To ask how much of your income you spend on school fees? And pls tell me its worth it...

[Claliscool]

Not rich by any means.
Decided to send both children to independent school in September due to all sorts of covid and other reasons. The fees are about one third of our household income. Just bricking it slightly.

Sorry when I say not rich obviously we are fortunate but no grandparent help still a lot left on a big mortgage etc.

Wow that's a big decision. I wouldn't do that unless i could afford it comfortably and had no significant debt. It's not just the fees it's everything else that you have to pay for. If you're worried maybe you should run your numbers again.

Why are you stretching yourself so much? Isn't there a half decent secondary near you?

It would be more detrimental to your kids if you had to pull them out after a year or 2 than if they hadn't gone in the first place.

Honestly 10%

Please remember that the school will periodically decide that they need to overhaul their uniform and you’ve suddenly got to shell out another (1k per child for us ) for the essentials. That’s my one complaint.

Sounds like a stretch, but education from a good independent school is a totally different league to the state sector.

Ours are about 12% of our salary. One child is leaving in September so it will be 6%. We have next to no savings after costly house renovations which is why we didn't continue with DC1 in private.

It's not worth it unless you know you can definitely see it through.

I went to private school, it was a massive stretch for my parents and although they tried to hide it from me, I knew. It was hard being one of him the less wealthy children in the school. On the other hand, I did well in exams and got good qualifications, who knows if this would have been different in a different school? Only you can say what will be best for your children. 1/3 your income for two children doesn't seem crazy, but you need to be prepared that fees can go up and also budget for extra costs - uniform, trips etc.

I have been fortunate to be able to send my child to a community secondary school that outperforms the local private schools in many aspects, like GCSE/A Level/Ebacc attainment, discipline and extra curricular activities. It's a STEM school with excellent links to business and higher education. I think private schools have a brand, a following, and famous alumni which helps in the future. However, if I can get the same learning attainment for the price of my taxes I'd take it.

Why are you concerned about Covid-19 in your local state schools?

My children don’t go to private school and I would only send them if they qualified for some sort of scholarship that gave them an advantage they definitely couldn’t get at another school. From my understanding, the fees are only half the story. You’ll have very expensive uniforms, extra curricular clubs, trips, possibly extra music and sports equipment and your children may struggle to keep up with the things their much wealthier friends are able to do.
Also if your income circumstances were to change it would be too much of a strain. 1/3rd on fees alone would be too much For me.

Will eventually be about a third too....slightly less just now as youngest still in daycare. IMO is worth every penny. School has been phenomenal with lockdown and eldest adores it and I feel she is getting a fantastic rounded education. I guess it very much depends on the school of course and if they didn’t like it, that would certainly sway my decision.
We’ve talked about what we would do if me or DH lost our jobs and couldn’t afford it anymore and both agreed we would release equity in our home to pay for it or even downsize home...education is our top priority.

This would worry me OP. There tend to be quite a lot of costs on top of basic fees, not least uniforms and expensive school trips. You should also brace yourself for the odd letter home that says " x event is arranged. The cost is approx £15 per pupil and will be added to your fees".

Putting all of that aside though the big on to watch out for is fee rises which are usually annual. On top of that they tend to increase as children move up the school. You don't say what years your DC are in but its worth checking what fees are further up the school.

However for us it has been worth it especially when we compare it to the local school they would have gone to but also for the level and breadth of education they've received.

It's an impossible question - there are too many aspects to it.
We could have afforded to send ours to private but chose not too as we had ok school is about (comps) and our kids did well at them. I think they would have done a bit better at a private school exam wise but not massively. They went to good Unis and did well at them. They've all ended up doing what they want.
Two out of the four are just the process of buying houses and it's great that we can give them a big contribution. It's making a huge difference to what they can buy.

I'd worry about spending a third of your income. What happens if one kid dies f do well? Would you resent him.
Do you think your kids need fhe support and encouragement a private school offers?

If you’ve done your outgoing and incomings and can do it - go for it.

Believe it or not children independent schools do move around as they follow where there parents work so not all children are static for the entire school journey.

I know a hand full of children have left this year due to COVID effecting business and moving out of dd class. Our youngest starts in September and it will be tight but I’ll be back working by October so will be ok.

Not every one in private school is rolling in it. Bare in mind though that the school fees go up. And uniform is V expensive I’ve just spent just under £1000 for two kids uniform and shoes are not included 😭😭

Under 10% for 3. We’ve recently got payrises to bring it down it was higher last year.
I liked the school before, but during covid I’ve been so impressed that it does seem totally worth it now.
I also find the after school care cheaper and more flexible than wrap around at state.

And yes music lessons are very expensive!!

Every family is different and state schools vary massively so "is the sacrifice worth it" is impossible to say but if you can afford it I think the kids will benefit. I do think that secondary is a bigger difference in standard so if you can't afford all of school I would wait until then.

The state schools round my way are equally as good as the private, if not better.

Just to add - have you done your research on the school? We didn’t at first and only found out later that the results of the leavers were poor it was a brilliant school in every other aspect but academically wise it didn’t set the academic world a light. We’ve moved to another one now and it’s brilliant

When you say 1/3 do you mean of your take home salary or salary? I only ask as for me to send both of mine there would be approx. 35% of our combined take home salary and I think we could (just about) do it with a bit of lifestyle rejigging. My eldest in end of year 4 so I’d need to decide pretty quickly if we’d want to do that for secondary.

Thanks all... I'd included music lessons, a budget for trips, fee increases and uniform into the figure. I guess education is our number one priority. I was thinking of school fee insurance in case of the worst.

Could you not just save the fees and buy them a house? Surely that would be more benefit in life

1 third of take home salary.
I think with rejigging ie no gym membership and no expensive hols it's manageable

Excellent academics excellent sports

I'm just nervous about it I guess it's a big, long haul step