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School Fees at St Albans High School

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2016 10:02 am
by schoolnavigator
There seems to be a significant cost to being 'The Times Independent Secondary School of the Year'. The new Head has just announced the fees are to be increased by nearly 9% for 2016/17.

Can anyone give any insight to this, or fee increases at other schools for comparison? I have heard murmurs that this puts the fee increase at nearly 25% over the past 3 years, but this can't be the case,surely? Or is this what is happening in the independent sector as a whole?

Re: School Fees at St Albans High School

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2016 10:05 am
by Daogroupie
Gosh, so what does that make the total annual fee for one dd then? DG

Re: School Fees at St Albans High School

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2016 10:35 am
by PurpleDuck
That is quite a steep rise and I was complaining about ours! Is the school funding a particularly large projects, expanding perhaps? Would you be able to find out from somewhere what the fees were like in the last few years, to see whether this sort of a rise is typical for them?

For comparison, our school's fees have increased each year since September 2012 as follows: 7%, 6%, 3.7% and just announced 3.5% from next September. This makes an overall increase of 21.8% over four years. Having looked at other schools in the area, they all seem to have increased their fees quite a bit, although some have kept the increase below 20% over the last four years.

If you are looking at independent schools, bear in mind that some have a flat fee structure and others may charge less in lower years, which makes them look more affordable, with fees from e.g. year 9 or 10 set higher.

Re: School Fees at St Albans High School

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2016 4:33 pm
by schoolnavigator
Fees per term are £5,600 in 2016/7, compared to £5,150 now. Not sure about 6th form though.

Re: School Fees at St Albans High School

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2016 5:54 pm
by PurpleDuck
schoolnavigator wrote:Fees per term are £5,600 in 2016/7, compared to £5,150 now. Not sure about 6th form though.
Current school year sixth form fees look the same as those in Senior school, so likely to change in line with Senior school fees from September, I guess.

Re: School Fees at St Albans High School

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2016 8:31 pm
by CandyCrush
St Helen's have just announced a 3.5% increase bringing annual fees to just under £16K.

I agree that the 9% increase for St Albans High School is very steep indeed.

Re: School Fees at St Albans High School

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2016 9:48 pm
by MrsP
They seem to have increased their fees in line with what is currently being charged by St Albans School ( £5,606 per term.)

As a highly successful academic school I am sure demand for places will continue to be strong, even with higher fees, but I do feel sorry for existing parents whose DD's joined the school when the fees were lower. For some parents this increase will be a heavy burden.

Valuable lesson to be learnt for any prospective 'new' private school parent - when budgeting please factor in increases in fees over a period of 5/7 years.

Says she who has just written her last fee cheque :lol:

Re: School Fees at St Albans High School

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2016 10:07 pm
by Guest55
PurpleDuck wrote: For comparison, our school's fees have increased each year since September 2012 as follows: 7%, 6%, 3.7% and just announced 3.5% from next September. This makes an overall increase of 21.8% over four years.
Percentages don't quite work like that:

Take £100 and increase it by 10% - that's £110

Now increase again by 10% - that's £110 + £11 = £121

So compared to £100 we have a 21% increase not a 20% increase ...

Re: School Fees at St Albans High School

Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2016 10:02 am
by PurpleDuck
Guest55 wrote:
PurpleDuck wrote: For comparison, our school's fees have increased each year since September 2012 as follows: 7%, 6%, 3.7% and just announced 3.5% from next September. This makes an overall increase of 21.8% over four years.
Percentages don't quite work like that:

Take £100 and increase it by 10% - that's £110

Now increase again by 10% - that's £110 + £11 = £121

So compared to £100 we have a 21% increase not a 20% increase ...
I didn't say our school's fees increased by 20%, it was 21.8%. :) I only mentioned the 20% as a ceiling some schools don't seem to have exceeded and that perhaps has muddled things up a bit.

The 21.8% increase was calculated by dividing next September''s fees by 2012 fees, not by compounding individual annual increase rates. There is a slight discrepancy due to rounding, i.e. I quoted percentages rounded to either a whole number or one decimal point.

If I were to compound percentage changes shown to two decimal points, it would be as follows:

Year 1 increase: 6.96%
Year 2 increase: 6.02%
Year 3 increase: 3.74%
Year 4 increase: 3.50%
Compounded increase: 21.76%

I calculate this by going 1.0696 x 1.0602 x 1.0374 x 1.0350 = 1.2176.
1.2176 - 1 = 0.2176 = 21.76%

Is there a different way of doing it?

Re: School Fees at St Albans High School

Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2016 3:39 pm
by Daddy's Girl
Are you referring to the girl's school?