Are we alone?

[lonelymom]

Regarding your insurance excess you should be able to pay it on a credit card if you have one. I did when a t*** smashed into my wife's car when my then 18 year old daughter was driving it! Hence the compulsory excess.

Thanks for that, I might have to ask the out-laws if I can put it on theirs and pay it back at £1 a week for the next 7 years

[J.R.]

(OMG! I made a typo on Mr Franklin's name!)

I've corrected it for you, lonelymom !!

[YadaYada]

I wouldnt say that I feel 'tricked' into the place only that I think the Foundation should have been communicating with parents and parents of students who had been accepted to go through the admissions process when they foresaw this big increase. I certainly would NOT have continued if I had known the assessment because it is just too close to the financial edge for me. I can't really see how I am going to have anything left over each month to put money aside for car tax etc.

Of course I could pull out of the whole deal but how can I when my son has worked so hard and has fallen in love with the place and I do believe that it is the best possible place for him to be. I do however feel very stressed by the impending fees and can only hope that all the pipes in this house that are going to burst, have burst by now! 3 so far this year!

[lonelymom]

(OMG! I made a typo on Mr Franklin's name!)

I've corrected it for you, lonelymom !!

Thankoo

I wouldnt say that I feel 'tricked' into the place only that I think the Foundation should have been communicating with parents and parents of students who had been accepted to go through the admissions process when they foresaw this big increase. I certainly would NOT have continued if I had known the assessment because it is just too close to the financial edge for me. I can't really see how I am going to have anything left over each month to put money aside for car tax etc.

Of course I could pull out of the whole deal but how can I when my son has worked so hard and has fallen in love with the place and I do believe that it is the best possible place for him to be. I do however feel very stressed by the impending fees and can only hope that all the pipes in this house that are going to burst, have burst by now! 3 so far this year!

I suppose all those months back when we first started applying for September 09 intake, nobody knew what was going to happen with the economy, and therefore, CH's endowment return, and it is extremely unfortunate that things have got this bad. I do wonder, and I'm assuming somebody will know, whether once the interest rates rise and the endowment makes more money, the fees are ever likely to come down? Or is that unlikely and wishful thinking? In the meantime, good luck with your plumbing (!), and I'll see you in the Tesco Value aisles!

[ailurophile]

Now I'm really worried! I completed our financial forms for the next academic year recently, and realised that our net income for 2008-9 was less than it had been in the previous year. We are already expecting another hike in fees, the second of three huge increments based on the ludicrous premise that our pension contributions are income (have I mentioned this before? ); but should we now expect a double whammy? If the full fees have risen by something in the region of £3500 pa, how much of this will the Foundation consider is 'reasonable' to add to the assessed contribution for parents whose own income has not risen, or has actually reduced? I reckon Mr Franklin needs to brace himself for a huge wave of 'emergencies'!! (And what exactly qualifies as an emergency, I wonder? Apparently it would have to be something more serious than being forced to withdraw your child from the school...)

I note with some concern that Mr Franklin's latest newsletter recognises that the school is essentially powerless to help parents placed in financial distress by the rising fees, and instructs those who have any queries about their assessed contributions to direct these to the Admissions Officer in the Foundation Office. Speaking as someone who has had considerable experience of this procedure, I can confirm that the likely response from the Admissions Office (after some delay) will be that they too have no control over the level of fees set by the Foundation, but that no-one from the Foundation is available to speak to parents.

I do have some sympathy with Mr Franklin; reading between the lines I would guess that he is being approached by an increasing number of desperate families, and it can't be easy as Headmaster to find yourself in a position where you can do nothing to help - this situation is probably not what he signed up for either! But surely some action is called for, rather than evasion?

[Dusty]

I sympathise with CH's position but 2 points to make. The first is that it's a bit naughty to say that the cost of CH education is over £24k per pupil because that includes over £4million of capital expenditure which is normally a one off or spread over some years - see below for excerpt from the Annual Review. The second is that fee increases so far announced by other boarding schools for 2009-10 are running at 2-5%. The absolute level of fees and the big percentage increase only matters if you are squeezing parents on contributions (which seems to be happening judging by this thread) and if you are trying to compete with other schools for some full fee paying pupils (which is one of the ways CH seems, in an unannounced way, to be trying to make some money). An odd way to run things - poor Mr Franklin. But on a positive note, CH seems a fantastic school and out of the schools we have seen is in our top 2. So parents who send their children here really are getting the real deal.

