A number of private schools in Queensland, including St Margaret’s Anglican Girls School in Ascot, will increase school fees by 2023.
Read: St Margaret’s Anglican Girls School #5 in Top 10 Most Expensive QLD Schools
The prestigious school for girls was just among over 50 schools in the State which are subject to tuition increase, brought by the rising inflation and overall cost of living pressures.
Tuition fee at St Margaret’s Anglican Girls School starts at $4,788 per term for Pre-Prep, which is equivalent to $19,152 per annum. For Year 12, parents would have to fork out around $9,045 per term, or as much as $27,135 for a school year.
The fees at the girls’ school aren’t far behind Brisbane Grammar School, still the most expensive in the city, where parents of Year 12 students will have to pay around $30,320 a year.
The Anglican school has an all-inclusive fee policy, which means the fee covers the cost of all compulsory activities including tuition, QGSSSA sport, technology, year level camps, class excursions and a range of facilities used in the course of a normal school day.
However, the fee does not include textbooks, stationery, specialised equipment/materials or optional activities such as co-curricular sporting camps and tours, Global Exchange, overseas tours or private music/speech and drama lessons or instrument hire, all of which are a parent’s responsibility.
A 2022 School Fees Report from Edstart showed that the highest fee in Queensland reached $30,000 for the first time in 2022.
Despite the highest fee in Queensland topping above $30,000 for the first time this year, it’s still significantly lower than the highest fee schools in NSW and Victoria where they are both above $43,000.
Meanwhile in Queensland, Brisbane has the second highest average increase with 3.66 percent, next to Gold Coast with 4.12 percent average increase.
According to Edstart, schools are now facing a combination of factors impacting their budget that are resulting in the need for them to revert back to higher fee increases in 2022.
“Many schools also minimised fee increases and provided fee relief to families impacted by COVID-19 disruptions over the past two years, which has compounded the pressure on school budgets,” Edstart said.
Read: Ascot State School: A Century of Learning and Growth
Edstart added that changes to the federal government funding model for non-government schools will also continue to impact school budgets this year.
Edstart, founded in 2016, is a payment provider helping families and students manage the cost of education.
