Private schools popular with Sussex parents despite rising costs

It comes at a time when Britain’s top private schools have raised their fees to over £50,000 a year for the first time. Research was commissioned by Premium Credit, a leading provider of finance for school fees.

The study shows 39% of parents with children aged under five hope to send them to private school and nearly one in five (19%) of parents with children currently at state schools are thinking of sending them to private school instead.

Only a quarter of parents with under-fives hoping to send their children to private schools would do so when they start school, the study found, with 90% saying the potential cost would put them off.

More than half (51%) of parents with children at state schools considering sending them to private schools say the main reason for doing so is that they believe the quality of education would be better while a third (34%) say it is because they believe their children are falling behind academically.

Around 27% say it is because their children have special educational needs which they believe would be better met at a private school. Nearly one in five (18%) say their children are unhappy at their school.

Stewart Ward, Director Education Sector and Head of School Fee Plan for Premium Credit, said: “The cost of funding a child through private school requires careful budgeting and parents considering sending their children from reception or switching them from state schools need to plan ahead.

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“Their options for paying fees should include looking at the possibility of paying a small annual charge in order to spread the cost and they should ask schools if they offer such plans when considering where to send their child.”

Premium Credit’s Schools Fee Plan (SFP), which provides funding to parents enabling them to spread the cost of their children’s school fees, saw a 13% rise in lending last year with the average amount of funding provided at £7,695. Its analysis2 shows the cost of privately educating a child from reception to A levels is an average £355,516 in a day school rising to £514,594 if they attend a day school to 11 and then board.