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!

Sounds like a good idea to me.

Well personally I went to the same state comprehensive as my council estate-raised mother and I did just fine. (I went to Oxford - not usually something I bring up but on this occasion it’s relevant.)

For that reason I would never send my children to private school for academic or social reasons. I think outcomes are all about how your kids are raised and what their personalities are, which are entirely within your control. I don’t have an ethical objection to private education but I just think it’s a waste of money.

Cynically, I would say it is in your kids’ best interests to keep as much equity as you can in the house you presumably intend to bequeath to them. In the long run that will be a better move.

The most valuable investment in your kids is your time. My dad used to help with my homework and my mum came to every single school event, school play.

This may well not apply to you but there are plenty of private school kids I know who flunk everything and become f*ed up in later life because they had parents who were either pushy or absent. That’s no investment.

Why private? No good school near? Is it primary?
I'm not against it I just don't feel you get value for money or a better education.

"We wouldn't be considering a state secondary"
So how are you going to pay for private?

YANBU: if you'd structured things differently in the past the money could've been a savings account now rather than paid off the mortgage so you'd be thinking about saving up to replace those savings or not using the pot for your house.

Think whether you're happy to pay the extra over the lifetime of the mortgage for what you're going to get.

Yes it's a crazy idea to release equity for private primary school.
All the very rich people I know only bothered with private school for secondary. They live in nice areas where the primary schools are excellent anyway.
The kids I know that ended up at Oxford and Cambridge all went to state schools.

No way would I do it. I think I would rather buy a house in an area with good schools. £50k is probably just the start and so many people end up in debt from paying these ridiculous fees and give up holidays, saving for retirement or paying off mortgage.

I would totally. Borrowing is so cheap, you can fix your mortgage long term and still pay it off if you can afford the extra payments. We did prep school out of income but we always knew that if we needed money we could pull it out of the house and although ours are now at an outstanding state secondary i wouldn’t hesitate to do it if I needed to move them and didn’t have the ready cash.

I would do some serious reading up on the actual benefits of class sizes, if that's one of the attractions for you. While it seems counter intuitive, all the research seems to say that there is no benefit to reducing class sizes until the number drops below about 15.

The one thing that consistently makes the most difference to academic progress is high quality feedback. I've taught in both private and state. In both private schools I've taught in, it was normal for feedback to be along the lines of "10 out of 10. Excellent!" Or "6 out of 10. More revision needed!". In the state schools I've taught in standard feedback is more like this "What went well: clear knowledge of the text, including key themes and ideas. Points are well developed with good use of quotation. Even Better If: make more links to context and use more subject terminology in your answer."

I'm secondary so I know that's not directly applicable to your situation now, but if you do private primary you are most likely going to want to stay in private. If you have good state schools nearby, please dont assume that the teaching at the private schools is automatically going to be better. I've seen excellent and mediocre teachers in both.

One thing to consider private school costs don’t stop at fees, It’s uniforms (and if something is lost/damaged it needs replacing straight away), camps, books, and then other things you might not think about.. expectations for teacher present, parties and birthday present, your DC own types of parties, as they get older clothes, meeting friends (are they close by). If those things will tip you over financially it might not be a good idea. You always could use the additional money you’re saving for quality tutoring if you need it.

I think it depends on your priorities - and they are yours and nobody else’s. So if you look at things you can give your kids:

• private primary
• private secondary
• university fees
• deposit on a house

Will you have enough equity/income for all of those things? If so, then it’s not an issue. If not, rank them in order and see what comes out.

(Obviously I don’t mean those are the only things you give them!)

I don't think it sounds as if you can afford it properly OP.

Send your daughter to local outstanding infants and reconsider at the next stage. At this age it's nice to have very local friend who can just pop round for tea after school or go to the local park together.

FWIW I've always been advised (on here and elsewhere) that if you can't afford the full 14 years private, saving your money for years 10 & 11 is the way to go. At secondary level, at today's prices, that's a minimum of £25k. For just those two years.

