online forum<\/a> on the topic: \u201cChildren finishing school (K-12) in Britain are functional adults. It takes another 4 years of college or 2 years of trade school for Americans to come close.\u201d<\/p>\nNow, however, he said, interest is starting much earlier \u2014\u00a0sometimes as early as middle school. That matches up with a report from the Independent Schools Council in the UK, which said American student numbers at that level jumped 8% in the year ending last January.<\/p>\n
Half of Wagstaff\u2019s business comes from the US \u2014\u00a0and that\u2019s almost entirely comprised of families from the Tri-State area, largely due to the changing of the political winds in the New York City area, he said.<\/p>\n
He helps families find the right fit, and then works to score them a spot at these highly competitive schools \u2014 like Eton (for boys) or Cheltenham (for girls), where combined costs can run close to $100,000 a year, not unlike in New York City.<\/p>\n
Caven Wagstaff does the legwork for American parents desperate to send their children abroad for school.<\/p>\n
Most consultants like this make money through kickbacks on fees at schools where they place kids \u2014 a conflict of interest at best, Wagstaff believes. His firm simply charges families a flat upfront fee of \u00a320,000 (around $26,000), which covers the application, paperwork, and ongoing support once any child is billeted at boarding school. This frees him up to focus on which school is actually best for each child, he said.<\/p>\n
That was crucial for one boy for whom attending school at all would be a new experience \u2014\u00a0having spent the first ten years of his life living on a yacht, being homeschooled with his siblings by a tutor on board. His family\u2019s home base was New York, but they preferred to bring their kids along wherever they went; even if they went on a skiing holiday, for example, the tutor tagged along.<\/p>\n
They told Wagstaff it was time for their eldest to have some stability, and tasked him with landing a spot at boarding school in Britain, where they figured he wouldn\u2019t stand out for his wealth. <\/p>\n
Cheltenham College in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England, is a popular choice among American parents of daughters. Ben \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n
\u201cAt a boarding house, everyone is the same: the dorms, the food, the lessons. You\u2019re all in the same boat,\u201d the expert said.<\/p>\n
Most UK-eyeing parents plan well ahead, often four or five years before what\u2019s known as Common Entrance, the exam that would-be Etonians, for example, must take when they turn 13.<\/p>\n
Others, including those Mamdani-scared callers who started ringing last fall, are more panicky. <\/p>\n
\u201cA family came to me one March asking whether their son could start at\u00a0Eton College\u00a0that September,\u201d he says, noting that this is a near-impossible task.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wealthy parents are desperate to get their kids out of NYC schools. Monkey Business \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n
Still, Wagstaff was able to get him waitlisted \u2014 and then he snagged a place as soon as it opened up. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe was very mature for his age, and he had great initiative \u2014 he contacted the director of admissions himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not all kids are so self-reliant. <\/p>\n
Another of Wagstaff\u2019s American clients had been at one of his family\u2019s homes, in France, for a visit, then headed back to school in a rush, forgetting his sports kit, including his rugby boots.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo his parents got someone to stick them in a helicopter so they were there in a few hours, ready for the next day,\u201d he laughed.<\/p>\n
Others aren\u2019t as sporty as their parents might claim, hoping to win them favor with a school.<\/p>\n
Eton College in Windsor, England, is another popular choice for US parents. Spiroview Inc. \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n
Take the boy who proudly told Wagstaff, unprompted, that his dad banked $150 million a year. That father had boasted of his son\u2019s prowess when riding, as an up-and-coming national showjumper and dressage rider, even sending a video of him horse riding as part of the application process.<\/p>\n
Believing the story, CSE placed him at a school that would nurture that skill, and even went along for the boy\u2019s first lesson after helping to buy him a brand new kit.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he got on the horse and he was terrified. It was like he had never been on one in his life,\u201d Wagstaff recalled, adding that it turned out the video was a ringer, and it was the parents who hoped their son would become a passionate rider. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe had two lessons \u2014\u00a0then he told us he didn\u2019t want to do it anymore,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Other parents are even more unscrupulous. Wagstaff remembered one family who tried to get their son into a top school in the UK \u2014\u00a0but they\u2019d got another child to sit tests to manufacture better results. <\/p>\n
As soon as Wagstaff had done his own assessment, which was \u201cnowhere near what they said,\u201d he cut them as clients. <\/p>\n
The reasons all these parents are jonesing to send their kids to British boarding schools are both rational and emotional. (Apparently, only one in 20 families will reference Harry Potter and Hogwarts when coming to CSE.)<\/p>\n
Wagstaff (L) and his staff have to deal with the many emotions of parents who want the best for their kids.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s certainly not about saving a buck \u2014 sending a child to a top British prep school can cost around $80,000 per year for a pupil to board, covering food, lodging and education.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not much of a savings over Avenues, Poly Prep and other top-flight NYC schools, which charge $70-75,000 per year just for classes \u2014 and then still more, often much more, for donations and fundraisers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s definitely about one-upmanship, in most cases. <\/p>\n
\u201cWealthy people want to throw shade, tell their friends their child is at a certain school,\u201d Wagstaff explained. \u201cThey throw money at it so they can talk about it at dinner parties.\u201d <\/p>\n
Increasingly, for America\u2019s richest families, it\u2019s a smart investment to send their kids across the pond as soon as they become teens. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey look at children as an asset \u2014 it\u2019s wealth management for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s an entirely different kind of school rush. When Zohran Mamdani won New York\u2019s mayoral election last November,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[68,232,57,9,56,63,65,64,18508,5878,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-182051","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-exclusive","9":"tag-lifestyle","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-ny","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-nyc-headlines","15":"tag-nyc-news","16":"tag-private-schools","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}