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A child attending a boarding school from the age of seven to 18 now costs up to half a million pounds, a study shows.

Boarding fees have seen an average annual rise of 4 per cent for each of the last five years. The national average of 11 years at a boarding school is currently £415,000 – compared with £340,000 in 2013

And the bill for sending a child to one of the country’s most expensive establishments has now hit £500,000.

Increasingly, many schools are catering for excessively wealthy families from Russia, China and the Middle East, where a British public school education is highly prized.

Some experts have said this shift has contributed to the fee rises, since these families have vast wealth and are willing to pay almost anything. They also expect top-of-the-range facilities, which must be paid for by schools through the fees.

Schools in London and the Home Counties tend to be more expensive but it is possible to experience a board for much less, with the cheapest schools costing a total of around £222,000.

At any boarding school, parents should expect to pay for uniform, sports kit, music tuition and school trips as well as the fees.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5579867/Sending-child-boarding-school-costs-500-000-fees-rise-4-five-years.html#ixzz5Bn3FG7Ek 

Record proportion of sixth formers apply to higher education 

Ucas says figures released today show the ‘enduring attraction’ of a full-time degree for young people

The proportion of sixth formers in the UK applying to enter higher education is higher than ever, figures from the university admissions body Ucas show.

A total of 37.8 per cent of 18-year-olds in England submitted applications before the end of March, which is 0.3 per cent more than this time last year.

A total of 47.6 per cent of their counterparts in Northern Ireland have applied (0 per cent change from 2017) while the figure for Scotland is 32.6 per cent (0.2 per cent down from 2017) and in Wales, it’s 32.4 per cent (0.3 per cent up from 2017).

The number of applicants from the EU has also risen, by 2 per cent from last year (to 46,040), while the number of applicants from other overseas countries has increased by 8 per cent to 65,440, which is also the highest on record.

Ucas figures show there are currently 230,320 English 18 year old applicants to higher education, and, although this is 3,000 (2 per cent) less than at this point last year the drop in actual numbers reflects a 2.3 per cent fall in the overall number of 18-year-olds in the population.

Read more: https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/record-proportion-sixth-formers-apply-higher-education#