"Education fees" planning coming into vogue?

First it was "school fees" now its "education fees", designed to cover higher education costs as well as private school fees.  This makes a lot of sense as higher education courses are expensive and all parties are expected to lift the current caps of education fees after the upcoming election.  Fortunately one site allows you to plan for school fees from nursery right the way through a degree course:)

All those papers...now for the response!

Over the past week we've been in the Times, Sunday Times and Saturday's Daily Telegraph, talking about school fees planning and the need to use a calculator.  The traffic has started to come through, so lets see what effect it has on submissions!

Independent school fees planning - in verse!

UK private education costs a lot – we understand

Sums this duration and size, should be meticulously planned

When your child’s school is chosen then find out the termly fees

Make a forward cash ladder schedule showing when you’ll be paying these

Using compound interest and your own inflation estimate

Work out what you’ll really pay (by now you might be in a state).

However, the work isn’t finished; now you need to work out what

You would have to save each month to cover off the entire lot

Remember that the cash you save will generate some interest

Adjust for this in your cash ladder once you know where you’ll invest

Use the annuity formula to make this tricky calculation

Check your math for errors as these can cause serious aggravation

If you have some cash already set aside for future needs

You can make a lump sum investment before your savings balance recedes

If you need to know how much, then use DCF formulae

This will give you the right answer – try it out and you will see

If you baulk at all this math – let’s face it could take all day

Come to allaboutschoolfees.com and we will take the pain away

School fees search update and a new independent school fees rhyme

Its fascinating to watch the economy slowly crawl out of recession.  We have noticed a distinct uptick in the number of Google searches for "independent school fees planning" and "public school fees" as well as an increase in traffic to www.allaboutschoolfees.com.  It's difficult to clearly strip out the seasonal trends in search habits but it does seem as if parents are finally feeling bold enough to start planning for private school fees again.  Good news for school, parents and the children!

Finally, another ode to amuse you (or not!)

 Private school fee calculations

Are quite tedious and complex

Doing these horrendous sums

Will turn you into nervous wrecks

Come and use our easy software

To calculate your child's school fees

You will find all computations

Can be done with speed and ease

Another dodgy Steve Wagstaff

School fees giving you conniptions?

allaboutschoolfees makes it clear

Just buy one of our subscriptions

Everything you need is here

Back to school and back to budgets...

The snow is finally thawing and the kids are all back at school, it feels like the new year can start properly now.

We have been doing a lot of work on schools advertising media.  Is the best value via printed press which is expensive but widely read or on-line  media, much cheaper but with a more tightly defined and smaller audience?

I feel that the trend is inexorably towards the on-line world, but perhaps the ads that will really work will be those carried online by the big media players, eg a placement in the Daily Telegraph on-line.  Its obviously too early to tell, but its crucial for school fees sites like allaboutschoolfees.com which have a very tightly defined market audience of parents and IFAs.

I suspect that main trends will start of emerge as we move through 2010 and that by the end of the year the early winners, and losers, will start to come through.

Private school or private babysitter?

As schools remain closed due to the inclement weather we've noticed a new issue bubbling up amongst private school parents...they are getting increasingly cross that schools are closed due to the snow.

Whatever the reason: lack of staff, poor access and hazardous condition, "health and safety", parents are contacting schools to effectively demand that they open in all weather.  "We pay for education so you should educate" is the theme.  However, when you dig a little deeper the reason is often something else, its childcare.  We heard of one parent who wrote to his son's headmaster saying that they should be open in all weather and if necessary ask boys to take in packed lunches and reading materials.  The father noted that his staff had got to work so the teachers should (ignoring that its' a small school located a fair way from any main road and is valued for its rural surroundings), and that any form of engagement with students was better than them staying at home.  This parent then gave his position away when he said that if the school was closed he couldn't work as he didn't have childcare sorted.

This is new territory for schools, as they balance the limitless fear (which in my experience is generally unfounded) of health and safety with the practicality of opening a school and the desire to placate harassed parents - his clients -who need to get to work.

So far private school parents are on the same ground as state school parents - they all need to get to work and don't generally have emergency childcare lined up.  What then changes is the use of school fees as a justification for private schools to act differently to the state system.  I'm not sure this is reasonable and feels like saying to the armed forces "we pay your wages through our taxes so come and clear my drive".  Perhaps that's a little extreme but private school fees are meant for schooling, not childcare.

If you trust your headteacher to look after and educate your child, why doubt him now over something like weather, and his opinion on how many staff he can muster and his opinion on the safety of your child?

