Our approach to VAT on school fees

Our approach to VAT on fees is described below by our Chair of Governors and Headmaster. Fees from January 2024 are listed excluding VAT. 

"Rest assured that ensuring your children continue to have a first-rate education and the widest range of opportunities will always be our highest priority. The School’s Governors have had this issue at the heart of our strategic planning for some time now. Pre-emptive measures adopted over the last two years include lower than average annual fee increases and a wide-ranging body of work to increase non-fee income and reduce expenditure. This has enabled the School to limit the financial impact which would have occurred if we had simply applied 20% VAT to the current termly fees.

"We can now announce, that for the Spring and Summer terms in 2025, we will reduce termly fees by 6.7% (before VAT), which will lessen the VAT impact from 20% to 11.9%. 

"The Westbourne House School Governing Body recognises that fee payers will still experience a significant rise from January 2025. They remain focused on the need to continue our work to minimise the financial impact in the years going forward. To that end, we will continue to review our fee structure from September 2025, with the aim of setting future fees at the lowest possible level in order to sustain our operations, whilst retaining sufficient funds for future contingencies."

"We are grateful for your ongoing support."

James Patrick, Chairman of Governors      
Martin Barker, Headmaster Westbourne House School