To use equity from the house to pay for private education

[Windsweptly]

Just what the title says really! Is it mad or unreasonable to consider using some equity from the house to pay for private education? Is this something people do or am I just being naive / ignorant? Any big downfalls to doing this? Thanks in advance!

Surely £50k wouldn't buy private education for very long. How would you eke it out?

Perhaps I am just going on the big private school near to here, and it may or may not be fully representative, but the fees there are around £30k a year.

I am sure there is wide variation with the fees, but when your £50k runs out what will you do?

We are not considering private education for exam success, we aren't actually that fussed about exam results. We just want our child to be happy and have a positive experience with plenty of space to run around outside! The 50k pays for reception to year 6. It isn't a massively expensive school but it has fantastic grounds, woods, very small class sizes and loads of outside learning.

How cheap are your private schools-50k? Could you afford it from start to finish for your children or is there a risk you would need to pull them out after a few years?

Just read your last post OP- wouldn’t bother for primary school tbh- maybe secondary. No point putting a kid in private school in the easier years then put them in a state school for the exams part

To be fair, I paid 44k for the house and had paid back all but a very small amount, remortgaged for £100k and the house is now worth £300k. Very manageable and affordable. Even for oiks like me :-) (Also we were paying only the boarding fees, not tuition fees as well).

So your child leaves at year 6, then has to go to state school?
It would be better to have £50,000 set aside for Uni.

So this is primary? In which case, no, I wouldn’t. For secondary yes.

We have great grammar schools here or we would look to do private secondary and apply for bursary / scholarship.

For primary, for ‘nicer’ facilities, no chance.
For secondary, if local state providion was bad, yes.

Children will not notice nicer grounds/woods or how many children are in their class.

Thanks for all the replies, really helpful! I personally believe primary is as important as secondary in some ways because the whole desire to learn is shaped and also all the basics established, without which you can't move on to more complex things. But that's just my opinion and nothing scientific about it!

It's not about them noticing nicer grounds of class size it's more about the impact this has on learning.

50k could cover most of a prep education depending on if the pre prep years and yr3 are at a cheaper rate(lots are) and its for 1 child. (And not anywhere near London). Of you need to withdraw them however i would suggest saving your money until secondary school. Years 7 and 8 are massivley important and moving them at the end of year 6 into a larger state school can undo a good solid prep education in 1 term. If you had to choose i honestly would go for the senior school and in the mean time save that 200 per month alongside your equity.
Have you thought about what you would do childcare wise if they were at prep school for the long holidays they get off? Mine for exampe have 19 weeks off per year. They are already in week 3 of their summer hols. That will also add cost if you are working.

We have dipped in and out of house equity over the years to help cover shortfalls. Plenty of people do it.

Lots of things to think about and good to hear all perspectives on this. Tough decision!

I always thought it better to put them in private for secondary. However a colleague made the good point that during the primary years is where they learn how to learn and gainhopefully a love for learning. In secondary they are stuffed full of facts for exams. If they are self learners, they’ll do well. So I would yes, if we could, put them in private for the earlier years.

Thank you pancakes, really helpful. We wouldn't be considering a state secondary but you are right, lots to think about re long holidays etc and saving maybe for secondary instead.

Oh and im not against state at all, but the funding cuts are not getting any better and the class sizes are enormous. Better state school carry house price premiums so you can equally be unable to afford the better state school.

OP for what it’s worth I went to a private primary and secondary school, in my secondary school lots of girls joined from state primary’s and there was no correlation between who did better in their exams and where they went to primary.

Yes herroyal that is exactly how I feel!

Thanks everyone

The challenge we have now as we are less than 10 years from paying off our mortgage - oncr our basic mortgage is paid off, our equity release loan is immediately due in full.

Over the next 10 years, we have to actively reduce our ERL, or have some other means to pay it off, or remortgage. About half of it is our loft conversion, btw.

I don't think you would get help (bursary etc) for secondary school if you've paid at primary. I've seen this rule written in admission info for a number of private secondaries.

I don't really understand the naysayers tbh. I'm not fussed about private school but this might be how we pay for uni. I have a lot of equity in my house as it has increased considerably in value. I don't have masses of excess income but can afford my mortgage and bills. The equity is my nest egg and if we needed it for something of course I'd release it (by which I mean moving to a cheaper area or something). Not sure what's risky about it.

Private school fees go up by way over inflation every year - often £1000 higher each year.

So only start private school if you are 100% sure you can afford to see it through to the end. There's nothing worse than your child having to leave their lovely private school and ending up at a struggling state school miles away (the only one with space) because daddy lost his job or your money ran out.

Domino that's interesting. They (or at least the ones we've looked into) are simply means tested and apparently we stand a better chance of a bursary or scholarship if we have already been through prep. There are bursaries for some prep schools and we could maybe look at those too.