If you attended private/grammar school, what is your job role and salary?

[Z3lda]

Extremely nosey I know and obviously no one is obliged to share. But I'm just intrigued as it seems many are quite desperate to get their children into the best private or grammar school, but I just wondered what kind of jobs and salaries students from these schools go on to actually have? I know that education provides children with far more than just a path to a specific job and salary, but I do think many send their children to these schools for this reason.

Eldest sib 55 - overseas, private - Partner in company £80K + bonus. Worked arse off to get where they are and really applied themselves, happy with where they are now

Middle 52- overseas, state - £200+K very driven worked arse off and still does, was on a mission to succeed and has. Happy with where they are now.

Youngest 49- overseas, grammar/private - only recently £65K - spent many years in middle management job on £40K. Less applied, is a hard worker when at work but bombed at school due to bullying, lack of confidence and a bit of self indulgence generally in life that because sibs have they should have - not really understanding how much effort made to get them to where they are. Happier than they were 3 years ago.

I'm on just under 50k and thought that was a pretty darn good wage. Not in London though. I'm a single parent, so a household wage of over 200k would be amazing, although I simply don't need that much, I find that the wage I'm on is fine to run my home and do most things we want.

I also have something incredibly valuable, which is I love my job, I did very well academically and could have gone in higher paid directions, but I'm so happy I didn't. My friends in the main do not like their jobs and I do, so despite the fact that it took me 20 years to get that salary and they were there much earlier, I'm not depressed facing another 16-20 to retirement and many many higher earners are.

I think the point is that for every person who went to a bog-standard comp like me, who has done moderately well, the stats show that influential jobs which have power in industry/business/politics are over-represented by public school pupils and they often slide seamlessly from government to industry, earning huge sums along the way (I don't like everything about Owen Jones but he's right on this). A few hard workers from comps do not outweigh these stats.

@XelaM

I went to a grammar school equivalent in Germany (a gymnasium), am in my mid 30's, a solicitor, have been on over £100K p/a for awhile, but very recently have moved into academia for a lower stress life and currently lecture at a university (salary there is £50K)

I don't think that's really equivalent to a grammar school here, is it? Wouldn't it be closer to a grammar school from the time when all of the UK had them and everyone went to either grammar or secondary modern?

Thank you @howshouldibehave that was the part i hadn't understood. I'd found the scale but then often see teachers here on far less. Ours are an automatic scale you move up and remain at that point regardless of moving schools etc. Unless you went to the independent sector, but even then if you came out again you'd still be at the top of the scale. We occasionally debate moving to England for husband's job but it's tricky to work out what my pay would be.

Gwyn -German gymnasium def equivalent to a British Grammar school.

Talking from a family who have actually done the swap!

As in done the swap in the 1980s and again in the last 5 years for their own DCS

@Bluecheck679

Thank you *@howshouldibehave* that was the part i hadn't understood. I'd found the scale but then often see teachers here on far less. Ours are an automatic scale you move up and remain at that point regardless of moving schools etc. Unless you went to the independent sector, but even then if you came out again you'd still be at the top of the scale. We occasionally debate moving to England for husband's job but it's tricky to work out what my pay would be.

As the pay portability was removed and schools have no money, you’d probably be offered M1!

Early 40's private school (generations of private school), 2 good degrees. Civil servant £30k but flexible hours, WFH etc. I took 10 years out of ft work to retrain and look after my DC. If I hadn't I'd be on £50k plus by now. I turned down taking over the family business. My ds is on a 6 figure sum, in sales. Her education is no better because of her schooling.

I could easily be earning 6 figures if I was based in London and ran my own consultancy (used to do this but not family friendly) but it would be to the detriment of my family life and cost of living etc would wipe out any gain made.

DH late 40's, went to a deprived, rough, comprehensive school, got bullied etc. Went to uni and did well. He's on 50k+ a year in finance and could easily be earning 6 figures if we lived in SE.

We are comfortable, we have a 4 bed house, garden, cars and we live within our salaries while also managing to save some to help our kids out. We live in a beautiful area of the UK.

My DC are first generation of my family not going to private school. We could send our DC to private school, but in doing so we would sacrife our ability to help them buy a house, support further education, travel, financial support them later in life. We have chosen to be proactive in their education. We access tutors when we need to and we're saving up a nest egg for each of them to try and give them a good financial start.

