HOME + LIFESTYLE
Headmaster, Mervyn Watch with his wife Rosie.
What’s in a Fee? As I alluded to in my last piece, we are in the middle of the ‘Open Day’ season; the first round of events to encourage parents to take the plunge or at least consider the possibility of an Independent Education for their children. Having visited and potentially made your choice, the next big problem will be paying for it and making sure that you feel that you are getting value for money. This is often a difficult thing to rationalise, as it could be argued that Independent Education is a lifestyle choice rather than a must have item. Recent figures estimate that it costs approximately £150000 to educate a child from 5 to 18 at an Independent Day School and as much as £300000 if you are considering boarding. Before you take a sharp intake of breath, these are average amounts using all the available figures from Independent Schools around the country. However, it does beg the question; what am I getting for my money? It has long been a belief that our children’s education is actually a long-term investment and when you are presented with figures like the ones above, this really hits home, as the only family expense likely to cost more will be your mortgage. So what are you getting for your fee? Our Chair of Governors has, for some time, promoted our school off the back of the mantra that we provide ‘a first class education, that is real value for money’. At South Lee, we take the idea that the fee is ‘all-inclusive’ to mean exactly that, and so our parents are never surprised with endless extras on the fees bill. All our pupils have access to our fantastic Individual Development Department which provides support or extension to all our pupils as part of
the fee, where in some schools this is charged at an hourly or half-hourly rate. Likewise, lunches are included in the fee; our Chef, Gary Oakshott and his team prepare all our meals from fresh produce, delivered daily. Our Early Years and Pre Prep pupils receive specialist tuition in languages, PE and Games, IT and Music, and our ‘wrap around care’ means that for those who need it the school is open for breakfast at 7.30am and our Prep School pupils can be collected from 2nd Prep at 6pm. For more details or to arrange a visit, contact Mrs Ronge – Registrar, on 01284 754654 or visit our website. www.southlee.co.uk office@southlee.co.uk
er Mervyn Watch, Headmast
South Lee School, Nowton Road, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk IP33 2BT. Tel. 01284 754654 50 | NOVEMBER 2016