Why it could pay to be a charity case when it comes to school fees

“Are you a charity case when it comes to school fees?” asks Jane white, co-founder of school fees advisory site http://allaboutschoolfees.com. Your first thought is, “probably not”, but it might pay you to think again, she says.

Recent tightening of the regulations surrounding private schools’ charitable status means they need to pass certain tests to retain their charitable status. These tests include ensuring their facilities are reasonably accessible to the local public and that they are taking pupils from a range of financial backgrounds. What this means varies from area to area, depending of the demographics of the schools neighbourhood. It may be that you qualify by dint of being comparatively less wealthy than other prospective parents, or that you qualify for a bursary or discount another way. “Many Schools offer a tremendous range of assistance with school fees, but you need to go hunting for them”, says Jane. Qualifying criteria range from being in the Armed Forces to membership of the Freemasons or even simply being the child of a parent who attended the school.

“What is important is that you contact to school to see what assistance is available. There is no shame is claiming what you are entitled to, and you’ll be doing the school a favour; they need to make these awards to help maintain their charitable status, and we predict will be making more of them over the next few years”.

www.allaboutschoolfees.com is an advisory site that specialises simply in private school fees information. It has a unique modelling tool that allows parents to access its database of every fee for every private school in the country to create a personalised long term fees and savings forecast.