My cousin's both privately educated (very well renowned school), moved to London lived there for 10 years earning the big money but couldn't get out. Both moved out eventually when they had families. One commutes in but to the detriment of his family and he hates it but it trapped (his own words). The other is now similar to us in terms of earning potential and financial security.

There is more to life than money. We earn enough to be comfortable, our schooling had nothing to do with it. It was the support of our families and the financial security they passed onto us that's made the difference.

I'm relatively poorly paid (50k)

God only on mn! I’m on the minimum wage, that’s what I call poorly paid. Maybe think before you post.

63k in a LA advisory role

Both DH and I (late 30s) are from upper working class/lower middle class and went to state grammars. Both first in family to go to university (though my dad had also been to grammar school and was middle management in civil service).

Attended reasonable RG universities.

Now both work in non-academic roles at universities, DH on £40k and me part-time on £20k (full-time £35k).

I think we're just all-round average. I think one way we were disadvantaged by our parents was that neither set took much interest in our school work/university applications/helped us explore potential career options. In fact my parents actively discouraged me from going to university as they just wanted me to get a job.

Will be hoping DC get into grammar school (I think they'll be okay intelligence-wise) and will be doing all we can to give them advice (obviously without telling them what to do!).

@Lily7050

Not sure what OP is trying to gain? Private schools are not all academic and not all grammars are strong. People send children to private schools if they can afford and want to pay so their child could avoid children of rough parents.

There are many reasons why parents who can afford it (or whose children are clever enough to win bursaries) prefer to use private schools. One of the main reasons is the much smaller class sizes (1 teacher to every 9 pupils, compared wit 1 to every 22 in the state sector). Another is the fact that kids are stretched much more in selective schools.

11+ failure here. Attended a very poor performing school

Currently earning over £100k running a business

I think most children will be better off if they aren't stuck with heartless pushy parents who will only equate a large pay packet with success. I went to a grammar school. I trained as s teacher, I am currently unemployed. My close friends I am still in touch with:. One is an editor and one is an actor. Both of them are close to their supportive not pushy parents.

DH and I both went to Grammar School. He's a director at a Pharma company and I have a middle management role at a European finance company. DH has had to travel a lot so to be fair I didn't push for similar roles when dd was smaller. She's off to Uni next year so there is still some time. Money - not too shabby.

Journalist

@Pinkandpink

I'm relatively poorly paid (50k)

God only on mn! I’m on the minimum wage, that’s what I call poorly paid. Maybe think before you post.

Quite.

Also, where is Xenia? (unless I’ve missed here). This thread should have been giving off smoke signals and come hither looks to her.

DH and I both went to local state comps.
I have always been career minded and have encouraged my DH to climb his ladder too so we really try and find opportunities. We both went to University but neither were top ones. Mine was an old polytechnic.
We live in Scotland albeit one of the dearer parts. I earn £50k and DH £55K+£9K car allowance. We both can potentially earn £5k ish bonuses annually.

We earn more than anyone we are friends with but we have higher mortgage costs so sometimes it doesn't feel like we are better offer. The street we live on has many ex London workers/privately educated people from wealthy families and other closely streets, we could never afford, so we feel relatively poorer in that respect sometimes although it doesn't bother us, everyone is very nice.

If we are able to have children, we will likely have 1 and send to the best private school we can afford. We couldn't afford to pay for 2. We have both done well but believe that had we had better contacts, we would have gotten where we are now a lot quicker.

We are mid 30's for context

I went to the lowest tier of private school on an assisted place, earn £7k per year part time in an admin job. I worked as a teacher before having children.

DH earns £35k ish in a professional office type job, he went to grammar. Neither of us are career focused, just what to earn enough to live comfortably which we do, so why work harder than we need to.

German gymnasium def equivalent to a British Grammar school.

I've only heard of it as a restaurant near King's Cross!

@Siriisatwat she’s posted a few times

Dh went to a non selective grammar and on to Oxford. Owns his business, earns around £120k. I'm state educated, not a great uni, earn £200k. The difference though is he was well on his way to that the minute he started his career, there was no way he was not going to end up on 6 figures in his 30s. Mine came much later in my career and I had to do a lot more to prove myself frankly!

Dh went to a non selective grammar

Where are there non-selective grammars? I thought that was the whole point of them!

Genuinely interested to know.

I went to a grammar as did my brother.

I work as a senior uni lecturer, db works as a TA. We both have 1st class degrees and both love our jobs.