BRFR Cake Stop 'breaking news' miscellany

[PurplePenguin]

Astonishingly, his views on Brexit are unknown.

 

[briantrumpet]

Top work, Bean Mr Penguin.

 

[Psamathe]

Why have Exeter's School fees increased by so little? Do you think it is because the trumpet playing music teacher has left?

Copilot

Tempting theory—but Exeter School’s relatively modest fee increase isn’t likely due to the departure of any one music teacher, trumpet-playing or otherwise. The real reason is more strategic and financial.

🧾 Why Exeter’s Fee Increase Was Modest​

10% Discount to Offset VAT Exeter School applied a 10% discount to spring and summer term fees in 2025 to soften the blow of the new 20% VAT on private education

• This made the headline increase appear smaller than it actually is.
• Early Fee Announcement The school announced its 2025–26 fees earlier than usual to help families plan ahead, signalling a conscious effort to manage affordability
• • Regional Positioning Compared to London schools, Exeter operates in a region with lower average incomes and cost of living, so aggressive fee hikes could risk losing pupils.
  • Board Sensitivity to Parental Pressure The school’s board explicitly acknowledged the financial pressures families face and chose a more conservative increase to maintain accessibility

  • 
    About That Music Teacher…​

    While the departure of a beloved trumpet-playing teacher might leave a cultural dent, it’s unlikely to shift the school’s financial strategy. Staff changes happen regularly, and budgets for salaries are part of broader operational planning—not directly tied to tuition fee decisions.
    
    If you’re curious whether the music program has changed or if there’s been a shift in extracurricular offerings, I can dig into that too.

The situation for the Public School VAT chatges is more complex and it was never going to mean a 20% increase in fees. eg that they will now have to register for VAT will allow them to reclaim VAT on a lot of stuff they buy from suppliers reducing their costs. Net effect calculated by Government was that after reclaiming, etc. the increase would be 10%.

 

[Pblakeney]

A divergence but I find it reassuring that Copilot does not know who I am.
Others may take offence at being anonymous but not me.

 

[briantrumpet]

A divergence but I find it reassuring that Copilot does not know who I am.
Others may take offence at being anonymous but not me.

It would be hard for me to be anonymous given what I do for the proper day job, not least as I often provide quotes for press releases and 'perform publicly' (oo-er missus).

It might be harder to make the link between me as a performer and my French FB persona, but I've never tried.

There's an ex-colleague who made all sorts of claims about his professional life, which one would expect to find traces of, given the public nature of our work, but I've never been able to find a single trace. Let's just say I've always been a little sceptical of his claims, and my fruitless searches haven't disabused me of my suspicions.

 

[briantrumpet]

Haha.

 

[icowden]

Let's put it into context, water companies in England make an average £3% pre tax profit and we know, many of them are not doing their job properly and their profits at that level has been heavily criticised.

Or for even more context, it costs on average £50k to feed and house a prisoner for a year. You would expect a child to cost more, but not *that* much more.

Let's say that we allocate £20 per day for food. That's enough for a nice M&S ready meal every night, a reasonable packed lunch and breakfast. That's £7300 for the year. Now I pay about £300 a month for gas an electricity for 4 people. So lets add £900 for the cost of heating and cooking. We can even bung in £450 to cover water charges. I pay £2k a month on my mortgage which buys a house for 4 people, so lets allow £500 for accommodation costs. That's £6k per year. This is a child so we need some cash to cover trips, birthday presents, school equipment , clothes etc. Let's be generous and allow £1000 a month for expenses. Now let's send them to a Private School that has the ability to cope with mental health issues, has small class sizes etc so add £24k.

That's £50,300. Of course, the child will need someone to look after them. So lets add in the cost of some full time carers at a decent salary. Lets have a rotating set of three carers each doing 8 hours per day and pay them £40k each to get good calibre staff. That's £170,300. And that's bespoke care for one child with no economies of scale.

I'm struggling to see where the remaining £150k is being spent. Any ideas?

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

Presumably, I'm supposed to be outraged at a company making a profit of 22.6%?

No, the outrage is the lack of care and safeguarding in place for what are already vulnerable and traumatised children. 'Care' is often delivered by unskilled and untrained workers. Places like this also contribute to even worse issues such as CSE, as children are not properly monitored, they can disappear for days at the hands of abusers and little is done to track them down. I worked in the youth sector for years, I had colleagues who worked with children affected by this, it is all pretty horrific.

