Prep school bursar salary
A prep-school bursar in 2025/26 typically sits in a £38,000 to £65,000 base-salary band, with a median around £48,000. Schools below 300 pupils tend to the lower half of the band; larger pre-prep-through-13 schools and prep schools with significant boarding components reach the upper half.
The band
ISBA's salary survey shows that prep-school bursar pay is most strongly correlated with pupil numbers and with whether the school operates a boarding house. The bands quoted here exclude on-site accommodation, fees remission for the bursar's own children and any car or pension uplift.[1]
The package
The typical prep-school package includes pension at employer rate (usually a defined-contribution scheme rather than TPS for the bursar post), holiday entitlement aligned to term dates, and a fees-remission concession of between 25 and 100 per cent for the bursar's own children. On-site accommodation is common in boarding preps and adds a material non-cash element to total reward.[2]
Post-VAT context
The 1 January 2025 VAT change has compressed prep-school operating budgets. Bursar pay reviews have, in most cases, been more conservative than in previous years and there has been a marked rise in fractional bursar enquiries from sub-300-pupil preps that previously employed a full-time post-holder.[3]