To ask honestly how much private secondary and sixth form cost you?

[Quantumphysics]

I have two DC, considering private secondary and sixth form after state primary. I’m trying to do some financial planning. Those who send their children to private secondary and sixth form, can you please tell me how much you spend on fees, transport, uniform, books, meals, trips, extracurricular activities? I’m reallt trying to get a realistic idea as to whether this is something we can do. My DCs are 2 years apart and therefore will have several years of paying for two at the same time.

If you have to work it out to that degree, I’d hazard a guess you can’t afford it.

How long is a piece of string? It do depends on the school. I think you'd be safe saying 50k per year for 2 and then you'd have some change. Assuming not boarding and no financial assistance.

It depends which school obviously.

Fees can range from £6,000 per year to £40,000.

Can you afford basic fees x 2 of the schools of your choice? We earn £100k between us, and we certainly couldn't afford to send our two DC to our local private schools from 11-18.

Just get a sheet of paper:

School fees (which will rise annually) check school websites - also deposit and entry fee
Transport
Holiday cover/clubs/childminding
Uniform
Extras - clubs, music lessons, trips etc

If your fees are £9k per term then you are looking at maybe £35k to cover the whole lot. And schools don’t give huge discounts for siblings.

Does depend on the school. A lot charge average £15k fees and add on about £5 or £6k for the rest.
Top day school prices are about £35k all in and £45k boarding. For one child.

OP, it’s £7-£8,000 per term and that’s with lunch, trips, music lessons etc etc thrown in. But this is London. I think it’s significantly cheaper outside London.

Rather than asking in here though, why don’t you just look in the individual websites for schools you’re considering? Nobody can possibly tell you how much transport to and from your DC’s schools will cost. Mine all have free travel cards and use the buses. But school coaches will cost money obviously if you use those. It totally depends on the school and it’s location and the general set up.

Have you looked into private tuition as a way of boosting their exam results? Or is it the sport/pastoral care that you’re after?

Sometimes a very good sixth form college is better than an average school.

Depends on the school obvs, but most have enough info on their websites for you to make an estimation once uniform, trips, music, transport etc. Are thrown in.
It doesn’t take into account the ‘keeping up with the joneses’ Element though m, when your DCs see other kids with expensive handbags, trainers, phones or get invited to on hols with a mate and you end up having to buy the latest ski gear.
And the holidays are much longer so if you work factor in the extra child care.

My DCs don’t go to private school, we’re in a position to afford it but WC backgrounds so have chosen to not have our kids educated in an elitist bubble. I work with tons of people who were private and who’s kids are private/boarding and the social pressure for them to make sure their kids have the ‘right’ Phones or go on the ‘right’ kind of holiday is never ending according to them.

About £15,000 a year each on average. More for the one who did lots of ‘activities’ and less for the one who didn’t. Both were happy enough. Finished this year, thank god.

But you need to be cautious because big fee increases are coming down the line to pay for changes eg big unfunded rise in employer contributions to teachers’ pensions (a really serious threat), the possibility of VAT on fees if JC is elected, and depending on the school, a likely fall in overseas attendees year on year as we slide into a decline post-brexit.

Also, independent schools don’t do well in recessions, as parents find they have to cut back. Make sure you really can afford it all the way through come what may, because unless your child is an absolute genius, there will be no prospect of winning a bursary, even mid-GCSE. And check the school’s own solvency.

I know it's obvious but in order to pay, say, £30k a year you have to earn more or less double that to pay for it

We too could easily afford it. We don’t come from money and we both worked hard in professions and had lots of luck along the way. We both object to private education. I always thought it was for the same political (small p) reasons. My other half admitted recently that he just doesn’t want our kids to turn out like lots of the privately educated dickheads he meets through his (professional, somewhat elitist) work. It’s not true of all PE people - of course it’s not - but in the professions you can really see the sense of entitlement wafting off a lot of people. We want our kids to do their best with the same opportunities that everyone else gets, without a leg up or an old boys club to help them. Like we did.

We also hate the pressure and competition that parents in the private school community around here put on their kids (we are in a city with terrible educational apartheid). Some of the stories are outing but it’s bad. Think parents asking kids directly about reading levels and recording my child in a sports comp to compare to their own child’s performance. Just nuts.

Education is about more that academia. Save your £45k per year and educate your kids for life in a state school. Don’t be frightened of average.

Bear in mind whatever you calculate now, school fees rise higher each year above inflation.

Firstly, most independent secondary schools have an integrated sixth form - you don’t need to consider them separately.

Secondly you need to distinguish between day and boarding schools as there’s obviously a vast difference in fees.

Thirdly, transport costs are entirely dependent on how much travel will be necessary. (Perhaps I’ve misunderstood what you mean here?)

Identify half a dozen likely schools, interrogate their websites and take it from there.

The bulk of the cost is the fees - assume 5% increase each year as a minimum

I have found the school trips are a similar price at both state and independent but if you have a child who wants to go on the foreign sports tour then these can cost £1000 to £1500

I went to one (I had a scholarship to help) and numerous bursaries.

It was £2000 a term.
Sixth form went up to £4000 a term I think.

That included lunches and bus journeys (totalling 2hours each day)

Yrs 7-11 = 5x3 = £30,000
6th form = 2x3 = £24,000

This is down in the South West. I checked it out not so long ago for DS. It's pretty similar in pricing. You're looking at, at least, £55,000.

Both of my grandsons got full burseries for their secondary school which is a very sort after school fee's starting at 19K a year they both did very well there and have gone on to really good careers.
It still cost my DD and us a small fortune in extras though and we could never afford for them to do the expected trips to China/Switzerland etc other boys just came into class and paid straight away but they where well ajusted boys and knew it wasn't possible.
Can your boys not take the entrance exams and see how they get on there are test papers they can use on the internet to give you a guide line as to how they will do.

I went, left over decade ago and it was about £15k a year as an average. Depends on the school. Private doesn’t always mean good there’s a really shocking one near me, does significantly worse than the local (excellent) comp.

When dd and ds were on the system circa 2013 it was about £37k pa all up. London independents. IMO it was worth it because we didn't have to scrape. Overall from 11 and with uni expenses I'd say £300,000 on the premise both will do a masters.

They are both well educated and do not act like precious buffoons.

Ours are 8k per term in upper school ( we were left a legacy to pay for it or wouldn't be going!) Fortunately our school doesn't have a uniform but schools that do can be really expensive plus all the spirts kits ( thete can be difdetent types of sports kits). We pay for lunches srparately and school trips which are expremely pricey.
Some schools do discounts for siblings so it might be worth asking.
The price of schools will depend on where you are located. I'm in.london in a popular school so it's definitely more expensive. Others are less.

A colleague of mine has 11YO twin boys in a private secondary. The uniform, sports kit etc cost her an absolute fortune (I think she said £4k, ie £2k each, but I may be misrembering).

Both her boys get a 25% bursary, so don't pay full fees.

Scholarships and bursaries are worth looking into. My mate's eldest got a full sports scholarship, which made it possible for them to afford to send his younger sibling, and my DNiece got a full scholarship to an independent.

That's an improbable figure for uniform. DS's was mainly the blazer, jersey and sports kit (much of which could be topped up 2nd hand). DD's included a kilt and striped blouses. I think the blouses were two for £35 so she started with 4 and I topped up with two more the following year. Biggest expense was the summer dresses - I bought 4 at £35. Even that added up to nothing like £2k. More like £600.