St Vincent’s, Cranbrook among the Sydney’s wealthiest private schools hiking rates for 2024

An all-girls school in Sydney’s east has joined a growing roster of pricey private schools announcing fee hikes after shutting up shop for the holidays, leaving families fuming.

Private school parents are being warned to brace for impact as “cowardly” school councils sneak fee increases into their email inboxes in the dying days of the school term.

Several of Sydney’s most expensive independent schools have elected to inform parents of their tuition fees for 2024 after gates closed for the Christmas holidays, including the all-girls St Vincent’s College in Potts Point.

Chair of the College Board Jane Doolan wrote to worried parents two days after the final school day of the year to inform them fees would rise by a “relatively modest” six per cent, which will see families of Year 11 and 12 students pay a minimum of $25,557 a year, plus a further $30,000 for boarding.

“I know that there will no doubt be some speculation and worry about the extent to which school tuition and boarding fees will rise at St Vincent’s College for next year,” Ms Doolan wrote.

St Vincent's College in Potts Point. Picture: Joel Carrett

The school’s board had taken “the most conservative approach possible”, she said, citing cost of living pressures and wage increases which could no longer be observed by the school’s “budgetary reserves”.

“In conversation with friends and colleagues with children at other Independent Schools, I believe you will appreciate we have kept our increases relatively modest.”

Just five kilometres east of St Vincent’s and on the same day, Bellevue Hill boys’ school Cranbrook became the state’s most expensive private school after announcing it would raise fees by a whopping 11 per cent for next year, charging families up to $46,000 a year.

Cranbrook School is – for now – a single-sex boys’ school in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. It’s one of the city’s most expensive private schools, and is about to become a whole lot more expensive.

The massive hike in fees adds nearly $5000 to the bill for a senior student to attend, and boarding fees have been hiked 8 per cent, meaning Year 12 boarders will now be paying over$86,800.

In a letter co-signed by headmaster Nicholas Sampson and School Council president Geoff Lovell, the pair said the council’s decision had not been made lightly, and followed “three years of minimal fee increases”.

Mr Sampson and Mr Lovell also rationalised that the tuition fees “are inclusive of many activities, technology and programmes which are often charged separately in addition to standard fees at other schools”.

A senior figure at another high-fee Sydney private school said the decision of some schools to announce their fee increases in the final days of the school term, or after it had already ended, was a “cowardly” move designed to avoid backlash from parents.

Cranbrook School headmaster Nicholas Sampson.

Schools have known for months that would need to charge substantially more next year, they said, to match wage increases of up to 12 per cent awarded to public school teachers under a deal between their union and the state government, and any that haven’t already announced a fee increase are all but guaranteed to do so by the time students return in February.

The short-notice fee schedules have left parents fuming, and claiming they’ve been blindedsided by cost increases that will take a significant hit to the household budget with little opportunity to rally together and dispute them.

Last week, St Joseph’s College in Hunters Hill also revealed an 8.5 per cent rise in its 2024 fee schedule shortly after shutting down for the holidays, and parents will now pay nearly $60,000 to send their boys to the single-sex GPS school for tuition and boarding.

St Joseph’s College Hunters Hill.

Joey’s headmaster Michael Blake said the school would also delay two major building projects until at least 2025.

He said the school is looking for other ways to cut costs “to mitigate against what would have otherwise been a higher rise in college school fees … without diminishing the education or experiences of the boys”.

“Declining government funding is also impacting income levels across many independent schools,” Mr Blake said, estimating the College will have lost $30 million in taxpayer dollars by 2029.

‘Joey’s’ is one of Sydney's poshest and most expensive private schools, and fees will increase to almost $60,000 for boarders in 2024

Waverley College Principal Graham Leddie. Picture: John Appleyard

Eastern suburbs boys’ school Waverley College will also increase fees by 9 per cent to $24,400 a year for the eldest students, up from $20,900, with principal Graham Leddie describing the increase as a “difficult decision” but a “marginal” one.

Meanwhile The King’s School in North Parramatta has delivered parents a slightly less steep fee hike, raising tuition by between five and six per cent for 2024. Students in Year 11 and 12 will pay $43,560 from next year, up from $41,460.

A spokesman said the increase “is consistent with the rise applied to fees in 2023”.

“Balancing the need to ensure that the School can continue to provide the education families expect while minimising fee increases is a key focus of the School Council,” he said.