If your kids go to private school how much do you earn?

Wow this is not the thread to read if you're feeling a failure in life 😂

My son finished private school last year (outer south east) - it cost £1k a month at first and steadily rose to £1400 a month. I'm a single mum and during that time I've been on between £50k + £60k a year. Not going to lie, it's been tough and I have no savings a v limited pension as a result so I will have to work into my 70s I'm sure. Obviously would have been impossible for more than 1 child. He's doing well now at a good uni but if I'm honest I'm not sure I'd do it if I had my time again.

Fees will rise quicker than wages and will escalate up through the year groups. On your income with very small dc, unless you are anticipating huge salary jumps in the next few years, I would explore state options. Especially for secondary and I wouldn’t worry too much about the “fairness” of sending dc2 to private for primary just because you panic moved dc1. You have no reason to think that dc2 will benefit more from a £12k a year primary education than she would by having her household income boosted by £12k a year. If you put just 10% of those fees away for her during her schooling years then you could gift her a house deposit as well as being able to give her a very comfortable and enriched childhood.

Shy, quiet children who struggle with friendships aren’t necessarily better in small quiet secondary schools with a limited friendship pool. Often the big, versatile, diverse school communities are places where the introverted can find their tribe, and their confidence. It may not be the best for your dd but don’t dismiss it. Out of school activities are good for making different groups of friends which is great when things aren’t going well at school. Team sports are obviously great but sometimes quieter people benefit from things where you are with people but not necessarily interdependent. Swimming, horse riding, climbing, gymnastics for example. Scouts/guides/cadets are good for friendships too, especially for people who need a bit of extra help with the rules of friendship and need help being included, through shyness or other reasons. People like the “wrap around” element of private schools but it’s sometimes better to keep hobbies separate, and have friends from different places. Sorry, went a bit off topic. My income is similar but 4 dcs (mortgage under £500 a month). Not a chance could we have afforded it, even with the ubiquitous cutting back on cars and holidays. For just one child for one year I could have my booked holiday for this year 7 times, or I could buy about 9 replicas of my car.

I’m not sure the cheaper independent schools are actually worth it but I’m not hugely against them or anything. My best friend’s dc go to one and they are fine but my dc predicted grades are just as good if not better. The only tangible difference is the behaviour luckily my dc are horrified and not looking to behave in that way/hang out with those dc so it’s important for them to understand different perspectives in life. I wouldn’t rule out independent if one dc had a specific issue and we decided to move her.

Our cheapest local independent is £6200 per term. We have 3 dc and gross income is £115,000. I don’t think we’d even comfortably afford one in an independent on our salaries.

DDs most definitely don't do 2-3 hours of homework, let alone study for 6 hours!

That's quite a lot. I didn't do nearly as much and I went to an elite school.

Probably only had 1-2 hours of homework a day (and I only did half of that) and just crammed in for exams the week before.

In GCSE year this close to GCSEs then yes I'd expect them to be studying all evening. In the normal course of things 2-3 hours of homework a night

You really need to look carefully at fees across the school. When mine started in reception the fees were circa £7k. Now in secondary they're £18k going up to just shy of £20k in September and that was with two years of no increases due to covid and remote learning.

Lunch is £5 a day - £25 a week. £5 house charity twice every half term plus a general school non uniform event once every half term at £5. Uniform and sports items cost approximately £400 a year. Wrap around for early birds and night owls in lower school is £10 per session so £20 a day if you use both. Trips are expensive because they go to expensive places. Often more to send one than our annual family holiday costs. If they're in an A or B sports team, Tour trips are "expected attendance". If you only did the bare minimum on trips/excursions you could probably get away with about £500 a year but on average I'd say it costs around £4,000 a year to go on one of the residentials.

Joint income £130 Inc bonuses. 1 DD but saved up 2 years fees prior to starting. We can afford it but some sacrifices will need to be made.

@PassP0rtquery can I ask what your mortgage payments are per month please? We have a similar combined income

Hmm we are about to send DS (year 7) and our household income is significantly less than the numbers cited in this thread. Our net annual household income is around £65K.

North of England, annual fees of £14K.

However our outgoings are low and we don't have any debt bar a £1K monthly mortgage payment.

DS has additional needs, or I wouldn't be considering it.

It's doable - but if I get made redundant we are screwed

@Krystall would you have a slide rule on Net salary based on what you see at your school....eg termly fees are 7k and the you expect parents to be on net annual 70k for one DC/110k for two DC

Also does your school also offer discount for annual payment in advance?

Thanks

Combined about £220k a year plus bonuses. Mortgage is £1600. 2 kids, we’re paying about £30k a year for prep but it will go up next year as they reach higher age bands plus I’m bracing myself for a really high fee increase next year. We can afford it but we are definitely in the lower income band of our school, most of the parents are investment bankers etc

Sorry, I misread your salary at £120k the net would be around £5-6k so that would leave around £2-3k for everything else. Still very doable I think and more than a lot of people take home!

I’m a single parent, my basic is £185k gross and can go up to £500k with bonuses but nothing guaranteed.

I have one starting sept who has multiple SEN and state schools here are terrible. Another starts in two years. It’s when they’re both there fees at points will be £40k + a year.

I am worried because my income fluctuates massively, but I’ve got an average house and should clear my mortgage soon.

I figured if it gets too tight they can go until year 11 then change for a levels and I would be willing to take out a new mortgage to fund their education worst case.

With £150k I make it around £7-8k a month net not including pensions. Take off:

-mortgage £800
-fees for one £1k
-nursery £1k

That still leaves £4-5k a month. Pensions won't be that much so you should have plenty left over now. It will be the same once your youngest is in as the school fees work out about the same as nursery.

Lower income than you but will be mortgage free from the summer, and inherited money, plus only have one child - so although income-wise you'd think we couldn't afford it, that doesn't tell the whole story.

@manontroppo it's "worth it" though if your child has needs that can't be met by the available state provision. Whether that's social, emotional, academic or whatever. I manage it as an SP with help from grandparents for those reasons. It wasn't in my plan and I am doing some fairly long term debt juggling with the mortgage and 0% credit cards to stay afloat. It's not about expecting a certain level of grades, or a great career outcome but their happiness and health now.

There was a really long thread on this a few weeks ago, discussing if private was worth it with lots of anecdata about great outcomes from state schools and vice versa but ultimate outcomes are not the only factor.

We're earning rather a lot less than most PP on this thread! Combined income around £100K gross, two DC in private secondary. Fees will be going up 7% next academic year, will be just over £16K per child.

We will manage because (1) they're on a fairly generous scholarship (2) we always maintain at least a full year's fees in savings specifically for this purpose.

Still, it will be a massive relief when they finish GCSEs in a couple of years' time.

Not much then!

Our school gives no reduction for upfront payments. We do use an interest free monthly payment scheme though which is helpful.

What’s a “child tax savings account”? I assume you don’t mean the government’s tax free childcare since you earn over the threshold.

Our school gives 1% off!

Hi - how much discount does paying a year upfront get you? I’ve been thinking about doing this. Thx