If you have kids in prep school..

[Tulipgold898]

Can you tell me a little about your lives in terms of

-Rough family income (especially those with 2 or more) and how you find it financially.
-Are most parents at your children’s school both working or is it mostly the super rich with SAHP and nannies?
-How you manage day to day if you are both working (do you work part time/flexibly, use wrap around care, holiday clubs, school bus from a young age, au pairs)

I’ve seen some old threads on family income and private schools but they are for people considering private for secondary and the fees go up considerably at this point. The other stuff isn’t discussed much because at that stage children are more independent. Would really like to know more about the types of people who send their kids to prep schools.

Not now but mine went to prep and it definitely wasn't the super rich. Many driving older cars, not having holidays abroad, not buying bigger houses. Didn't need wrap-around care as school day was longer & lots of sport/clubs after school.

There is a total mix of everyone at our school.
Yes there are a lot of expensive cars at pick up times but also normal cars & people who obviously prioritise school fees over a lease on a Range Rover!

The school provides breakfast club & after school club at no extra charge. There are also after school clubs.

It’s no different to paying for full time nursery so we are just used to the outgoings

Not now but lately:

Boarding - so a mix of international impossibly rich, upper middle monied, (City, etc,) celebrities, middle middle - some with grandparent help, tiny minority of impecunious intelligentsia, including single parents, on scholarships / bursaries. (Children progressed to public school schols/bursaries.) Most years one or two children would leave because of changes in family financial circumstances.

Sorry, probably not helpful. Prep is significantly less expensive than senior school, of course - but the parents of prep school boarders spend a lot of time to-ing and fro-ing from the school, far more than one would expect.

Ours is a real mix. Surrey prep. Pretty small. We earn £180k between us but don't have a mortgage to pay. Orherwise we wouldn't be able to afford £37k a year after tax on fees. We have oldish cars and a big house that needs tonnes of work.

Others have small houses, some live in pristine mansions and drive Teslas. No one thinks anything of it and my children have been brought up to realise how lucky they are but that these things do not define us.

We felt we had to go down the prep school route as local primary was failing so badly (still is!). Once you're in the private school system it's hard to leave though.

Good to know that there’s a mix.
At the moment I think we could comfortably afford it because as someone said above not too different from childcare fees that we are currently paying but DH is also desperate to move into a bigger house.

I’m not sure how it works practically if both parents are in fairly high pressure jobs. Luckily some of the preps near us have a bus and good after school clubs/wraparound care so we would probably have to use a combinations of those or maybe I will also need to look at a job that offers flexibility in terms of when I work.

@unchienandalusia Interesting to hear about houses. The other day I asked DH why he was so desperate to move into a bigger house and he told me none of his friends at prep school lived in small houses! It’s good to know that no one thinks anything of it, that’s what I was hoping.

I think that if your partner has a "keeping up with the Jones" attitude, he will always compare.
We earn £110k together. Have a 4 bed detached on an estate. School fees for R-6 will be about £2,500 PCM. And £3,000 PCM for 7-sixth form (worked out as they have put prices up every year). We've always planned to spend one salary on school fees and one salary to live on. We won't have huge savings for 16 years but will finish paying for school fees at 46.

Yeah I think I can work on that attitude. Was just wondering if there was any merit in it and whether we would feel out of place. We have a fairly good lifestyle in general nice car, holidays and a nice house but it’s just small

A real mix at our prep school as well x

I work at an ‘aspirational’ prep in London.

Most of the families seem very well off in terms of cars, holidays etc and very little in the way of requests for assistance with fees (which are around £17k per year).

Most families both parents work but a significant minority have one very highly paid with SAHP.

A few celeb kids, a few of the ‘captain of industry’ type families.

I would think affording fees for 2 or more children would be very hard on less than £150k in my area.

@Merryoldgoat if most have two working parents do you know if they use wraparound care 5 days a week or do they have flexible (as well as high paying!) jobs?

In DS’s school year it’s a mix. I’d say about 1/3 of mums don’t work, 1/3 have one parent who is flexible and 1/3 have both parents working and use the before/after school care or nannies/au pairs.

We’re not super rich - to me super rich is helicopters and private jets etc. But we have no issue paying school fees on one salary.

[quote Tulipgold898]@Merryoldgoat if most have two working parents do you know if they use wraparound care 5 days a week or do they have flexible (as well as high paying!) jobs?[/quote]
There are a fair few nannies but we have a very well used after school club. Also the activity program is extensive so not unusual for activities until 5/5.30