11 Plus Exams Forum

How do schools justify the increases year on year?

does anyone have any experience of parents challenging fees or indeed asking for support in times of need?

I appreciate the schools are not 'charities' but are they compassionate when families get into financial difficulties?

I haven't heard of parents challenging fee increases in private schools; if they can't afford the fees any more they usually have no choice but to take their child out.

A school may be sympathetic to an unexpected and very drastic change in circumstances, such as both parents losing jobs at the same time or a divorce for example (they may be wise to an 'engineered' divorce, though, if you see what I mean).

They will usually justify the increases by reference to the rise in costs - in particular salaries, NI and pensions. The Governing bodies are usually very mindful of the impact on parents, but nevertheless fees will continue to rise.

In terms of parents in financial difficulties, it can vary by school, but some will offer some form of fairly temporary relief eg to the end of the year.

They have more parents wanting a place for their student than they have places to fill. Therefore they can increase prices and still fill their places.

Anyone already there is over a barrel as there is nowhere to go.

St Albans girls just increased their fees by 9%, just after the deposit was paid. But they could fill their places twice over so there is always another girl where that one came from. DG

Daogroupie wrote:They have more parents wanting a place for their student than they have places to fill.

That is quite a generalisation. It may well apply to some schools in the overheated south east; here in Gloucestershire it would be very easy to get a place in almost all the private schools at any given time - they are very keen indeed for business.

A very different situation. That would make it a lot harder to raise the fees. DG

Lots of schools in the South East also aren't full.
Our local GDST school can take 75 girls per year. The current year seven has 51.
It has a good reputation locally.

If I'm honest, I have NEVER head of a private school decreasing its' fees so, whilst they may remain broadly the same year in year out, eventually they are only actually going to go one way...

No, I e never heard of that either. They can though be very keen to get new starters and be flexible on fees and bursaries etc, if they are keen to have your child there. Ours have gone up by about 2% I guess.

One near me did but it is church based and the church decided to stop charging rent (or something along these lines) which reduced its overheads significantly. Absolutely unrelated to falling enrollments of course