FM25 - Rising cost of School fees

School fees have risen by more than twice the rate of inflation in the past five years, according to new research. Private school fees have increased 41% since 2002, while inflation has run at just 18%. Fees have risen by 6% in the past year alone – a third more than the increase in retail prices, at 4%.

The average annual cost of private school day-fees is now £9,627, compared with £6,820 in 2002.

Boarding fees are more than twice those for day pupils. The annual cost of boarding fees is £20,970, up 36% on the £15,364 of 2002.

The above-inflation increases have made it more difficult for average earners in many occupations to send their offspring to private school.

Five years ago, the average worker in 23 occupations could afford to send his or her child as a day pupil to private school but that number is now down to 13. Scientists, police officers, tax experts, engineers, journalists, clothes designers, teachers and lecturers, writers, trading standards officers and computer programmers can, on average, no longer afford the fees without help from other sources.