How to hire
Start by matching the school to your child, not the other way round. A mainstream independent takes fee-paying pupils across the usual year groups by direct application, while a specialist setting arranges places through the placing authority once suitability and funding are agreed. If you are looking for a private place, contact the school directly, since private admissions sit outside the council process [7]. Where your child has an education, health and care plan, the plan may name a school, and a school named in the plan must give your child a place [7]. Say which year group, which start date and what need you have in your first enquiry.
Check the inspection record before you shortlist. Association independent schools are inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate, which is approved by the Secretary of State and lets you search reports by school name [1]. Other independent schools sit with Ofsted, whose reports site covers schools, nurseries and children's homes across England [2]. The Department for Education's Get Information about Schools service holds the establishment record behind each school [3]. Read the latest report end to end and check the school shows as open, then ask the school about anything the report flags.
Visit before you apply, and make one of the visits an ordinary school day rather than a polished open morning. Most schools run open days with booking routes on their websites, and official guidance for choosing a school says to visit, read the latest inspection reports and talk to other parents [7]. Sit in on lessons, watch how staff speak to pupils between classes, and ask what a normal week looks like for your child's year group, from wraparound care to homework.
Treat the offer letter like a quote: it must show the fee per term with VAT stated, exactly what the fee includes, and what sits outside it, from wraparound care and meals to music lessons, trips and exam entries. Ask for the deposit, the payment options, the notice period for leaving, and how annual rises are set. Where a school advertises bursaries or remissions, ask who decides, what income evidence you must show, and when you hear back. Get every figure and every promise in the same written document before you pay anything.
For a specialist place, the route runs through your local authority rather than the school office. Confirm who your caseworker is, what assessments are needed, and how funding is agreed, and ask for the school's price list in writing to sit beside the authority's paperwork. Ask both sides what happens if needs change mid-year, and get the placement terms in writing from whoever funds the place.
At the end, file the written offer, the fee schedule, and every invoice showing VAT alongside the contract with its notice terms. Keep the latest inspection report reference with the file so a future move or appeal starts from evidence. If anything you were promised in person is missing from the paperwork, pause and ask for it in writing before the deposit leaves your account.
All three ranked schools sit in Wellington, so most Telford families drive in from places like Dawley, Madeley, Lawley or the Gorge — time the run on a school-day morning, since a site that looks close on paper can feel different at half past eight. If you are moving into the borough, the council's admissions pages set out the in-year route for state places outside the normal entry points [8]. Council travel help is narrower than many expect: it goes to the nearest qualifying school or to the setting named in an education, health and care plan, not to a school chosen privately [10]. Where a child may need extra support, the borough's SEND pages explain how a parent carer can request an assessment of education, health and care needs [9].
A typical mainstream enquiry runs in a clear order. First contact names the year group, the start term and anything about your child the school must plan for. Then comes the visit: an open day first, then an ordinary school day with lessons seen and staff watched between classes. Registration follows, sometimes with an assessment morning, and the school answers with a written offer carrying a start term, a fee and an acceptance deadline. You return the acceptance with the deposit, and the school confirms the start date, the uniform list and the first invoice.
Read the offer the way you would read a quote, line by line. It must show the termly fee with VAT labelled, what the fee includes, and what sits outside it — wraparound care, meals, music, trips and exam entries — plus the deposit, the payment dates, the notice period and how rises are set. Bursary and remission decisions belong in the same letter with their own dates. File the signed contract, the fee schedule and every VAT invoice together, and check that anything promised in person appears on paper before money changes hands.
Pricing
As of autumn 2026, the latest published national picture comes from the Independent Schools Council census taken in January 2025: the average day fee stood at £7,382 a term including VAT, against £6,021 a year earlier [5]. Day pupils at boarding schools averaged £9,770 a term, and full boarders £17,283 a term, all including VAT [6]. Most day schools charged between £4,800 and £8,400 a term including VAT [6].
What moves the price most is age and boarding. Fees typically rise from junior to senior and sixth-form years, and day places at boarding schools cost more than places at standalone day schools because boarding facilities and staffing sit behind the whole site [6]. Region matters too, with London averages sitting highest, so treat national figures as context and ask each Telford school for its own schedule [6].
VAT is the line to check on every figure. From January 2025 all education and boarding services from a private school carry VAT at the standard rate of 20% [4]. Both mainstream schools in this table publish termly fees with VAT included, so ask any school you shortlist to label each figure as including or excluding VAT before you compare.
Get the whole price in writing before a deposit: the termly fee, what it includes, the extras your child will actually use, the deposit, the notice period, and how rises are set. Ask about bursaries and remissions in the same letter, since both mainstream schools set out bursary, sibling and forces help on their fees pages. For a specialist place, confirm who funds the placement and what the authority's letter covers, since the school's own price list comes on request.
Boarding is the costliest pattern because the fee covers the bed as well as the desk: full boarding costs more than weekly boarding, and both sit above day fees at the same school [6]. What moves a boarding bill most is how many nights your child stays, which extras the house charges separately, and whether wraparound care is folded into the fee or billed beside it. Ask for the boarding schedule with nights stated rather than a single termly total.
Day-fee extras decide what you actually pay across the year. Wraparound care, music lessons, trips, minibus seats and examination entries commonly sit outside the headline figure, so two families on the same fee can pay very different totals. Sibling and forces remissions pull the other way where a school publishes them, as both mainstream schools here do. Ask each school which extras a child in your year group typically takes up, and price the year rather than the term.
Red flags
No inspection report turns up when you search the school's name on the ISI or Ofsted register [1] [2].
The school will not give you a written fee schedule that says whether each figure includes VAT [4].
Staff press for a deposit before you hold a written offer with a start term and a fee.
No written contract covering the notice period, fee rises and what happens if you leave mid-term.
Nobody can say what sits outside the headline fee when you ask about wraparound care, trips or music.
A specialist setting cannot show you the placement and funding route through the local authority.
Anything promised on a visit — a place, a discount, a start date — never makes it into writing.
The quote shows a single total with no breakdown of the fee, the extras and the VAT.
Promises made on a visit about classes, care or results come with no report or schedule to back them.