If you send your child to private school outside of London...

[user64829555]

What do you do for a living?

Inner London here and I'd say 80% of the parents are in finance, DH and myself included- him banking, me private equity. It's so rare we meet other families who have interesting jobs that make money!

The other 20% is made up of family money and business owners/entrepreneurs, but finance-y types takes the top spot by far and I think it's because it's unique to our area of London.

So what do the parents do for work outside of London?

I’m a lawyer, DH is a graphic designer. A very wide range of professions at my DC’s school. I would say that the builders are the wealthiest.

At our school- accountants, teachers, solicitors, doctors/healthcare plus local family business owners make up the mix.

See I find that so interesting. We don't know any builders.

Very narrow set of skills at our school gates!

Single parent - private equity. Mostly work remotely but occasionally in London.

At DDs school, a real mix. Business owners, doctors (lots of doctors!), solicitors, accountants, sportspeople (footballers, rugby players)

Fascinating! The two doctors I know send their DC to state school, they say London is too expensive.

We have no sportsmen/women or anyone in entertainment that I'm aware of.

DH is in IT and I am an SME Business Advisor.
The other parents I know well are Accountants, Doctors, teachers, doctors, lawyers or have their own business of some kind (one owns 2 Subway franchises)

Single mum, IT marketing.

A mix at ours too - lots of finance professionals, a few builders (this is an expensive area!), doctors/consultants, business consultants of various kinds, business owners, CEOs, I've only known one footballer - he was only 1st Division I have no idea how they afforded it as we Googled his salary and they have two kids at the school

Teacher. I get 50% discount so both can attend but I could afford one on my approx 40k salary. At my school, similar to a pp above, it's not the crazy, out of reach thing that some suggest ....professional graduate salary can do it but I live in a cheap part of the country. Fees are around 15k per year.

DH works for large accountancy firm in London and his salary is what allows us to pay for private. We live and DD goes to school 40 miles outside of London.

Of the few parents I know at the school , two families retired at 40 and no one in the household works ( they live off of their investment income - weirdly both of these were the families of boyfriends my daughter has had since she's been at the school which is why I know the details ) most of the others own their own successful business, there's a few dentists, an author and a self employed tradesman and a money broker. I imagine most are like my DH as in the immediate area we live in everyone seems to work in London in some sort of finance job.

Builders, tech entrepreneurs, music business, finance, medical sales, hotel owners, family money, about half both earn and quite a number with one child.

Of the people I know whose DCs go to public school, one is a painter and decorator, another a carpenter and another a farmer.

You OP spoke to me. DH and I both have really interesting jobs, ones that people envy. And we love doing it. And we both say we can't give it up, even though lots of our colleagues have to go into better paid allied professions.
We couldn't afford private school in a million years.
Life is like this. It's such a toss up between comfort and enjoyment/purpose. There's no right answer.

*your OP

We had everything from female plumbers, professional jockeys, a few actors / singers and a few corner shop owners. The majority were lawyers/ doctors / accountants / finance but a good mix overall.

I'm a SAHM and DH does small scale house renovations (house flipping)
DD1 starts private school nursery in Sept and DD2 will join too when old enough.
We will cover the fees with DH's family money and 1 term per child per year will be paid by FIL , as he does this for all children.
We're in the North East

This is so interesting. On the private school bashing threads, there is always this assumption that anyone who uses private is absolutely minted, could easily afford a 20% hike if VAT came in and there's an almost gleeful "serve the precious darlings right" idea if anyone says they would have to switch. Anyone who says they are managing it on a two figure fairly normal professional salary is ignored or accused of lying.

At DCs school lots of trades - builders, electricians, plumbers, burglar alarms.

Other parents whose jobs I know are quite a few teachers, a nurse, a GP, a childminder, marketing, IT, accountant, factory manager.

A real mix.

DD has now finished school
but DH and I work in HE. Other parents included lots of doctors, lawyers, engineers and others working in Education-dare I say it-the same people who had their kids in private school when I was in private school in the 90s. Due to the area also quite a few farmers, pilots, retired professionals and successful tradesmen.

@Greentrianglequalitystreet I always find it funny when people say they are on huge joint incomes but couldn’t afford it outside of London. That’s when I assume that it’s actually down to different priorities, even allowing for scary mortgages. There’s also a really strong view on MN that private schools are full of kids living very affluent lifestyles which wasn’t our experience at all. It was all very normal, comfortable for sure but rarely more than that.

@JWR you’re right. For some people they have a lot of disposable income. For others they have made choices about schooling because that’s what’s important for them. Lots of DCs friends live in the cheaper parts of town or have very small homes relative to the size of the family, which I assume is a decision that allows them to pay school fees. I don’t know anyone among their friends who lives in a huge house or is noticeably affluent.

Also, when starting DCs at private school I thought I’d stand out as being ‘poorer’ than the other parents in the playground.

It was nice to discover everyone was normal, it was no different to the mainstream playground.

I’m sure it’s different at the big name public schools, though.

My friend is a doctor, mum is a lab tech. Other friends he's a assistant professor she's a sahm. But there's house builders kids i I know because they divested a large some when the school relocated and got the contract!

Yes to this. This is what I imagine non-London private schools to be like, full of a general mix of "normal" professions who have done incredibly well to afford the fees. I just don't see it in our particular area because we're so connected to the financial sector, but I always wonder what people do for a living who live in places like Dorset or Northumberland and have kids in prep schools there