If you sent your dc to private school, do you think this financial plan is feasible?

I don't regret private primary for a moment. Of a year group of 50, for the last 7 years we've seen all but one or two a year onto state secondary. Bear that in mind, it's hard to leave the system when you are in it and you really won't want to.

Primary uniform outlay was about £800 (bags, hats, summer, winter, blazer, PE etc) plus top ups each year.

We send our kids on the extra residential trips with school each year, so that's another £1k each. One uk residential is included each year.

We don't pay for primary transport but my daughter's bus fee is £1k / year, and her uniform at secondary was £1k outlay.

So, it adds up. But if you want to do it and you are in the right ball park, you can make it work.

Be mindful to factor in potential huge increases in school fees when labour get in and tax them. We've been told by both schools it's a high probability and the youngest has already gone up 5% to 'smooth it over'.

Nice work on the saving pot so far!

My son goes to private primary with an on-site after school club, which runs till 6 every day. We use it 4 days a week. It’s only used by a minority. The vast majority are collected at 3:30 by nannies or SAHPs. (Both these domestic setups are more common in private school families than 2x working parents with no nanny).

I think after school club is likely to be more the norm in state school.

I think that sounds fine BUT I would say that if you have good State Primary provision consider that and then Private for Secondary.
Its what we did and we feel it was a really good option for the following reasons, which may not be the same for everyone I appreciate.

DC were much more mature and streetwise when starting Y7 than kids who had been at the school since age 3
DC had friends from different backgrounds and didnt get caught up in the who had what nonsense as they had seen that in comparison to other schools ALL their peers were from wealthy families
DD found the transistion to large 6th form college a lot easier than many of her peers who had been at a small school since age 3. She thinks Uni will be easier for her than some of her friends who have been at Private school from 3-18 and largely "spoon fed" by teachers.
DD is much more accepting of different people and made a wide range of friends at 6th form college while her ex school friends who had known eachother since prep tending to stick together - its all a bit "incestuous"
DD didnt get caught up in a lot of nonsense that according to one teacher was due to the fact that many of the kids were sick of eachother after 12 years or so
We saved a lot of money (I only worked very part time while the DC were at Primary so could go to all events and do all school pick ups etc)
No knowledge gap apart from PE and languages and they soon caught up.

If our local State Primary had been awful then we would have gone Private age 5 but luckily we didnt need to do that. Our State Secondary option is not good though.

I would do state primary and private secondary. I honestly don't see the benefit in private primary.

What happens if you have more children?

You're very good at saving! So whatever you decide it sounds like you will make it work.

DD(yr12) went private from age 7. I don't regret it, but my fee bill is almost double what it started 9 years ago.

Another thing you will need to consider/budget for is the longer school holidays.

That’s a good compromise.

If I were you I would try to get a couple more years of savings stashed away before starting at a private school. A lot of parents round my way send their child to a state primary till aged 8 before switching to prep.

Your savings sound fine but don't forget the long (long) school holidays that need covering too.

Most holiday clubs only cover the state school holidays so make sure you look at your annual leave and the cost of paying for full-time holiday care on top.

I think I would wait until closer to the time and really try to get my ex onboard, school is a while away for your little one so he may not really be looking at all the options now.
Having your ex back you up financially I think would be the crucial element for me as a single parent. I have two teenages in state schools who I get little help with from my exes (thankfully my parents help anyway) and they are so expensive with phones, clothes, hobbies and my nearly 17yr will be learning to drive this year and we want to buy her a car (so I don't have to drive her around)- thats without throwing in school fees or expensive trips abroad. I'm actually kicking myself for thinking it got easier as they got older, I have had to work harder and take promotions to keep up with it all.

And yes long holidays. Childcare will still need to be paid in the holidays from the maintenance

I think it’s unrealistic. Are you really going to spend the next 18 years spending every penny of savings and maintenance on schooling?

What about spending on other stuff? The £1000 a month isn’t much if in 5 years time you need expensive house maintenance like new windows/ roof blows off/ kitchen repairs etc. Day to day stuff like buying new garden furniture or replacement of stuff.

Spending every penny of maintenance on schooling when they need all new clothing and need shoes as growing, or you want to buy them a new bike, or bed or take them on holiday, or buy annual National trust or other memberships. so they are educated but never go anywhere or have nice stuff as no maintenance left. personally if I paid £1000+ a month maintenance for my child, I would be slightly peeved if they didn’t benefit from it day to day. The maintenance should be so child has decent food, well heated house, any essentials and some luxuries etc no problem paying for theatre tickets for them or trips for school.

