Making a choice for your child’s education is one of the big decisions for any parent. For many in the catchment area of Bolton School, the option of looking at independent education here is a popular choice.
As you may well have seen during the summer, the Chancellor has announced that VAT will be applied to independent school fees from 1 January 2025.
I want all parents considering Bolton School to know what our current parents already know: that we have thought ahead, know that long term planning is important for parents as no one wants a change for their child and that we have presented a clear and positive message about future fees that can allow sensible choices to be made.
In summary, Bolton School will share the burden of VAT with parents, we will smooth any changes and we will provide a clear direction to allow you to plan.
There will be no fee rises over 5% in any year during these changes. There will be no surprise mid-year fee rises. As soon as possible, we aim to return to fee rises linked to CPI, as we did from 2015 until last year; the fee rise was 2% a year for those nine years.
I can make this clear because we have done much already to be sure we are as affordable as possible and worth affording. We endeavour each year to ensure that fee rises are as low as possible whilst allowing the Foundation to afford the resources necessary to provide an excellent all-round education and maintain a thriving school. We are clear that we will make choices that will help parents, as far as we can, to make sure that the new government policy does not impact the children. We have planned ahead and have robust finances and strong pupil numbers. We have also made prudent budget choices around our expenditure. We are confident about our future and I know parents value that sense of reassurance as you want stability for your children.
Our approach remains that it is very important to us that we are an inclusive school. By that, we mean a pupil community which includes those who can comfortably afford VAT on fees, those who require bursaries and, crucially, those in the middle ground.
I know this final group represents the vast majority of our prospective parents. For that group, as I have stated, we wish to continue to be very careful with annual fee rises – to share the burden of the increase and to smooth change. That is the reason we have said fees will not rise by more than 5% per year, including any VAT impact. We will not have any mid-year changes. We hope this allows you to plan, commit to sending your child to this great school and makes the change manageable.
We will remain at 1 in 5 pupils on bursaries, a nationally leading figure and a key feature of the School, but our plans to move to 1 in 3 pupils on bursaries in the future will rely solely on fundraising. We expect to continue to welcome many applicants for our bursaries and for the award of one of these to be a key driver for social mobility in Bolton.
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