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??

There are some excellent state schools but many that really are way behind private schools, even the mediocre ones.

Only private schools can get visas; some Asian parents who came in the middle of the school year have no choice except for private schools. And agency always corporate with private schools to promote the programme.

It depends on your lifestyle. Some parents prefer spending money on houses, trips and other events. Some believe the private system offers more. Many kids took private schools test as a backup for grammar schools. Private schools may have better activities or education early stages (before 11 years old). Secondary have many competitive state school options. We like to take control of our education to arrange things and drop out whenever we want more flexibly rather than lock the fees in others' hands unpredicable. Especially many outside schools are national level rather than just school-wide.

But if you can get 30%-50% above scholarships or bursaries, go for private schools. Many people select private schools over grammar, considering discounts. But with inflation fee increases and reduced discount values, scholarships are no longer attractive. It is ROI. I do not see see the worth of full fees. My personal opinion.

I agree it’s going to be increasingly difficult and unattractive for those with very good, but not spectacular incomes to choose private education. Increasingly it will be the preserve of those who are super rich.

Those people mentioned upthread who have good but not especially super incomes who choose to live in flats rather than houses to fund school fees, or to go without huge amounts of other stuff that the affluent middle classes have who choose state education, will think twice about if it’s worth those sacrifices.

I think a good example will be teachers who work in those independent schools. Traditionally, teachers got big discounts on the school fees and many chose to send their kids to their school. They still paid perhaps £8k or more for secondary places, but felt it was worth it and just about affordable. With salaries rising much slower than inflation and big fee hikes over lots of years, they might be looking instead at fees of £14k or more with their discount…and those fees expected to keep rising substantially over time. More will decide they can’t afford it, especially for several kids, and opt out. And they are possibly the most informed about what private and state education can offer, especially if they’ve worked in both sectors.

There are too many private schools in the market at the moment. Smaller ones, single sex and those in less affluent areas will be more vulnerable to closure. Those remaining will increasingly have to offer more and more to justify the fees parents pay and to make them truly different to the free option available.

I guess that the well-off but not super rich people part way through, and especially those close to the end will grit their teeth and suck up the extra costs. But those embarking on the journey will think twice and more will decide not to do it. In some areas where there are still people queuing up for places, those schools will be fine….often larger, mixed schools in the south east. But many in other areas will already struggle to fill will find it hard and perhaps look to the international market more. Certainly the private school climate will be different in 10 years to today.

Not really in central London….state schools are not great…..

Any hard working child would do well in any setting….the reason you send kids private is simply that the state schools are not safe.
you just have to walk past a central London state school at finishing time to see how rough it is.

@Caps0218 Utterly ridiculous comment about the schools that 93% of the UK population attend. But you knew that.

Any hard working child would do well in any setting

Thats just not true. My DS’s passions and abilities lie in science and engineering, yet his state school struggled to provide any consistent teacher across any of those subjects. The only option was private.

I guess in theory we could have withdrawn him from school and used online tutors, but I would argue that is still private.

I think people underestimate just how bad some state schools are.

(And no, we couldn’t have just changed to another state school, because we are rural and the catchment area is huge. We would have had to move house for a different state school, which would have cost more than private fees, and is just another equivalent use of privilege.)

Any hard working child would do well in any setting

What a lovely sentiment
Not in any way grounded in reality of course, but it would be lovely to think that it was true.

@Caps0218 Bless you. Wouldn't that be nice.

I’ve been watching with interest and then we got ours….9.5%😭🙃!

10% snuck out, last day of term!

10% here too

Any news on fees increases for GDST schools, either timing or amount? I believe that they all do it together

@WombatChocolate
Any cursory glance at the best schools in this country shows a lot are single sex. A few might go co Ed. The girls’ schools tend to do well with boys though.

Interesting-- is that in London @Sairk? We haven't had our fee increase letter yet. I imagine it might be at the end of the holidays. I'd hope its not 10% as a few other posters have suggested. 10% this year plus VAT in 2025 would be more than many families can absorb so quickly.

Increasing fees above inflation was feasible when wages were growing faster than inflation. What's happening with mortgage rates, energy prices, wages etc is going to result in fewer private school pupils if fees go up universally by this much for next year.

You can see schools are already preparing to fight for bums on seats. Wimbledon High is moving its offer date to 3 months before most of the other 4+ academic schools. Westminster is introducing a 4+ intake. Well known private schools still had vacancies in their primary intake this year with lesser known ones failing / closing....

Also many have started to open oversea schools in other countries. After Covid, international students were reduced... It will be interesting to know what is the top private schools, especially London ones and boarding schools increase. The current rate is already £30-£45k SECONDARY...

I don't see any drop off in demand. DS's school (Oxford) had a record number of applications for year 7. I think the pandemic caused a lot of people to really see the difference in provision. The shift in in-takes is more about protecting league tables and getting them 'in the system' earlier for some of the big names. We are a long way from a bums on seats issue in the SE and London. The rich have gotten richer. The percentage that will be squeezed out won't be that big. It's a worry if you're in that margin though.

I disagree that it's a small % affected. My husband and I are both on 6 figure salaries and are seriously feeling the pinch with mortgage, inflation etc. secondary won't be affected but we will no longer plan to go through to 6th form.

@nospoonleftbehind We've been at private schools in london and Oxford and the amount relying on generational wealth rather than income is pretty big. Lots will trade down in house if they really need to if the mortgage is the squeeze. Lots of 'marginal' families have quite carefully planned the number of kids and the age gaps carefully. There's not heaps of data but we do k ow that a lot more than 7% of parents can afford fees.

Definitely agree with generational and grandparents etc funding. School
Fees x 3 are just shy of £5k monthly - more than double the mortgage payments

The problem is wages haven't really been growing in the UK at all in the last 20 years. Maybe in very niche sectors but no where near the rate they have in the other "1st world countries". The salaries in the US are nearly double what they are here for the same jobs. I remember in an office I worked in, we had a US sister office and you could apply to be sponsored to work at either office for a year. When people used to come from the US office, they'd basically be taking a 50% pay cut. Fees in NYC day schools are 57k a year. 70k for boarding is normal there. That's only possible if salaries are in line with that.

It probably depends on the school but I live in London and City Juniors as well as others didn't have all their places full in February. Other smaller named prep schools have also openly advertised that they have vacancies in every year group in the school and a number of small preps in London have closed. There is a thread elsewhere on mumsnet detailing a number of those that have closed already

Which preps have closed?