I was at private school in the days when fees were not exorbitant (no fancy facilities!). One of my best friends had to leave at the end of year 9 as her parents couldn't afford it any longer. They had never had enough money but had somehow hoped it would be OK. My friend was devastated to move at this stage. Now we are adults she talks about how damaging it was to her relationship with her parents at the time.

You can't bank on your daughter getting into a grammar school or getting bursaries at secondary level.

If you are both working full time, how do you intend to cover childcare in the longer private school holidays? All the costs at private schools are higher - lunch, uniform, trips, extra items for extra curricula stuff.

Do you sums very carefully, on a spreadsheet, and factor in the huge increases in fees every year, and included everything.

There's no need to justify or sugar coat why you want your children to attend a private school. The writing is on the wall.

If you can afford it then do so - if you intend to live precariously to fund it then that's on you. Everything else is background noise. It seems you're going to have to contort yourself into a few different positions to manage it. If that's a weight you want on your shoulders then go ahead.

Or of course, you could sell your house, move to within a couple of feet of an outstanding-oversubscribed primary and pay twice as much for an identical out-side-of catchment house. Of course you'd end up in the same financial situation with a huge mortgage and no real guarantee of a place, but you know, that would be more acceptable to the "OMG! If you have to do this you can't afford private education" crowd.

What I was taught as a rule of the thumb is up until 12 it depends on the parents, after that it depends on the school. You know your cross road. I don't. Strangely enough I would keep the money for university. Why don't you go for outstanding ? Why pay for what is already free ? We often treat education like water it's not because it's bottled that it is better, if you get my gist. So make sure what you pay for and never forget that you are already paying for a system. Marketing is very effective in this field.

In case you’re interested, I have met several young university graduates in the last year who have struggled to find work due to ‘snobbery’ about their private school. One girl has an amazing CV, speaks 4 languages, started her own business whilst at uni- and yet at her interview they asked how much her school fees were and made jokes about her playing polo and ‘skiing with mummy’. This was the worst experience, but she said at least half a dozen interviews had asked about her paying school, and other graduates said the same.

This really shocked me- I had always assumed snobbery would go the other way! But the difficulty she is having has made me consider that for my children, even if we can afford private, that it might be better to send them to public and pay for private tutoring instead.

Yes. Going to private school is a massive disadvantage I. The job market. You hardly ever see privately educated people in the workplace.

I don’t agree private primary is a waste of money.

DD has just finished at her prep and it was worth it because the education suited her.

if thats what you really want to do, then go for it.
prwsumably that would give you 10k pa to end of gcses and you could confidently find the extra 5k a year and have one child?
you sound like a sensible person. lucky girl, i hope she enjoys it!

OP, I really would save my money for secondary education.

In our area I looked at the local prep schools, the nursery provision was very lack lustre.
I looked at the work the children were doing, it was mostly just going through worksheets, I kid you not.
One where the teaching was more inspired was too academic and hot housey for my liking. The other two which had the lovely grounds, plenty of sport, etc., the teaching there was of the worksheet variety mostly.
We saved our money.

Remember a large playground to run around in is universally ignored by most teenage girls. Outdoor space is for boys playing football and girls sitting in groups, chatting.

We’ve saved our money by not going private and Dd will be coming out of uni debt free and have a deposit for a house if she wants it.

it means we put 150k as a deposit on next home rather than 200k

£50k won't get you very far, OP! At least it wouldn't at the school where I work.

I agree with the majority of posters, save your money for secondary if you feel it necessary then. Outside space isn’t the be all and end of of a school. At primary stage your child is in school roughly 25 hours per week, that leaves plenty of time for you to spend with them outside, or for them to do cubs or football or other outdoor based activities. Not to mention the weather in the UK isn’t that pleasant to be outside in for much of the year and during the colder months they may rarely go out. I remember a thread on here about forest school, which most primary schools seem to do now, one poster commented that they sent their child to school to learn, walks in the woods she could do on her own time, I kind of think she had a point.

Also small classes aren’t always great from a social point of view. The friendship pool being small can be a problem for some children. A class of 30 sounds huge, but with a teacher and at least one TA I don’t think it’s necessarily a disadvantage.

Spend Money on outside school activities and 11 plus tutoring when the time comes.