 

[briantrumpet]

No, the outrage is the lack of care and safeguarding in place for what are already vulnerable and traumatised children. 'Care' is often delivered by unskilled and untrained workers. Places like this also contribute to even worse issues such as CSE, as children are not properly monitored, they can disappear for days at the hands of abusers and little is done to track them down. I worked in the youth sector for years, I had colleagues who worked with children affected by this, it is all pretty horrific.

I think the outrage can be at both.

 

[Pblakeney]

I'm struggling to see where the remaining £150k is being spent. Any ideas?

Directors expenses and salaries, along with shareholder dividends.

 

[briantrumpet]

Directors expenses and salaries, along with shareholder dividends.

I suspect that there are some useful interest payments to cover somewhere so the profits look good but not too generous.

Maybe I'm being cynical or over-sceptical.

 

[PurplePenguin]

Or for even more context, it costs on average £50k to feed and house a prisoner for a year. You would expect a child to cost more, but not *that* much more.

Let's say that we allocate £20 per day for food. That's enough for a nice M&S ready meal every night, a reasonable packed lunch and breakfast. That's £7300 for the year. Now I pay about £300 a month for gas an electricity for 4 people. So lets add £900 for the cost of heating and cooking. We can even bung in £450 to cover water charges. I pay £2k a month on my mortgage which buys a house for 4 people, so lets allow £500 for accommodation costs. That's £6k per year. This is a child so we need some cash to cover trips, birthday presents, school equipment , clothes etc. Let's be generous and allow £1000 a month for expenses. Now let's send them to a Private School that has the ability to cope with mental health issues, has small class sizes etc so add £24k.

That's £50,300. Of course, the child will need someone to look after them. So lets add in the cost of some full time carers at a decent salary. Lets have a rotating set of three carers each doing 8 hours per day and pay them £40k each to get good calibre staff. That's £170,300. And that's bespoke care for one child with no economies of scale.

I'm struggling to see where the remaining £150k is being spent. Any ideas?

There's a 168 hours in a week and you have covered around 112 of them with your three people (even assuming 100% attendance at school you are short). You've also not included any holiday cover, sick cover or management. No costs to win contracts. No admin costs to manage the business. No insurance which I imagine is massive in the sector. No rates. £6k a year for bespoke accommodation is also a bit unlikely - note you need somewhere for the staff too. Also, employers' NI and pension costs. Then the company does need a profit.

As always with these things, if it was easy everyone would do it.

The sad reality is that even with that level of costs, the kids are not doing well.

 

[PurplePenguin]

Copilot breaks the costs per child down as follows:
Staffing - £150k-£180k.
Accommodation and overheads - £30k-£50k per child
Specialist services £40k-£60k (e.g. therapy, educational support)
Safeguarding and regulation £10k-£20k
Profit margin £20k-£40k.

 

[Rusty Nails]

Copilot breaks the costs per child down as follows:
Staffing - £150k-£180k.
Accommodation and overheads - £30k-£50k per child
Specialist services £40k-£60k (e.g. therapy, educational support)
Safeguarding and regulation £10k-£20k
Profit margin £20k-£40k.

What can't Copilot get an account on this forum and cut out the middleman.

 

[Pinno718]

Or for even more context, it costs on average £50k to feed and house a prisoner for a year. You would expect a child to cost more, but not *that* much more.

Let's say that we allocate £20 per day for food. That's enough for a nice M&S ready meal every night, a reasonable packed lunch and breakfast. That's £7300 for the year. Now I pay about £300 a month for gas an electricity for 4 people. So lets add £900 for the cost of heating and cooking. We can even bung in £450 to cover water charges. I pay £2k a month on my mortgage which buys a house for 4 people, so lets allow £500 for accommodation costs. That's £6k per year. This is a child so we need some cash to cover trips, birthday presents, school equipment , clothes etc. Let's be generous and allow £1000 a month for expenses. Now let's send them to a Private School that has the ability to cope with mental health issues, has small class sizes etc so add £24k.

That's £50,300. Of course, the child will need someone to look after them. So lets add in the cost of some full time carers at a decent salary. Lets have a rotating set of three carers each doing 8 hours per day and pay them £40k each to get good calibre staff. That's £170,300. And that's bespoke care for one child with no economies of scale.

I'm struggling to see where the remaining £150k is being spent. Any ideas?

Erm...