To ask if you do/would get into debt for school fees?

[AgentRoss]

• 8 year old.
• 99% of LA secondary schools are dreadful. Some are simply riot control.
• Moving isn't an option.
• Increasing our income is unlikely but we're looking.
• We don't drive for medical reasons so can't go to a school further away.
• We have no debt apart from our mortgage which is about half way through.
• We have some savings but our house is literally falling apart so we MUST spend them on that.

Are we being stupid thinking about getting into a not insignificant amount of debt to pay for private school? We could pay maybe half the cost of the fees and exams without borrowing but that excludes uniforms, extra-cirricular activities, all the other random stuff. We are confident we could get the credit at good rates.

Obviously this would then have a knock on effect on the amount of financial support we could provide for uni, first house etc.

Plus the headache of getting back into debt we've worked hard to get out of and the finincial imlact it would have on us long term.

Bear in mind with school fees that there are a LOT of extras to pay for which cost £££, not withstanding the annual increases in fees. And then there's the pressure to 'keep up' with the other kids. And even if your child has small birthdays & modest stuff etc, they may well get invited all over the place & that ends up costing a lot too.

Hold on, your house is in such a dreadful condition that you can’t sell it, but you want to get into debt for private schooling? That is a remarkably foolish idea. Do you have to borrow money to fix your house as well as for the fees?

We pay many thousands of pounds in extras as well as the fees. It’s not a small amount on top by any means.

You’re blinkered, I’m afraid.
Religious state schools deliver the national curriculum. A Catholic school won’t promote contraception but will teach it in biology. They might have Mass a few times a year but that’s about it. Many, many non Catholic or Anglican children go to Christian schools. All schools are required to have a daily act of collective worship (technically).

A school might be placed in special measures simply because the safeguarding policy on the website had not been updated to include PREVENT or FGM - even if there was a new ratified policy and it was just and administrative error. SM doesn’t mean it’s a very bad school, necessarily.

Some ‘outstanding’ schools haven’t been inspected in seven or eight years and might well not still be as good.

You’ve just seen the private school and decided that’s what you want without knowing fully the facts. It’s early days yet but nearer the time, go and visit.

I understand that the special measures schools will be forced to improve however one of them has been back and forth between poor performance and special measures over the years. So it always seems boarderline and never really improves.

The other school is a bit odd. There was a third school which when it was opened was heralded as a flag ship educational saviour. Sadly it failed spectacularly and closed within a few years. Most of the kids and staff from that third school were moved to this one which then became worse and worse. Although that was a few years ago, it seems stuck now.

Could you get a bursary/scholarship?
Worth looking into.
A lot of private schools offer a monthly payment plan if that's any use

Whatthefoxgoingon what do you pay thousands extra for?
I have dc in four different schools, the private one is by far the cheapest in terms of uniform and trips. We have to pay for books but we do for the state ones as they are so cash strapped. It probably varies according to schools I suppose.

There is absolutely no way I would consider it tbh.

Firstly, your list sounds unnecessarily dismissive of a few of the schools in your list. You need to go, visit, question and really think through your objections and concerns before discounting the local free options. Find parents of children at these schools and talk to them. It is hard to believe that there are no parents in your entire area who are engaged and concerned re their children's education but can't afford independent schooling. Find those people that are like you, and benefit from their experiences and advice.

Secondly, independent schools come with their own problems. I went to one for a while and found being the poorer kid very hard. While you may be able to scrape and borrow to send your child, you definitely won't have the house, car, holidays and gym membership lifestyle that many of their classmates have and it's hard to be in that position. Children aren't stupid and they know when they are different and your child will know the difficulties you face in sending them there and not want to ask you for the additional club kit, or to go on the residentials with the others etc

Thirdly, education and school isn't everything. I absolutely categorically would prioritise family life over working more hours and never being able to go to sports days or carol concerts or parents' evenings. I would rather pay for and engage with lots of extracurricular activities and experiences and share those with my child. Holidays and shared family times are a huge part of growing up as is having a warm comfortable home to share meals and celebrations etc.

If I could afford all of the above, without having to work all hours and had no concerns about being able to pay for the entire course of their education (this will never be our circumstances) then no, I wouldn't even consider it.

State school. Pay for a tutor.

