To ask your household income with 3-4 DC in private school?

[Lemoning]

And are you comfortably living, affording savings and holidays and not worrying about money? Pre tax income, and obviously including the school fees in your outgoings, ie: they're not paid by GP or similar.

I sometimes wonder if we're going to regret starting down the private school road because of money worries later on. Our income pre tax is about £200k.

Being very open with you, household income more than £200k gross (but not significantly more) can live comfortably and afford to fund the (2) DCs school and university fees and our pensions, BUT no housing costs other than bills,

I think we'd spend the next 20 years stressed over money and possibly in debt. DH thinks this is a sacrifice we should make for DC if we can. Having trouble convincing him we can't afford it actually.

It's affordable, but maybe not some of the other things you would like. We've put three through private schools, albeit on hefty scholarships, and foregone holidays for the most part. Totally worth it in our opinion, but each to their own.

Spreadsheets are your friend. With proper assumptions of over inflation school fee rises and increasing base rate and properly costed school uniform and piano lessons.

Then do another one for state school with private football clubs private piano lessons and assume 1 yr of tutoring for 11+ for each kid

Numbers talk!

So we would need a pre tax income of around 500k to comfortably afford this I think. I have done figures but so much is the unknown. For example, before DC started school I would never have factored in that we would spend £50+ a week on music and sports lessons on top of fees!!!

Squirrels, I have a feeling we would be paying for the private tutor in private school at 11+ anyway! Everyone around here who goes private also tutors.

Clobbered they won't get scholarships on their income. Private secondary much easier to afford for 2 or more kids if you earn £35k (full funding) than if you earn £80k (no funding)

Private plus tutors - eek! Some seriously anxious people out there

How would I get a proper assumption of base rate increases by the way? I would like to factor that in as haven't done so yet.

That's why we left London lemoning. Too much pressure for the kids. Although DH and I still work there

I thought bursaries were based on your income but not scholarships?? Are you saying they look at your income for scholarships too?

It's NOT affordable. Income is £10k a month net, at best. Mortgage costs £4k. Leaving £6k a month. Even the cheapest independent schools in London will not cost less than £15k per annum x4 being £5k a month. The OP cannot live with a family of 6 on less than £1k a month. It is just NOT possible. Not even close. And also their pensions are underfunded. £200k sounds like a goodly amount. But it just isn't any where near enough to fund four sets of school fees all the way through.

We have 3 DCs and have recently decided that we can't afford private senior school only on a joint pretax income of £110k. We're using state primary.

Sticking my neck out - I think there are issues with state education (and I was state educated as were / are my dc for primary school but I won't risk it for secondary) based on pupil: teacher ratio alone which means if your child doesn't fully understand a specific topic then basically that's it! With the best will in the world the teacher can't tailor their teaching to all. Ds aged 9 seems pretty vague on fractions etc....dd aged 11, now in Y7 at private school has many significant progress after just half a term....However, if you are an interested an engaged parent they can succeed in state ed. as long as you are prepared to coach them and fill in the gaps

Super bright children with no spLD will succeed pretty much whatever

Difficult to know as it's just a guess but Carney said yesterday they were likely to go up in next 12 months. Assume current rate for 12 months, then add 1% for next year and 1% year after?

School fees only go up. When we started 10 years ago they were about £12k, when we finished about £20k per annum per child. London Day Schools. We didn't make the commitment for DC1 until we had £100k in the bank and the mortgage had halved to £40k. At that stage there was the option also of me going back to work. With four DC it's more unlikely that you will be able to work to bolster your income too. I don't think we made the commitment until DH hit the £120,000 mark and that's going back a long time now.

I don't think it's doable in your current circumstances to be honest. I also think it's much harder to transfer from indy to state than from state to indy.

Yes scholarships are now a pat on the back. You only get money off fees if you meet the financial thresholds for a bursary.
Only exception to that anywhere these days so far as I'm aware is a few schools who give music scholars free music lessons irrespective of income. Even that is pretty rare I think.

Why do you see private education as being so superior to state? Anything other than class size? Just interested to know as that seems like a shed load of money.

So what I am trying to say is if private not affordable then fill in any gaps or yourself or via tutor

Thanks Squirrels.

I am willing to coach, I do it now. Lots of ks1 workbooks and lots of reading. I take a big interest and think I will continue to do so as I enjoy it and they like doing these activities at home.

Class size is key! Teachers have the luxury of time to help all abilities. My dd doesn't come home anymore saying 'I don't get it'

ah the wonderful thing about MN
the wives of the 0.1% can meet ten years after Queen Charlottes Ball
while their hubbies are nowhere to be seen working daft hours to maintain the dream

I like 28 / week :-)

I know this sounds a bit nuts but you mentioned 3/4 kids.

How many kids do you have atm? Because it is highly unlikely to be 4, unless you are unfortunately anticipating something awful happening. If you have 3 with the prospect of a massive promotion, then it might be doable. But that is on the basis that you curtail the number of children. It's up to you really.

If that is the case Lemoning I expect your dc will do just fine

Your DH is wrong.

I went to state primary and then private at 11; I was Head Girl and excelled in many areas both academic and otherwise.