FAQs: School Advice
What can we do about school fees?
Only seven per cent of English pupils are educated at fee-paying schools, so you could argue that, like caviar and sports cars, private education should remain the preserve of the wealthy. But most of us put education in a different category and struggle to do the best for our children.
Nonetheless, school fees undoubtedly come into the Aston Martin bracket. One child educated at an independent day school from 3-18 will cost his parents well over £100,000. If boarding school is on the agenda, there will be little change from £200,000.
The most sensible advice is to start saving as early as possible. Specialist methods of funding, such as tax-free covenants and educational trusts, have now been phased out, but those with time in hand will certainly benefit from more conventional financial planning.
Those, too, in the lucky possession of a lump sum can sometimes benefit from a scheme known as ‘composition fees’, whereby fees are paid in advance in return for a discount. Not all schools offer this facility, however and, even if they do, it’s always sensible to ensure the sum can be transferred to another school if necessary.
Other than banks and building societies, grandparents are the main source of school-fees’ aid (some schools even hold Grandparents’ Day in acknowledgement of their contribution) but if neither savings nor family help is the solutions to your fees bill (and 70 per cent of parents pay out of income) it’s undoubtedly advisable to develop a strategic approach to the education system.
Sensible consumers of private schooling, like sensible consumers of housing or family holidays, should adapt their spend to the local facilities and varying needs of their children.
If money is in short supply, when to pay will depend on where you live (are there league-table topping primaries, comprehensives, grammar schools?); the sex of your child (in general pay for boys before girls, they need all the help they can get); and of course upon your child’s personality and ability.
Not paying at primary, at least until 7, is probably the commonest form of fee saving and makes considerable sense. Since the introduction of the National Curriculum a good local primary school is no longer a rarity. You should, without too much difficulty, find one that will teach your child to read and write fluently and achieve a sound level of verbal and numerical understanding by the age of 11. (Look out particularly for those where a sizeable chunk of Year 6 children achieve Level 5 in their Key Stage 2 SATS).
There can be long-term advantages, too, to going state at the beginning. Many independent secondary schools go out of their way to attract the brightest and the best and a significant portion of scholarship funding at 11 is targeted at those coming from state primaries. Both Eton and Radley, for instance, have particularly generous scholarships aimed at able children who have attended state schools.
About 30 per cent of those in private education do receive some sort of assistance with the fees. Though help before 11 is in short supply, thereafter a complex network of bursaries, scholarships and charitable trusts is there to be tapped into.
A bursary is a grant given by the school to help pay the fees and is awarded after a means test of family income but, be warned, bursaries schools are genuinely looking for families with financial need..
A scholarship, on the other hand, is awarded solely on ability ( academic, musical, artistic or sporty and sometimes even for being good at chess or golf.*) Scholarships are not, unfortunately, what they once were. Most schools today, under pressure to demonstrate their charitable status, rarely give more than a 50 per cent discount. Many have nipped it into just 10 per cent or less in order to re-distribute help elsewhere.
If your child doesn’t come into the gifted-and-talented category, there are number of other financial routes to explore. Some schools offer grants to specific professions (the children of clergy, teachers and members of the armed forces), others help orphans, the children of former pupils or single parents. Some, too, will give a group rate for more than one child.
For the bog standard child from a middle-income family, however, the best approach may to be find a school that is relatively inexpensive. Schools vary considerably in the fees they charge, and the difference is not always reflected in the facilities or results. The Girls’ Day School Trust, for example, which operates 26 schools across the country, was founded to provide a high quality education at a competitive cost and they continue to do so.
Buyers, however, who are comparative shopping should consider what they are comparing. If lunch, books, trips, specialist help, etc are counted as extras, you could end up paying more than at a theoretically cheaper school.
Sadly, schools fees are currently well outpacing inflation and even parents who have saved scrupulously can find themselves in difficulties. Many schools nowadays do their best to be flexible over payments and paying by monthly instalments, for example, is fairly common practice.
If you do get into a position where you really can’t cope, schools can be unusually understanding. Most will do their best to see you through an exam period and a well-funded school may pick up the tab until you can resume payments.
But don’t assume that charity begins at school. Most modern schools are tightly run businesses, and if you’ve signed a contract to pay a term’s fees in lieu of notice, a term’s fees will undoubtedly be demanded.