Cash for questions

When my eldest child was four and I thought she might not get in to the good local primary school in Shepherd’s Bush, I applied for a place for her at the Harrodian. It’s an all-through independent school in Barnes surrounded by acres of freshly mown grass — almost like a stately home. An attractive school, to be sure, and popular with west London yummy mummies, but I was still a little taken aback to be asked for a ‘deposit’. When it was explained that I’d have to fork this out whether Sasha was offered a place or not, I was horrified. Wouldn’t a better name for it be a ‘fee’?

I have subsequently discovered that this is a common practice among independent schools, although some offer to deduct it from the first term’s fees if your child gets in, so in that respect it is a deposit. The rationale is that processing an application involves some administration on the school’s part, but I remember thinking at the time that the cost to the Harrodian of entering Sasha’s name on an Excel spreadsheet and then ‘interviewing’ her — which involved the headmaster looking on while she played with Lego for five minutes — couldn’t possibly justify the amount they were charging.