The Brightstar Group has appointed Clare Jupp as managing director of The School Fees Company; the Group’s newly launched specialist business designed to help families organise and fund school fees.
Jupp, currently chief people officer at the Brightstar Group, will take on the new role alongside her existing responsibilities, bringing together a blend of education sector expertise, financial services leadership and parental experience within the independent school system.
A fully qualified secondary headteacher and with a Masters degree in Educational Management, Jupp spent 16 years working in the education sector before joining the Brightstar Group.
The firm’s model is based on proactive engagement with parent communities and schools and working closely with professional advisers, including mortgage intermediaries, wealth managers and accountants, to deliver joined-up guidance on fee planning, lending and broader financial resilience.
A bespoke team has been established to support the business, including individuals who are former independent school parents and students, bringing lived experience of the sector, alongside financial planning and lending expertise.
The team also includes a graduate apprentice who is linking her academic work directly to the development of The School Fees Company’s strategy.
The School Fees Company will work with intermediaries whose clients are funding school fees, helping them model different funding approaches; understand the longer-term impact on wealth, borrowing and retirement planning and integrating specialist school fee strategies into broader financial planning.
Clare Jupp said: “I’m excited to bring together my experience across education and financial services at a time when families are increasingly looking for structured help to plan school fees.
“As a parent who has gone through the independent school journey, as an educationalist and as someone who has worked for 15 years in financial services, I have a 360-degree view of the challenges that families face, but also knowledge of how we can support them. Education is transformational and it is also about choice. The School Fees Company exists to support parents with their choices and to help them organise their finances in the way that best suits their individual circumstances.
“This is about trying to help anyone who pays school fees. For some, the right solution will involve structured finance; for others, it will mean better planning around savings or investments. What matters is that decisions are deliberate, informed and aligned to long-term goals.”