I don't have an answer but surely we need to be practical here and check our values, a days earnings and education over our childrens' welfare?  I know this sounds dramatic but I wonder what "angry dad" would say if the school was open regardless of conditions but then became snowbound and his son was stuck at school one day and forced to camp overnight the classroom?  Be careful of what you wish for?

Two more school fees odes to make you smile, or grimace!

Does the thought of your child’s school fees make you want to run a mile?
allaboutschoolfees.com has some software that will make you want to smile
You can tinker with inflation, choose your very own savings rate
We make calculations easy; no need to get in a state

If you have some cash saved up, we’ll tell you how much to invest
To cover off the total cost, by using compound interest
Monthly savings, or lump sums, both are dealt with on our site
Visit allaboutschoolfees.com and get your calculations right

3 school fees rhymes to brighten your morning:)

When school fee planning gets you down, go to the neatest site in town


School fee planning needs are addressed at Allaboutschoolfees - we're the best



School fees can be lots of fun; if you plan with Jane and Ron.

With our site you plan with ease; we won't bring you to your knees.



Allaboutschoolfees is impressive; now you do not have to guess if

You can afford your child’s education; our software does the calculation

Snow bound parents hit the web to defrost their school fees planning

The snow is having at least one positive effect on small businesses. allaboutschoolfees.com has seen a four-fold increase in site traffic from a month ago as parents who can't get into work are staying at home and surfing online to research the cost of private schools and create long terms savings plans.


If the snow means more parents research the cost of private education for their children that's a good sign, for school, parents and the children.

Saw this on IFA life and loved it. You may well have seen it before:)

New revenue leads for all IFAs from allaboutschoolfees.com

http://www.allaboutschoolfees.com/ has received a huge amount of interest in its on-line school fees modeling tool from the IFA community.

The site calculates expenditure – and savings requirements over the life of children’s private education. The tool uses powerful algorithmic software and the only complete database of UK private schools and their fees, to generate bespoke fee schedules. The schedules can be per child or per family with infinitely customised of rates of inflation and savings growth, lump sums and savings holidays. The ability to use the lump sum functionality to set an opening investment amount, which neutralises all the future cash flows, is of particular interest to IFAs.

Once a parent sees how much they need to save over an extended period of time, or invest today, their next question is always “what should I invest in, and can it be tax-efficient?” The answer is that they need to speak to an IFA.

The www.allaboutschoolfees.com modeling tool is available for a fee of £34.95 incl VAT per license (which allows for 5 children to be profiled over 5 separate plans using up to 20 schools per plan), but we will also set up bulk purchases of licenses for £23.00 incl VAT. As well as representing a large discount over the regular price, a bulk purchase avoids the need for individual registrations and cuts time spent making individual payments.

This tool takes the legwork out of creating school fee schedules, and creates a professional and reliable centrepiece for any client report. When an IFA walks a client through an allaboutschoolfees.com report, there is simply no need to persuade them they need to buy an investment product – they’ll be asking you what to buy.

Visit http://www.allaboutschoolfees.com/

How to push water uphill!

Independent Financial Advisors exist to give people financial advice but how do they persuade their prospective clients that they NEED that advice and they NEED the products suggested by the IFA.  This is like trying to push water uphill, with client lethargy and low levels of trust in place of gravity.

However, there is a way.  Think differently about water: freeze it to make ice, which you can push.  Equally, IFAs need to think differently about how they approach their clients.  Clients are far more likely to accept help to implement "their" idea or one generated by an independent site than one suggested directly to them so why not give them a tool they can use, sitting with the IFA or alone.  This tool may suggest that they need a proper long term financial plan and that the plan needs to be underpinned by a product or account.

allaboutschoolfees.com does exactly this by allowing parents, guardians, grandparents and IFA to create bespoke long term cost and savings plans to cover private education.  With the average 2 child school fees bill costing nearly £600,000, it is clear that it makes sense for parents to take some finance advice, and this is is where the IFA comes in; a client who knows they need advice.  The water has been pushed uphill:)

School fees planning pick-up?

We've noticed a real pick up in the number of enquiries from IFAs and parents asking about long term school fees planning.  At present its hard to tell whether this is a sign that the recession is ending and people are starting to plan again, or whether it is driving them to plan because they fear for the future.

Either way we know that the best way to plan for the future is to know what you are planning for, hence the vital importance of actual data and the ability to create bespoke private school fee schedules.  Too often we hear of people relying on "ready reckoners" from mass market websites and the newspapers, as if every school charged the same and every family's circumstances are the same.  Just as well we created allaboutschoolfees.com!

Now Alistair Campbell gets in on the act...

