Private schools: record fees and 5 other findings

Private school fees have risen by almost twice the rate of inflation over the past year to a record level, with London seeing the biggest increase, according to new research.The overall figure, from today’s annual census of the Independent Schools Council (ISC), masks wide variations across the UK, with day fees for boarding schools in two areas actually falling.The report published by the ISC, which represents more than 1,300 independent schools in the UK and overseas, says that the average fee increase in the UK this year was 3.7 per cent; currently inflation stands at 1.9 per cent. However, the ISC said that there “appears to have been a conscious effort by schools over the last 10 years to control fees”, with average fees rising by 3.9 per cent a year during the current decade, compared with 6.6 per cent between 2000 and 2010. ISC schools currently have 26,370 non-British pupils whose parents live in the UK. Of these, an increasing proportion come from the European Economic Area – 45 per cent, up 3 percentage points on the year before. The report says: “This is an interesting finding in light of Brexit."