How do parents afford private school

No inherited wealth and no help from grandparents. Both first in family to go to uni. tho DH had bursary/scholarship at local private school.Two slightly above average professional salaries - mine took a hit during child rearing years. Didn’t mortgage ourselves up to the hilt & bought in a less desirable area than our peers, didn’t go on holiday every year, never bought a new car. Lived within our means as far as possible and rarely used credit.

Local schools are a very mixed bag and couldn’t cater for older DC
SEND issue, DH old school could and did so brilliantly. I started my own side business and earned enough extra income to cover DC2 fees. It was the right decision for both our DCs & nine of us regret it.

True @Feelingstrange2 I know someone who was given 40% of his dads company, so doesn't and has never worked there. Quarterly he gets a dividend payment from the company that will pay for at least one of his DCs fees.
Plus he has a successful business of his own.

DH currently earns c. £300k, he is self employed in a tech consultancy role with multiple clients.

DS1 who is 4 is in reception at the local private school, and DS2 will start there in a couple of years. At the moment we pay from DH’s earnings, but we are lucky enough to be able to save and invest a significant amount each month so that we will have a large pot to fall back on to allow for a reduction in income in the future.

If need be we could remortgage our house as we would not move our children from the school unless it was an absolute last resort. No generational wealth here.

We would have liked a third child but have decided not to have one as it would be too much of a stretch to pay fees for them too.

My parents paid from their salary; about 30k p/a for my brother and I.

Sometimes companies he worked for included school fees as part of the package, as we lived overseas.

14K a year for one child up here at my nearest in the NW. So, good salaries should cut it.

Salaries are always mentioned but many wealthy people own businesses and property. They have other income streams such as profits, dividends and rental income. Even asset sales. Not everyone pays for fees from income from "going to work".

Some of these figures are eye watering.

Then you have international students. Their parents incomes will be affected (good and bad) by exchange rates.

But @Crushed23 would you really tell your colleagues if your parents were paying your DCs fees or if they'd gifted you a big deposit for a house or would you keep that info to yourself?

We only know of one family with their kids in private school, and the husband is a self made millionaire with a huge company. Nobody else we know has gone down that road, and amongst them are some pretty high earners, (couple of bankers, lawyers, VPs, entrepreneurs)

A generation ago I think private school was a lot more doable for many families. I went to one myself and my parents were certainly not loaded, they made a lot of sacrifices. Nowadays it tends to be ridiculously high salaries, grandparent funding or scholarships.

I think you underestimate how many people earn £100k+ It is not just banking and law but any sort of very senior corporate job of which there are hundreds in my company alone and we are Pharma adjacent.

I'd assume you'd cut back a bit on other areas but £100k+ is not as out there a salary as many believe.

When I lived in London, everyone I worked with who had kids sent their kids to private school. It was like it was just the ‘done thing’. In all cases, both parents worked in high-earning jobs.

I’ve heard about grandparents paying school fees only on MN. Never come across this IRL.

They just earn or have a lot of money, more than the average person.

I wouldn't be putting 2 children through private school on an income of less than £300,000. The fees alone cost a fortune then everything else on top, uniforms, clubs, no doubt expensive holidays. I would want the lifestyle of a private school parent, not just to be able to afford the fees alone.

Others earn less than that but they might only have one child or might not have the frills to go with the private school. They might get a helping hand from grandparents paying towards or all of the fees too.

Even if we wanted to we will never be able to afford private school, we couldn't afford the fees so it's one less thing to pay for.

Similar salary here - sent three kids with 50% fee reduction but was still tight. Can’t wait for youngest to leave uni!

It is. Academics have studied it :
"For those who grew up in Britain in the latter half of the 20th century, there is known to be a strong association between social class or family income and attending a private school"
Anders et al et al 2020 "Determinants of private school participation: All about the money? British Educational Research Journal

Obviously there always are outliers but it is a self-perpetuating system. For example, you attended a private school and now your DC attend. Whereas the majority of people in the UK will have attended state schools and so will their children. Private schools have, and always will be, exclusive, by virtue of cost.

Prices have gone up significantly in recent years to the point where value has to be considered as well as affordability.

I earn over £200k and decided to move house recently to be in a catchment of fantastic state schools rather than go down the private route. I gave noticed last week to the private pre-prep school we’d reserved a Reception place at and confirmed we wouldn’t be taking up our place.

We could afford the fees for 14 years but don’t believe it is value for money anymore particularly in the uncertain political climate regarding education.

We know a few others who have done the same. One of the knock on effects is that each of us who has done this has deprived a lower earning family from obtaining a place at the best local state schools. I’m not sure that’s in any way an ideal outcome from a wider societal point of view but as parents we have to do what’s best for our own children.

We have one child at private school. Dh earns 99k I earn 70k. I pay the fees and dh pays mortgage, bills etc. we couldn’t afford two kids.

Through salaries and not having a big house, not having lots of holidays etc.

I paid out of my salary but only had one child - live in a two bedroom garden flat - would’ve liked another child but felt couldn’t afford a larger property in London and two sets of school fees .

Due to the age gap and not starting until year 5 we will only have 4 years of double fees when both children are attending.

You don't have to send them from age 4, we send m/are going to send ours at 9 from year 5, that saves quite a bit. Also don't live in London so the fees are a bit lower, I think about &15k for junior school. Husband earns a high salary with good bonuses but we are not mega rich.

Sorry, yes, of course that’s a term!

Generally my salary has covered one child. Have taken out second mortgage to cover the overlap for the next 3 years. I have basically no pension. I’ll have to keep working longer once the kids have left school in order to get anything saved for retirement.

Ex paid for 3 through London day school from age 7 to A level from his salary and very large bonuses (c. half a million a year) working in finance. Only 1 still left. But we were “ordinary” compared to some at the school. Big house in niceish area near the school. We still took good holidays but he did feel the pressure. No family wealth or similar. Some at the school definitely GPs paying.
only the super wealthy could then pay for the kids to go to US universities.

Grandparents, which is essentially an inheritance sacrifice of sorts. However with fees shooting up so drastically, we’ve agreed a fee split going forwards. Our chosen secondary is 25k per year inc vat, which is pretty reasonable for London.

We pay for our children to go to private school from my husband’s salary.

We don’t have generational wealth and have no help from our parents as they aren’t in a position to do so. They also aren’t inclined to help financially or otherwise which is fine as they’re our children.

Fees where I live tend to be between 15-22k per year unless you opt for a top private school which is usually one which offers boarding and has amazing facilities.

I'm a SAHM and husband works in finance. We both worked hard, had kids later in life (mid thirties) and saved hard. We can afford holidays etc but having them in our mid thirties meant we could pay more off on our mortgage.

Certain sectors are more lucrative than others tbh!

Not a floaty post as I realise it could be taken this way; just our situation.

We have four DCs and DH was earning £200k plus until last year (redundancy - still looking for a job..!) but we decided that we just couldn't do it for them all. My parents managed boarding school for my brother and me on significantly less income - but fees were significantly less then, as were housing costs (relatively). Most of our friends privately educating are doing so via inherited wealth, 2 very high earners (bankers, management consultants and lawyers mainly), or have children on scholarships.

Both DH and I went private all the way through - my parents advised us not to step on the treadmill unless we were REALLY sure about it. We moved to a grammar area and they have all done really well at grammar (so far one Oxbridge, one RG, and two still to go...).