As a service to you, dear readers, we scan cyberspace for interesting  and relevant articles relating to private education and private school fees in particular.  We found this amusing site on the blog of Tony Blair's ex-spinner... http://www.alastaircampbell.org/blog.php?id=259   Nothing new but its quite an amusing blog overall, and worth an ocasional look.

Higher education fees on the rise?

We've been reading with some anxiety of the Governments plans to abolish the caps on higher education fees. Are students able - yet alone willing - to pile on thousands of pounds of debt before they have started work? This topic will run and run so we will start following the subject on a regular basis on this blog. Of course, if they do increase fees then it will be ever more important to establish sensible, fact based, savings plans. This could be where allaboutschoolfees.com comes in:)

Securing a scholarship

Usually, boarding schools entails higher educational expenditures especially in the United States and United Kingdom. Although as of now, there are already public boarding schools that existed in this nation that entails lower educational expenses or entirely offered a free education to the deserving learning especially those who got a higher grades in their academics and financially unable to continually support their studies. With that, here are some top 10 tips in order to support secure a scholarship whether for academic matters, granting aid or some other special kinds of scholarships to be offered.

1. Pleading of poverty. The Charity Commission have insist that independent schools must be able to justify towards a charitable condition in order to gain more chances of getting a larger bursary as the respective boarding school vie on in order to show their readiness towards receiving these able pupils regardless whether parents can be able to pay over the tuition fees of their children. But, the scholarship applicants must be able to prepare for further evaluation in terms of their income background of the family as one basis for scholarship approval.

2. Just don’t bank the brains. Those chidlren who will be enrolling for students scholarships might be brilliant but during these days the mere brightness does not only bring on any financial returns. Since, fifty years ago those boys and girls who have done their best in entrance exams have got a higher financial support in their education. Nowadays, the entire thrust funds of most private boarding schools are planning on for subsidizing the financially strapped learners rather than be able to reward those who are academically gifted. Its been seen that educational scholarship values had already been plummeted from its 50% until to 10% of its fees and in some other schools they have already become honorary to it.

3. Studying its form. Like any other punter that will be preparing towards an investment, there will be a need to inform itself for its entire options rather than ploughing on through its list of entire boarding school in the nation. Be able to know the different scholarships that the boarding schools will provide in the search engine available in the internet.

4. Eligibility of scholarship. It’s quite important to know the eligibility of the educational scholarships that those different boarding schools provided and if the scholarship qualifies to its scholarship.

5. Be prepared for bargaining. If the child are quite talented especially on academic matters, it’s suggested to inquire the authorize school personnel in the boarding schools regarding to the educational scholarship that they will be providing.

6. If the family had a serious background of financial assistant support needed, there will be a higher possibility of being accepted in the scholarship that comes from Joint Educational Trust.

7. Getting a half price towards boarding expenses. Considering that one of the nation’s 35 state running boarding schools where in they will be able to pay towards their meals and as well accommodation but not to its education. Several of these educational learning institutes will be catering towards their children together particular aptitude on it that includes the Brymore School of Rural Technology, Duke of York’s Royal Military School, and some others.

8. Swimming towards it. There are several boarding schools that offer swimming scholarships that includes the Plymouth College that only had 39 children that receives on a 50% off for their boarding school fees. So, those children who are good swimmer are entirely had a higher possibility to obtain these kind of scholarship and support a lot their boarding school education.

9. Government scholarship. Both in United States and United Kingdom, they have provided a governmental scholarship that entirely support those individuals who wanted to continue their education program but don’t have enough financial resources to support on it.

10. Don’t ever give up. If there are some challenges upon foregoing gaining an educational scholarship especially to its requirements don’t be discourage take it as learning experience and be able to find another scholarship that will entirely fit in.

Private school fees 'kept down' in recession

This article appeared in the Daily Telegraph, and written by their excellent education editor, Graeme Paton.

Top private schools are imposing fee restrictions to hang on to parents in the recession, according to research. In the last six years alone school fees have increased by a third Price rises this year are around half as high as those made in the previous 12 months, it was disclosed.
The findings, in a study by the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference, which represents 250 elite schools, comes amid fears that some parents are abandoning fee-paying education during the economic downturn.

