Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

ailurophile as usual you do explain the finer points of the financial nitty gritty so well but this was but this was eclipsed by the thought of my Maria Von Trapp outfit.I laughed so much.
I agree with the points made about the mystery attached to how the fees are calculated after the school has made it's deductions .It isn't clear how they calculate what you are entitled to live on. How do they calculate utilities ,clothes, prescriptions, wear and tear on appliances and so on.
I aso agree with wurzel very strongly that the middle income parents may be pushed out as they will opt for grammars or better bursaries from other independents.
My own situation is a bit odd as I did not choose CH in the normal way that a parent chooses a secondary school. We were homeless when the first two were admitted to the school and so we were grateful for the lifeline as it meant they had somewhere to sleep in term time. That was what the school did best, then. Keith Luckton at the BSN took pity on us and said the school might have a place for my son if he would take the assessment tests in the summer holidays . I said my daughter had no school and I could not separate them as they had been through too much.As luck would have it a girl in the same year group as my daughter left at the same time and they also tested my daughter and so they took both of my children. My daughter now has an offer from Oxford to read Classics.She might not meet it ,I know but CH gave her a chance .I am wondering if we would have been offered places now because the books have to balance-we were lucky.

I hope and believe you would still get the same chance. It is exactly why the Foundation is there.

she needed to either remortgage

You can't remortgage if you can't afford increasd repayments.

SAS wrote:You can't remortgage if you can't afford increasd repayments.

That was my point a few days ago, and/or if you're already at the limit of what you're allowed to borrow and the bank would say NO!

We have equity but there is no way we would be lent more as we earn so little. I am over my overdraft every month for a week while we wait for the next miniscule bit of money to come in; we call it austerity week! This month's started yesterday.....

And we have not had any indication of fees for next year either. Am not going to think about it, let alone the possibility of a bursary for my little one in 2015!

Dinahcat wrote:

I also agree with wurzel very strongly that the middle income parents may be pushed out as they will opt for grammars or better bursaries from other independents.

Don't forget that most middle income parents do not enjoy a choice between CH and grammar schools, or the luxury of being able to shop around for the best bursary! For many bright children (including my own) CH has traditionally offered an educational lifeline where the only 'choice' otherwise available would be an underperforming state comprehensive.

Congratulations to your daughter on her Oxford offer Dinahcat; I'm sure she'll get the grades she needs, but waiting for exam results must be an anxious time for you all. I've got several friends with children who have just sat their A levels, and they are really feeling the pressure to secure their University place before the fees rocket. Just our luck that DS will be hit by this next year!

ailurophile wrote: Don't forget that most middle income parents do not enjoy a choice between CH and grammar schools, or the luxury of being able to shop around for the best bursary! For many bright children (including my own) CH has traditionally offered an educational lifeline where the only 'choice' otherwise available would be an underperforming state comprehensive.

and let's not forget that middle income children can also come from messy or difficult family backgrounds, or be suffering the effects of poor life-choices made by their parents, and be just as much in need of a boarding place as children from low income families. There's no reason on earth why a child from a middle income family who needs a place at this school above all others should be denied it because of financial reasons, any more than a child from a low income family should be.

Antinous

That is absolutely true and I think that the admissions process being clouded by secrecy is part of the problem. When I was admitted in 1971 my parents had seen an advert in the Daily Telegarph which they had only recently switched to from the Daily Mirror. The advert as they read it was 'Are you poor and do you have a bright child -if so we can offer you a public school eduaction in excange for your soul'. They thought yes and yes and Ok.I was at a very poor comp at the time and my parents had both left school whenthey were 14 . Off I went to the exams and was an Almoners Nominee which at the time was the competative exam. When I got there in my house everyone bar two of us had middle class parents. Two with own businesses ,one Ed Psych,one independent school teacher. It was the same in the other houses parents who were lawyers ,vicars and Lord knows what else.There were very few of us who were working class.I was ceratinly a fish out of water. We are along way from the original intention of the school when destitute children were picked off the street and cared by the school in every way and at no cost to themsevles .It seems to me that over time the school's mission has been altered by our changing perception of the 'deed of pitie'. The boarding school 'need ' which the admsssions committee agonise over must be very subjective now. How many of the pupils at the school are absolutely destitute and clever which is the original mission of the school? Of course if the school can no longer operate on this premise they are making different choices about pupils and parents will have to decide whether what they have to pay is worth what they are getting for their money. Edward V1 is probably spinning in his grave as we speak.

Funnily enough "I would sell my soul [to keep my child at his private school]" is a phrase which actually appears in this article from the on-line Daily Mail today.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -fees.html

Not my normal reading, but someone directed my attention to it and if anyone out there is in any doubt about the problems of paying rising school fees in the current climate, the heartbreak it causes, the lengths which parents may be expected to go to in order to pay those fees (down-sizing and 2nd jobs are all mentioned) and the measures schools are forced to take if fees can't be paid they should have a look at it.

Christ's Hospital is of course slightly different from the independent schools mentioned .... but not so different that it can afford to allow parents to build up arrears any more than they can. The saddest part of the article to my mind is the realisation parents come to that no matter how talented, how special, how achieving, how liked by teachers, their kids are, all the financial side of any school is interested in is whether the fees are paid on time.