2007/2008 Total expenditure was £’000s School costs Staff 9,128 Premises 3,386 Utilities 933 Food (incl. contract catering staff) 1,389 Others 1,886 Capital expenditure 4,206 Total funding required by the School 20,928 This was funded by: % Legacies and donations net of costs 634 3 Parental contributions 2,856 14 Other net income 1,420 7 Funded by the endowment 16,018 76 Total funding required by the School 20,928 100

[onewestguncopse]

I should clarify that my thoughts are my own but they are influenced by knowledge that only comes from within an institution. I make no claims to speak on behalf of the school but I do know that my thoughts on these matters are not alien to many other staff (and incidentally members of the Foundation who talk off the record). The financial situation is grave. Not terminal but certainly significant enough to warrant radical thoughts. HOWEVER, we will always (I hope) be in the position to offer the majority of applicants substantial help with fees. However, whether it remains possible to offer potentially up to 98% fee remission will depend on the endowment. An endowment that is not at the moment in a healthy state (although still massive compared to other charities, which is our achilles heel when approaching major donors - they look at the size of the endowment and think - you want MORE money!)

In the meantime, other options need to be discussed. Who knows what will happen - but the status quo is the least likely option IMHO. I love CH - it has been my home for 15 years - but it is changing and faster than it has for 15 years. Change is not always bad - just takes time getting used to.

[lonelymom]

Change is not always bad - just takes time getting used to.

Couldn't agree more!

[lonelymom]

No school fees for me but I know what you mean. Just when the budget is teetering into credit I have a catastrophic filling failure, sort of "When Toffee met Filling". I think I'll just have the damn thing out and start looking like a crone.

'Credit' - I think I need to go and look that word up, it never enters my vocabulary

By the way, englishangel, did you know that fillings are 'guaranteed' for a year? I didn't, until my dentist told me the other day that she was replacing my missing filling for free because it was still guaranteed!

[englishangel]

Well lonelymom I did think that by the time I was 55 I would be in credit, (most of the time).

I think this filling was well past its 'sell-by' date. I have a feeling that it was originally done by the dentist in Hertford, which would make it (at least) 37 years old.

[lonelymom]

I think this filling was well past its 'sell-by' date. I have a feeling that it was originally done by the dentist in Hertford, which would make it (at least) 37 years old.

Oh blimey, it's done it's time then. No wonder the toffee beat it! Maybe you should try to find the dentist that did it, ring him to congratulate him on his good work, then ask if he can put in a replacement that will last another 37 years They were obviously built-to-last in those days, not like the throw-away society will live in now

[ailurophile]

onewestguncopse wrote:
Change is not always bad - just takes time getting used to.

Couldn't agree more!
lonelymom

Well, I'm with you both on this one! But... just because change isn't always bad, that doesn't mean that it's necessarily always good either!! I'd guess it rather depends on your perspective and circumstances. The families who face having to withdraw their children from CH are probably feeling less positive about the current changes, and may well not enjoy the luxury of time to get used to them. I appreciate Onewestguncopse's loyalty to the school he loves, but I'd be curious to hear how he feels, as a member of staff, about the impact of changes on the current pupils?

[onewestguncopse]

It is the nature of young people to resist change at first, then accept it gradually before embracing the new order as 'tradition' to be defended at all costs! In five years most of the current pupils who knew about the past will have moved on - staff tend to stay for longer but on the whole move on too if the school changes in a way that does not suit. I think that CH will continue to many years to come but would be very surprised if it was not a different place (with the same essential caring ethos) by the time that my son who is 10 and may join the school in 2010 leaves.

The Old Blue fraternity tend to feel nostaligic in a way that the current Blues do not understand - their time for nostalgia will come but most pupils in my experience just want to get on with things, stay out of trouble, make friends, have fun and get a good education. The naughty and vocal always account for less than 10% of the whole (if that).

So in answer to your question, some pupils feel strongly about the changes (inevitable), others grumble but accept and a lot either do not care or support the changes. A bit like Old Blues - i would think that 80% of Old Blues either accept change, feel uneasy but accept change or frankly do not give a damn!!

[onewestguncopse]

[I think that CH will continue to many years to come but would be very surprised if it was not a different place (with the same essential caring ethos) by the time that my son who is 10 and may join the school in 2010 leaves. [/quote]

That is a dire sentence - what I meant to say was that if Harry joined in 2010 and left in 2017, the school would be different place at the start than at the finish. Not radically perhaps, but still different.

Change is good not scary - traditions are good, but not if they get in the way of good sense and prevent positive change and evolution. I appreciate others do not agree, but then most people are by nature conservative and just want things to remain 'just so'. That is not bad - just not my cup of tea!

[J.R.]

onewestguncopse wrote:

I think that CH will continue to many years to come but would be very surprised if it was not a different place (with the same essential caring ethos) by the time that my son who is 10 and may join the school in 2010 leaves.

That is a dire sentence - what I meant to say was that if Harry joined in 2010 and left in 2017, the school would be different place at the start than at the finish. Not radically perhaps, but still different.

Change is good not scary - traditions are good, but not if they get in the way of good sense and prevent positive change and evolution. I appreciate others do not agree, but then most people are by nature conservative and just want things to remain 'just so'. That is not bad - just not my cup of tea![/quote]

(my edit, to make the quote and explanation easier to see. JR.)