The rising price of going private

Tuesday 16 April 2019

Guernsey’s three private colleges have all announced they are hiking their prices, ahead of the first term they won’t be welcoming a batch of States funded scholarship students.

A new deal with Elizabeth College, The Ladies’ College and Blanchelande College was agreed earlier this year, something that had been in the works for some time.

Over the next seven years, it will see the three lose access to £2million of a £4million States funding pot. 

It all centres around the abolition of selection in the island’s secondary education system. Without the 11+ the schools will stop receiving a number of special place holders each year. In turn, this called into question the level of States grants the colleges were paid, so the whole arrangement was renegotiated. 

The new agreement will see the Colleges paid a yearly sum by the States, which will be reduced every 12 months for seven years. Overall, the sum being allocated from the new grant will reduce to £2.1million over that period, £2million less than what they have been getting in recent years and in 2019. 

It was clear when the Colleges were negotiating with the States that a fee increase would be on the cards, and while the slashed grant is not the only reason their prices are going up, the three establishments now face a task of balancing their own books while keeping their gate-prices down. 

Pictured: Elizabeth College. 

According to its website, for the term starting September 2019, Elizabeth College’s prices will continue to be the highest of the three, at £4,155 a term for the upper school. The Ladies’ College and Blanchelande are almost neck and neck, at £3,660 a term and £3,607 a term respectively. 

The lower schools are also being affected, each with new, higher prices.

The Colleges addressed their parents in individual letters. 

Blanchelande Board Member Michael Fattorini said: “In the 2019/2020 year we will be entering the first year of the new States’ grant funding arrangements which are in place until August 2026. The new grant mechanism allows the States to achieve financial reductions over the seven-year period, and in the early years of the arrangement, most of the funding is ring-fenced for the payment of Special Place Holder fees. 

“This will however change as the Special Place Holder system is phased out [discontinued], and more of the funding becomes available as general grant payment.”

Pictured: Blanchelande College.  

In her letter, The Ladies’ College Board Chairperson, Kate Richards, told the school’s parents: “[…] while that funding will decrease by half over this time, the Board aims to keep fees accessible to parents and to ensure that the College continues to represent value for money against the highest standard of educational provision.” 

Pictured: Ladies College. 

Thepayments will start in September 2019, and will come from one pot, split between them. By 2025, the amount will have reduced to£2,142,615, adjusted for inflation. Before now though, the College’s had access to a pot of £4,351,000 in 2018 and £4,396,000 in 2017. The exact amount that will be available in the term of 2019/20 is not yet known. 

The funding per College is split according to the number of special place holders each school has, and any residual funding is then paid based on how many pupils there are. 

The new grant agreement is also subject to a list of eight conditions that Elizabeth, Blanchelande, and The Ladies’ College all must adhere too. This includes an annual meeting with the Director of Education to discuss the ‘scale of tuition fees’ and the number of pupils attending, using the money only to ‘run the College’, keeping accounts, and hitting key performance indicators. 

The Colleges have also agreed they will not start ‘any schemes which will involve academic selection for any students’. 

Pictured: The three private colleges negotiated the States grants together.