Figures suggest that the equivalent of 1,100 pupils were pulled out of HMC schools in the last academic year due to “financial reasons”. It represents 0.6 per cent of the 190,000 children educated by the schools, which include Eton, Harrow, Winchester, St Paul's and Charterhouse.
The study suggested that schools are increasingly attempting to make savings to keep fees down. In the last six years alone school fees have increased by a third, far outstripping families’ ability to pay. But the HMC study suggested that the rise this year was the smallest since the 1990s. Overall, fees increased by 3.4 per cent in September, compared with 5.9 per cent across the independent sector in 2008. It is equivalent to £410 being added to last year's £12,000 average school fee. The disclosure comes just days before the start of HMC’s annual conference in Liverpool. Andrew Grant, HMC chairman and headmaster of St Albans School, Hertfordshire, said: “Parental demand for high quality independent education remains very strong, despite the gloomy economic background. “Schools have tried to keep down the cost of education to parents. Many of the costs schools have to bear continue to rise, not least teachers’ salaries which are locked into the national three-year deal, but schools and their governors have clearly seen the need to keep fee increases to a minimum.” HMC surveyed 155 schools in the latest study.
It found total pupil numbers were up by 0.5 per cent compared with September 2008. The number of day pupils increased 0.6 per cent, while boarders rose by just 0.1 per cent.
It reflects parental concerns over fees, as boarding fees across the sector averaged more than £23,000 last year, compared with around £10,000 for day pupils.

Research published last month said almost a third of pupils currently educated in the independent sector would be priced out over the next 20 years if fees continued to rise at their present rate.

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Allaboutschoolfees.com can help reduce this number by enabling parents to create long term savings schedules to allow them to start saving early and with confidence.

Private schools 'face cost cuts'

(UKPA)
Private schools will be forced to cut costs and scale back sky-high fees in order to survive in the future, research has suggested.
Above-inflation fee hikes are already turning middle-class families away from private education, and this is set to continue, the report by mtmconsulting found.
It warns schools will need to address the issue of "affordability", which could mean looking at "sacred cows" such as small pupil class sizes, or cutting the number of specialist subjects on offer.
The "arms race" between fee-paying schools to provide the best facilities will also begin to cease, it says.
The report, which looked at the general health of the private education sector, found that pupil numbers could decrease by as much as 3.2% as a result of the recession.
But it predicts that numbers will begin to recover "significantly" from 2012, when it is likely that parents will begin to react against unrest in the state sector caused by Government spending cuts.
The authors warn that from 2015, pupil numbers could begin to fall by at least one per cent per year if independent schools do not act to make themselves affordable.
While pupil numbers are forecast to grow to almost 611,000 in 2014, they are predicted to fall to just under 580,000 by 2020, the same as in 1987.
Average fees have gone from £5,800 per pupil in 1999, to £11,250 in 2009, the report says.
In the past five years, school fees have risen by 33%, compared with an 18% rise in the earnings of those who traditionally send their children to private school.
Copyright © 2009 The Press Association. All rights reserved.

The Fees company collapse

The Fees Company, which dealt with 70 schools around the country collapsed on September 8, leaving parents possibly thousands of pounds out of pocket.
The small company, based in Currie, helped parents spread the cost of paying their children's bills, which are levied by the school once a term. Instead of having to pay a bill of up to £8,000 three times a year, the parents made monthly payments to the company. The company – in return for an administration fee of about £30 a month – passed onto the school, making the upfront payment itself. Some smaller schools with limited administrative staff insisted parents use the company to pay their fees, if they wanted to pay monthly rather than termly.
Parents have already paid two months' of the four months' payments that go into autumn term's fees. However, The Fees Company had yet to pass that money onto the schools.

Private school headteachers receive a billet doux...

We started approaching private schools this week to introduce them to http://allaboutschoolfees.com, the UKs' leading resource for parents seeking information on private education. We have told them that we are an independent site that covers every private school, boarding school, prep school or independent school - whatever they call themselves-regardless of size or affiliation.

We want the schools to realise that allaboutschoolfees.com allows parents to research private education by identifying potential schools for the duration of their children's education and then creating personalised fee and savings forecasts. When parents know what is affordable they can then start looking into school suitability. We are on Page 1 of Google for searches on School Fees (out of 41,100,000 references!) and have had more than 30,000 visitors in the last three months alone, with most parents researching both preparatory and secondary schools.

In June and July we were referenced in the Daily Telegraph, Times and TES on-line, Mumsnet and numerous school and finance related forums and chat rooms. This autumn we will be launching a comprehensive media campaign to further raise parents' knowledge of our site and the importance of long term financial planning.

The site hosts free micro-sites for every school to show their basic contact details but we have been asked by many schools if they can enhance this information, so have created the ability for them to post a logo, link to their site and a self penned description of their school and its ethos.

We've had some great feedback from the schools so far so will continue with the slow process of writing to the remaining 2,100 Heads....:)