Schools that have never raised prices are not being generous. They are running on the cost base of three years ago with today's salaries, and eventually they raise fees by 20% in one go and lose the families who had been with them longest.
The signals you are underpriced
Not "we could use more money". Specific ones:
- You are the cheapest and you know it. Ask a parent who compared you to two others. Being cheapest in this market is not a position, it is an invitation to be seen as the budget option.
- Your classes fill instantly and you keep a waiting list. Demand above capacity is the clearest price signal there is.
- Your teacher costs have risen and your fees have not. Check the gap over the last two years, not the last month.
- You are turning down work because the margin is not worth it. That is a price problem wearing a capacity costume.
Small and annual beats large and rare
A 5% rise, announced every year at the same point, becomes a thing your families expect. A 20% rise every four years is an event, and events invite decisions.
The arithmetic is nearly identical for you and completely different for them.
Announce it properly
Six weeks of notice, in writing, to everybody at once. Never quietly, and never differently to different families - a rise some people escaped is a rise your staff will spend a year explaining.
Say what it is, when it starts, and one honest sentence about why. Teacher pay is a good reason and parents accept it, because they want their child's teacher to stay. "Rising costs" is a non-answer that sounds like an excuse.
Do not apologise, and do not over-explain. A long justification signals you do not believe it is fair.
Protect the families who earned it
Existing families can start one cycle later than new ones. It costs little and it says something true: the people who took a risk on you early are treated differently.
What you should not do is grant individual exemptions to whoever pushes hardest. That is how you end up with discounts you never revisit.
A price list that bends for whoever asks is a price list that teaches parents to ask.
Expect to lose a few, and count them
Some families will leave. Budget for it, and actually measure it against the extra revenue - usually the rise more than covers the departures, and knowing that with numbers makes next year's decision much easier than doing it on nerve.