Private school fees

[sandwoman]

I'm looking into private school for DS for when he starts secondary. The website says £2747 per term, is this from September to July? a full school year or half a year?

? term means term - 3 a year - (1) September - December; (2) January - Easter; (3) April - July. So a full school year will be £2747 x 3 ... not much short of £9,000.

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Three terms per year, therefore three times £2747 = £8241 per year.

if it says per term I would imagine the full years fees would be £8,241

Has the school gone to a 6 term year? Worth checking!

Don't think this is all you will be paying either! There are loads of hidden extras they don't always tell you about till you get the bill. Things such as dinner supervision fees, stationary, insurance etc.

Also fees go up in April next year for the following academic year (starting in September)

It's pricey because this will not include extras. Extras mean the following:

Uniform (around £500-£600 to get DS kitted out at first go - there might be a second hand shop though)

Music lessons (around £15-20 a week)

Meals (some schools include, some don't but taking them is almost invariably compulsory)

School trips (day trips compulsory but also "optional" school type holidays in Italy or France or Germany - usually a skiing trip a year too)

There might be some form of assistance available though - worth looking into

If I were a billionaire philanthropist I'd be setting up superbly-equipped schools, with no religious or other agenda, for bright kids whose parents don't wish to educate them in the state system but for whom school fees would be a laughably unlikely luxury.

I don't mean "poor" people either - I'm thinking of all the people who work in the public sector and in creative industries, on salaries of say £35k and under.

They would be unashamedly academically elitist, with entry at 11 judged not on tests but on academic performance over the previous year, and with no fees, funded entirely through philanthropic donations.

I know, cloud-cuckoo-land. But the ghastly state of education today has me wishing this kind of thing existed.

Ogden has done that quite a bit though UQD, he's funded loads of full fee paid places at a number of fee paying schools. My ds2 has one such lad in his class, came from a very rough primary in the dog end of town, not only is he super bright, nice lad but also appears to be talented at anything he chooses to try at (eg sport etc) full marks to anyone who funds/part funds such opportunities.

UQD

I have a vague memory of schools like that

Weren't they called grammar schools?

We abolished them for being Very Unfair because only clever children could get in.

It would be that times 3 for the year. tbh for secondary that is still pretty reasonable. Check the extras though , some may or may not include lunch and books/stationery in fees, plus allow for musical instrument tuition, specialist sports ie sailing, extra curricular activities, after school supervision, trips, uniform ....

That is extremely cheap for secondary private

and bear in mind that it may well go up year on year by 5-10% plus increases as the child moves up the school

a term is about twice a year. winter and summer.

whereabouts are you Lola? UK schools have 3 terms per calendar year.

It's 2747 x 3

There are three terms a year, Lola - Michaelmas, Lent and Summer

£2747 is just under the average cost for a term's fees at an independent secondary school (for a day pupil, not boarder)
If you're still looking for a school - try www.find-a-school.co.uk

sorry, stand corrected...... except for London!
Still a far cry from full boarders at some schools paying over £30000 per year. Imagine earnings needed to send 2 children there!

what about poor, clever children uqd

assisted places scheme for independent schools should not have been abolished

suefas there are lots of schools outside London that charge double those termly prices

Yes, I'm in Surrey and they're all around £4000 a term here - at senior school level.