I agree with this. Prep schools provide an educational foundation and study skills that you simply don’t get in state primaries. Once you have learnt how to learn you can apply it anywhere.

And you can always go onto a grammar if available.

I was sceptical about private primary but since moving from state I’ve been hugely impressed with the offering. It’s so much better than the “good” state our daughter was at.

i would personally factor in significant price rises, our senior school is about £26k a year, we think it will easily be low £30s by the time our daughter gets there and that’s not even including potential VAT which would take it to almost £40k. It’s worth running a few scenarios on a spreadsheet. Current fees should be visible on the school website.

One of the other considerations to make is the cost of childcare in school holidays. The holidays are longer and there tends not to be holiday clubs in the non state school weeks.

I think that’s very tight and also doesn’t leave you any margins if anything goes wrong (eg you lose your job, you get ill and have an unpaid period, DD turns out to have Sen and need expensive interventions etc etc).

I’d start in state and then move to private for secondary. Use that time to build up your savings and get a better sense of your DD’s strengths and needs so she’s in the best school for her.

It the best money you’ll ever spend. Don’t skip primary. It’s the foundations and in my experience as important as secondary. The high and dry of it is that if you value it enough, you will make it work. Your dc is lucky to have you.

Put all that savings into the offset on your mortgage and then pay the school fees out of current earnings when they start. We just broke it down into fees / 52 weeks and then portioned off that amount between both our salaries each wee and there was no bother paying. Ours was probably less fee wise though here in Australia (AUD25,000) per year on average. Just keep the savings for the o/s trips and technology and homework clubs etc.

I am sure the research shows its better to send them private primary and then secondary state if you weren't going to see it all way through. Might be worth googling.

Don’t forget that school fees rise every year! We also have spent £2500 on trips for this year ( 5 days uk, 4 days European city)
. I agree with those saying you should focus on private secondary. Start looking/applying early though and consider a year 6 entry to a private primary. This gives a better transition up to secondary which could be tricky coming from state. Also friends are more easily made in the lower age groups and much more support given from staff. Good luck.

I think it's doable but you'll have to keep an eye on the numbers. You'll presumably also get pay raises over the years.

If you’ve got grammars near you, private primary could well be woth it. There’s far less of a divide between a grammar and a private secondary than there is between state and a good prep school imo.

My kids went to private school. Middle of the road in terms of costs but still last years final year was £25k. And my experience of five private schools (two kids and two step kids) none ever got out as late as 5 or 6, it was 4.30 latest unless doing sport. There was a supper club I believe, at extra expense. They do start earlier though, last year it was 8.20am registration and not a minute later!
That aside you are in a decent position, but fees will rise every year, the possibility of VAT (I don't think this will happen, but could).
I think you will need to evaluate finances further. Think of any worse case scenario - your roof needs replacing which will wipe out thousands for example. You lose your job... will grandparents pick up the slack? Your ex loses or changed his and maintenance goes down etc.
I'd do a excel spreadsheet projecting five years ahead, taking into account average fees and average increases. Birthdays, holidays etc as well as normal bills. And weigh up if putting your child in state for first few years - are there common entrance years at the private school you have earmarked? Ours had a separate Reception to Y2 school, so an influx of new students in Y3, for example.

You're saving every month but presumably you're also currently paying nursery fees? It's a long time since I was in this position but tbh the difference between nursery fees and infant school fees was pretty trivial. The independent school day was longer and after school care cheaper than a state school however there were longer school holidays to contend with. This did mean we could go on holidays priced for term time but also it was hard to cover all the holidays - not only price wise but actually finding anything running for some weeks.

OP, It's a reasonable plan.

My ds went to state juniors and was miserable, so I wanted him to go to a more supportive school until he found his feet.

I saved 4 years fees before I sent DS to independent senior school. The school at that point only went to 16 so I planned for him to leave after GCSEs. I thought I'd be able to save the 5th year's fees in the intervening four.

Then I managed to pay his first three years out of income, and then the school opened a sixth form, so now I have most of the fees to get him through his A'levels too.

Private primary was not worth it imo. Secondary yes.

My kids go to state schools, but we have friends who were adamant about sending their daughter through private from reception. They insisted that starting from a young age sets them up with a foundation from the beginning, rather than waiting until secondary, when habits and learning styles/techniques have already been embedded. (Just another opinion to counter those who say to wait until secondary.)