If your dc is only 8 there is time for these schools to improve or you to move. It seems unlikely they will all remain so bad for so long, or are you basing it on information from Ofsted which could be years out of date. You would need to be able to commit for a minimum of 5 years of fees, even assuming they started on a bursary.

Cobrider

Several kids. Very expensive schools, lots of trips, books, uniform, it all adds up. It really isn’t an extra £200 bunged on top. We are definitely on the higher end of spending though.

I’d definitely opt for the religious school in your case OP.

The schools here are mostly rubbish but we sent ours 3 miles down the road (on the bus route) instead - the cost is a child's bus pass plus a handful of times over the years they were there I had to call a taxi because they were sick. For one child I probably would have gone the private route though, for two it wasn't an option (younger is now private though for other reasons)

First, it's a really stupid thing to do financially.

Second, you can't judge a school on the basis of local gossip and googling. You need to actually go and visit them. You might be pleasantly surprised, OP. Especially by the time your kid is actually old enough to go.

Btw, from your description it sounds like you are near me! Ours went out of area - isn't this an option? Schools do change too, your dc is only 8

Whatthefoxgoingon the op is talking about just one child though. My dads school is 22k a year but cheap uniform and clubs etc all included. I guess op needs to say what the fees are.

I definitely think the extras are over egged on mnet though, my dc state schools have ridiculously expensive school trips. Rugby tour to New Zealand this year for example at 4.2k each.

*dd school

Most of the schools in my area are crap the best is a CofE but very competative to get into second is RC which my son goes to, love the suggestions just move to a Grammar school area not every child passes the elevan plus

Ive worked in a couple of independent schools and both had substantial bursary funds, means tested so you paid what you could. In one 20% of kids had some level if bursary, in the other it was closer to 30%. I get how you feel about the state schools: where we currently live they are shocking. At my last school there were kids therr whose parents were paying because they couldn't afford a house in a good catchment for the one nonfailing school in the area, but they could manage reduced fees, partial bursary. Private schools are full of kids from normal backgrounds. Getting into debt sounds a bad idea. But if the schools round you are that bad, looking into bursaries is a good idea.

Your / a child's religion is a huge part of who they are.a huge part of their life.to be christened in to the church is a privilege,not to be done on a whim to get in to a school....unless ofcourse you were all christened as a family and you took on that faith and believed it..the church welcomes everyone,and even if you did christen the whole family ,just to get in a school,as long as you belive in that religion and embrace it,im sure god welcomes everyone to his house regardless how they arrived there....go see the religious school you might be pleasantly surprised xxx

Okay, get DD christened at the church attached to the school. May not be your local church. Don't worry about the ethics of this. They make the rules, you just get to play by them. Make sure one or other of you goes to that church with her at least once a fortnight. If she gets in to the church school.she can change schools for sixth form.
Keep tracking the schools in special measures.
Investigate bursaries - only as a last resort.
Personally I'd be very wary of getting into debt to pay school fees. I'd rather send her to a comp and pay a tutor when needed.

"Don't write off a school just because its in special measures now. That means that its likely to be forced to up its game really quickly, in all likelihood with a new leadership team and academy sponsors, and by the time your child goes there in 3 years time will be a completely different school. Its worth going to their open evenings and listening to what their plans are to turn the school around."

Ditto this. Schools can change a lot in 3 years

If the local schools are so awful and the private schools are too expensive, could you consider Home Education? You have a few years to prepare and get provisions sorted. If you Home Educate, it need not be forever and your could put child back into a school from year 9/10 so you get their GCSE years etc. That way your child only has to do 2/3 years at a rubbish/private school.

Consider how religious the private schools are. They often have a heavily Christian ethos (e.g. at DD’s private school Religious Education is a compulsory GCSE). If you won’t accept religion from a state school, imagine how you will feel about it when you are actually paying £££ in fees.

Both my DC are at private school, and there isn’t a local state school I’d happily send them to. But I wouldn’t have borrowed the money to send them private - I’d have picked the least bad state option and worked from there.

Yes you'd be mad. If you really can't stomach any of the 6 on offer then you need to move house to somewhere the schools appeal more. Private school is only financially viable if you have a significant buffer between outgoings and income and you have a fallback option if you suddenly can't earn for any reason. It's also not usually worth the sacrifices for ordinary families with ordinary, reasonably able children who can do just fine in state education without crippling the family finances irrevocably.