Geelong Grammar to increase fees by 8 per cent

Australia’s most expensive private school has revealed fee increases of 8 per cent for 2024, amid fears other schools will do the same.

Australia’s most expensive private school has slugged parents with a whopping eight per cent fee increase for 2024.

Fees for non-boarding students at Geelong Grammar have been set at $49,720 for years 10 to 12 students at the Corio campus, up from $46,020 in 2023.

But it will cost families a staggering $84,240 to send children to the school’s Timbertop Campus, a compulsory, full-time boarding program for its year nine students.

It’s the first time fees for the program, based at a campus in the Victorian Alps and once attended by King Charles, has breached $80,000, with its 2023 fee set at $77,980.

Students at Geelong Grammar’s Timbertop, where fees are almost $85,000. Picture: Supplied

In addition, day student fees for year seven and eight Geelong Grammar students have crept over the $40,000 mark for the first time, with 2024 fees for these year levels set at $41,060, up from $38,020.

In a letter to parents, the school blamed the exorbitant fee hikes on the “rising costs of staff salaries and other fixed expenses (and utilities), as well as a reduction in our government funding and changes to payroll tax exemptions”, according to the Herald Sun.

“After due diligence and deliberation, the (school) council recently ratified an eight per cent fee increase for 2024,” the letter said.

The letter stated that after only increasing fees by two per cent in 2022 and six per cent in 2023, “the fee increases for 2024 represents a reset of our fee schedule”.

The David William Robert Knox Equestrian Centre at Geelong Grammar School allows boarding students to bring their ponies with them. Picture: Supplied.

While parents await 2024 fee schedules to be released by other elite private schools, there are fears that the eight per cent increase may be replicated elsewhere.

Private schools typically increase their fees at a rate similar to inflation, which means fee increases are usually in the range of two to three per cent a year.

But the inflation rate in Australia currently stands at six per cent, down from a high of 7.8 per cent at the end of last year, so increases like those seen at Geelong Grammar may be widespread.

In addition, many schools kept fees on hold or only increased them by small amounts in 2021 in acknowledgment of the pressure that Covid had put on some families, both financially and due to home schooling.

It is feared that, like Geelong Grammar, 2024 may be the year they play catch-up.

Facilities at Cranbrook School include this new stat-of-the-art aquatic centre. Picture: Supplied.

In 2023, fees of over $40,000 for year 12 became more commonplace, with elite Sydney boy’s schools The Scots College, Sydney Grammar School, The King’s School and Cranbrook School charging $43,030, $42,189, $41,460 and $41,299 respectively.

Sydney Church of England Girls’ Grammar School (SCEGGS) tops the charts for private girl’s school fees at $44,224, followed closely by fellow Sydney eastern suburbs schools Kambala at $43,650 and Ascham School at $42,500.

Sydney’s Kambala sits of prime eastern suburbs real estate with magnificent harbour views. Picture: Supplied.

In Melbourne, Jewish school Mount Scopus Memorial College also cracked the $40,000 mark in 2023, with Melbourne Girls Grammar, The King David School, Lauriston Girls’ School, Melbourne Grammar and Scotch College just below.

Fees at top schools in Brisbane, Perth, Canberra and Adelaide are, on average, $10,000 cheaper, at closer to $30,000.

In addition, fees for year seven at many of the country’s most expensive private schools topped $40,000 for the first time in 2023.

Most private schools also charge additional levies for costs such as technology on top of their fees, which can range between $500 - $3,000 a year.