Boarding school fees 'now higher than average salary' It will allow parents to search for bursaries offered in a particular geographical region, the level of assistance available and awards for specific areas, which can include cash for chess, bagpipes, dance, golf, shooting and even vegetarian pupils. The service will also identify bursaries for the children of clergy, sailors and teachers. Susan Hamlyn, director of The Good Schools Guide Advice Service, said the dedicated bursaries search engine had been prompted by a sharp increase in demand for help with fees, with inquiries to the guide specifically relating to the issue increasing 10-fold since 2008. She suggested that fees had been driven up in recent years because of the need to invest in state-of-the-art facilities, partly to attract wealthy overseas students. "Schools now provide all kinds of opportunities and facilities that no-one would have thought was standard even 15 years ago," she said. If any school gets a massive new sports hall or performing arts centre than every other school within a hundred miles has to have one even better. It's also the fact that for the good schools there's no diminution of interest from parents and they are still turning people away in large numbers. Research by the guide found that Queen Ethelburga's College, York, was the most expensive mainstream boarding school, charging international sixth-formers £39,885 a year. Cheltenham Ladies" College charges up to £34,302 for boarding, while fees are £34,137 at Tonbridge School, up to £33,408 at Sevenoaks, £32,280 at Marlborough, £32,490 at Westminster and £32,067 at Eton. In all, the average boarding fee now stands at £27,600. According to the guide, a place of boarding was just £2,400-a-year in 1980 - far lower than the £6,000 average salary of a British adult. But John Newton, headmaster of Taunton School, Somerset, and a member of the Boarding Schools" Association national executive, said: "Independent boarding school fees represent their costs, and those costs have risen above the rate of inflation for a number of years. The schools have also changed hugely since the old days and their fees reflect the cost of running them - superb facilities, high education standards, comfortable accommodation, a high ratio of staff to student both in the classroom and in the boarding house. They offer a full life for their students, with hundreds of extra curricular activities after school and at weekends. He added that schools offered a wide range of bursaries and scholarships, with more than a third of children now on reduced costs of some form.