Antinous

Antinous1 wrote:
Christ's Hospital is of course slightly different from the independent schools mentioned .... but not so different that it can afford to allow parents to build up arrears any more than they can. The saddest part of the article to my mind is the realisation parents come to that no matter how talented, how special, how achieving, how liked by teachers, their kids are, all the financial side of any school is interested in is whether the fees are paid on time.

Unfortunately schools have to pay bills, salaries and taxes on the day they fall due - have no doubt that the tax man would close CH down if taxes were not paid, sling out the pupils and sell the land for development or whatever. Food prices in the UK seem to be soaring and the DSs and DDs need to be fed - just one example of the school's problems.. On top of this over the past decade the government (or more truthfully civil servants and the courts) have forced schools to pay out money for "improvements" whether or not they were really needed. Of course, as soon as something becomes legally required then the price rockets (we had a 120% increase in one service when Brussels made it's use obligatory)

Unfortunately I don't have an acceptable answer to offer; Nike and Adidas etc. would have hit squads on me if I made sensible suggestions.

RIGHT !! - HOBBY HORSE TIME !!!!!!


We can spend billions shoring up a bankrupt corrupt government in Greece, and we can supply millions to India to upgrade their fight against terrorism, (incidently, India has a better equiped nuclear arsenal than we do), but we cannot supply first rate afordable education for our own children, provide adequate care for the elderly, (he said, just after his 64th birthday), OR provide a National Health Service that actually works.

Would the last person to leave the country kindly turn off the lights ??

sejintenej wrote: Food prices in the UK seem to be soaring and the DSs and DDs need to be fed - just one example of the school's problems.. On top of this over the past decade the government (or more truthfully civil servants and the courts) have forced schools to pay out money for "improvements" whether or not they were really needed. Of course, as soon as something becomes legally required then the price rockets (we had a 120% increase in one service when Brussels made it's use obligatory)

Don't get me started on this - I remember the stupidity that was Ch contracting out food in the late 80's. Personally I think all schools have got it wrong (including primary) and other than for religious/ethical(vegetarian) or health (allergy) grounds all school children should have to eat a single set menu. Reduces waste and allows tighter control of nutritional input. I actually found 95% of pre contracted out CH food nice - maybe the "scotch mince" was a bit salty and the scrambled eggs resembled a grey island in a yellow sea but in general I had no problems with it. This whole idea of choice and serve yourself salad bars has led to wastage and so increased costs. I ate far better in term time than holidays.

This is not a dig at CH as it has to provide at least as good as the local comp alternative - it is a dig at the entire concept of giving people too much choice - but then I have never liked Faddy eaters.

When I was at CH there was not even a vegetarian option and Tim Wright who had become vegetarian at age 6 just got the same as everyone else but without the meat - he than had Cheddar, cream crackers and apples on prescription from the doctor to be eaten in matrons room daily. That was going a bit too far but I see no need for a 3 choice menu 3 meals a day in any school.

pinkhebe wrote:

Antinous1 wrote:
I'm also slightly bothered about the "academic high-flyers" business. I'm obviously hopelessly behind the times here but I thought that CH was all about offering an excellent educational opportunity to bright children to whom it would not otherwise be on offer, and for whom, in addition, boarding would offer a positive benefit. I also thought that the assessments were as much about identifying potential as excellence.

Antinous

I've just had a good look around the 'new' website, and I'm amazed. The whole ethos of CH seems to have changed overnight! No mention of 97% of pupils receiving burseries. It reads just like any other independant school, and I'm not impressed. I wanted my son to go to CH to be around other children from backgrounds similar to ours and to receive a good education in an environment where it's 'cool to be clever', something similar to a traditional grammar school.

If I was reading it it as a new parent, i wouldn't think it was a school 'for the likes of us'

Having just looked at the new webpages, I can only echo pinkhebe and many other posters. We have already submitted the forms for Y7 2012 entry, but I am already having my misgivings. Is there a gradual shift from the original ethos of CH towards becoming more like any other old independent school? That is the way it appears. I'm wondering if I'll have to pay £50 registration fee now, even though I've submitted the forms? It wouldn't seem fair if other prospective 2012 parents have paid a registration fee and some haven't.

Kittykat wrote:

Having just looked at the new webpages, I can only echo pinkhebe and many other posters. We have already submitted the forms for Y7 2012 entry, but I am already having my misgivings. Is there a gradual shift from the original ethos of CH towards becoming more like any other old independent school? That is the way it appears. I'm wondering if I'll have to pay £50 registration fee now, even though I've submitted the forms? It wouldn't seem fair if other prospective 2012 parents have paid a registration fee and some haven't.

Well, I'm not sure that I'd call it gradual... 'Seismic' shift might be more accurate!!

... I was trying to be diplomatic

It's such a shame because it doesn't seem the same school as the one I noticed by chance in my local newspaper some time ago. It offered a real ray of hope when there was none. It even seems to be marketing itself as an entirely different to the school I submitted the forms to only a few months ago.