster insinuated. How many Afghani girls got bursaries or Iraqi children or Kurds etc in the past? The insinuations was that the woke headmaster is jumping on the Ukrainian bandwagon to further his own image above other matters. That is happening with regards to the Ukraine war in several spheres at the moment… hardly a controversial point. You can be totally opposed to the war in Ukraine but still be cynical.

They didn't say any of that. Their post was a complaint about rich people being asked for donations. Here it is, again.

constantly asking for donations to be added to fees to increase bursary fund for new pupils. All lovely but no regard to current parents and their struggles.