Bedstone College to slash school fees

Bedstone College in Shropshire has slashed its school fees by more than a third to save it from “extinction” under Labour’s VAT plans.

The school will reduce fees for day pupils from £5,500 per term to £4,000 from next January, when the Government’s tax levy on private schools comes into force.

Toby Mullins, the headteacher, said the school has already “cut to the bone” through money-saving measures and it will now have to try an “entrepreneurial shot in the dark” to remain competitive.

It means local parents will be charged £12,000 per year from next January, down from £16,500 currently.

Mr Mullins said: “For us it will be an extinction event if we don’t do something pretty soon.

“We don’t have rich parents. We have a lot of parents who struggle to pay the fees – I know for a fact because we’ve started getting provisional notices from people saying they were worried they wouldn’t be able to pay the fees anyway.”

Bedstone College is home to around 140 day pupils and boarders aged four to 18, but has capacity for more than double that and has seen numbers dwindle in recent years.