We are trying to create the best resources that we can

Fran Henson Godstowe School

"She loved it there, she didn't want to move, she was quite settled."

Claire - who did not want her family name used so as not to embarrass her two daughters - had been faced with fees for day pupils at Godstowe prep school in Buckinghamshire going up from �2,090 a term in 1999 to �2,960.

The girls will now be going to another independent school with lower fees.

"Once you're in and your child is happy the prices go up," Claire said.

"And we just thought it was a ridiculous amount of money for a child so young.

"The reasons for taking them out were not entirely monetary, but had the fees not gone up as much as they did, I wouldn't have thought so carefully about it.

"We were given lots of reasons for the rise - the government's scheme for improving teachers' pay, the cost of retaining high quality staff, and building costs.

Annoying

"But there was no warning about these year-on-year increases.

"It was such a short period of notice - we got the information in April for a fee increase in September.

"Whereas if you want to leave the school, you should give a term's notice if you're not going to incur the fees for the next term," she said.

The children were removed with only three weeks' notice and in fact the school had not pushed for its fees, she said.

But the experience has annoyed her.

Claire said she had considered sending her daughters to a state school, but could not get a place in the school of her choice and was put on a waiting list.

"We would have been perfectly happy to send them to the local state school if it had had spaces, but it didn't and I was very stressed about the situation.

"Two girls in my daughter's class left to go to state schools," she said.

Differential

It is understood that, out of 460 children, only four were removed this term for financial reasons - in one case caused by family illness.

The school said families had been notified that it was embarking on a policy of adjusting its prices for day pupils to bring them more into line with those of its competitors.

Godstowe - the first and one of the few remaining girls' junior boarding establishments in the country - had been charging the 130 boarders 70% more than day pupils.

This differential was now down to less than 57% - the average, it said, was 32%.

Its day fee currently puts it 43rd out of 77 schools in the district in terms of cost.

The school, with no endowment to fall back on, was a charity which ploughed all its income into education.

It had spent �500,000 in each of the past seven years upgrading its facilities to the point where they were comparable with those in many senior schools.

'Value for money'

New laboratories and libraries were completed in September last year.

The headmistress, Fran Henson, did not wish to comment on any particular cases.

But she said she thought the fees represented "incredible value for money" in terms of the personal and educational development of her pupils.

The school - which does not select on ability - had "fantastic" results, with girls winning 19 scholarships to senior schools last year.

"We are trying to create the best resources that we can," she said.

The Independent Schools' Information Service said it always strongly advised people to get independent financial advice about financing school fees in the long term.

Financial planning

Many firms offered a service specialising in the sector.

One such, SFIA Mason & Mason, says there is no certain method of calculating potential future school fees, but currently an anticipated annual increase of 5%-6% per annum is possible.

"This means that it could cost, on average, �200,000 to educate one child to the end of sixth form studies," said the firm's Louise Challis.

The cost depended very much on which school was chosen and whether or not the child would board.

Typical UK day school fees ranged from �750 to �3,000 per term and boarding fees from �3,000 to �5,000.

Possibilities

"Whatever the family financial situation, this represents a major item of expenditure," she said.

Planning based on sound financial advice was essential, especially as financial products became more sophisticated.

"No two sets of circumstances are the same. There is no one correct answer to school fees funding, but there are many possibilities.

"If one has time to plan ahead and there is spare income or capital to invest there is a variety of plans available."

But the need for private education might arise suddenly.

"For example, if the child has special needs, is being bullied, or if the parents are relocated for work purposes and the local state school is not suitable."

In this case a flexible loan might be the best answer.

"It is never too late to begin school fees planning but the sooner you start the better," Ms Challis added.