School Fees

[Rogernoble]

School Fees

Lynne Jacob kindly forwarded Rupert's school fee bill for 1962.

School fees.jpg

 

Having had to pay school fees until about seventeen years ago, the fees look very cheap. My only point of reference is that when I qualified as a chartered accountantant in 1969 I was offered £1,250 pa. The Hillside fees would have represented something like 18% of a newlly qualified chartered accountants salary. I have checked Dover College's current fees which are £36,000 pa for a boarder which is some 120% of a newly qualified chartered accountant's salary of say £30,000. No wonder the middle classes are being priced out of private education! As with most of the population at the time our diet was fairly spartan (certainly no menu) and there was not much heating. Clearly costs have risen much faster than inflation.

What did our parents think? Johny Reed produced an interesting insight:

"Hillside was an amazing place to inspire its pupils, be that in sport or intellectually.  It created, for me anyway, a lifelong interest in almost everything.  And the dedication of the Whickers and the other masters was considerable.  I remember my father telling me that it was the only educational establishment he had ever come across where the parents actually banded together to suggest to Mr Whicker that he put the fees up.  History does not relate whether their proposal was accepted!"

I have quizzed Robin Whicker on this. He remembers the event and said his father rejected the proposal on the basis that Hillside was a family school and that was the way it should stay.