If your kids go to private school how much do you earn?

[TimeDrainer]

Just curious. Dd1's school fees are 12000 a year and our combined annual net house hold income is about 120000. We also have Dd2 whose nursery fees are about 1100 and a mortgage of about 800 a month. We are in the North of England. I wonder how this compares to other parents who send their kids to private school.

Most parents at dd's school are consultant doctors and probably earn substantially more than us. No need for violins by the way. I know we are hugely privileged. I do worry sometimes whether we can afford it and that is probably my aibu.

(We made a snap decision to send DD to private school as she was so unhappy at her local school and back then we thought if we have some disposable income the most sensible thing to spend it on is DD's school If it makes her life a bit easier. ).

With £150k I make it around £7-8k a month net not including pensions. Take off:

-mortgage £800
-fees for one £1k
-nursery £1k

That still leaves £4-5k a month. Pensions won't be that much so you should have plenty left over now. It will be the same once your youngest is in as the school fees work out about the same as nursery.

I’m a single parent, my basic is £185k gross and can go up to £500k with bonuses but nothing guaranteed.

I have one starting sept who has multiple SEN and state schools here are terrible. Another starts in two years. It’s when they’re both there fees at points will be £40k + a year.

I am worried because my income fluctuates massively, but I’ve got an average house and should clear my mortgage soon.

I figured if it gets too tight they can go until year 11 then change for a levels and I would be willing to take out a new mortgage to fund their education worst case.

Sorry, I misread your salary at £120k the net would be around £5-6k so that would leave around £2-3k for everything else. Still very doable I think and more than a lot of people take home!

Combined about £220k a year plus bonuses. Mortgage is £1600. 2 kids, we’re paying about £30k a year for prep but it will go up next year as they reach higher age bands plus I’m bracing myself for a really high fee increase next year. We can afford it but we are definitely in the lower income band of our school, most of the parents are investment bankers etc

@Krystall would you have a slide rule on Net salary based on what you see at your school....eg termly fees are 7k and the you expect parents to be on net annual 70k for one DC/110k for two DC

Also does your school also offer discount for annual payment in advance?

Thanks

Hmm we are about to send DS (year 7) and our household income is significantly less than the numbers cited in this thread. Our net annual household income is around £65K.

North of England, annual fees of £14K.

However our outgoings are low and we don't have any debt bar a £1K monthly mortgage payment.

DS has additional needs, or I wouldn't be considering it.

It's doable - but if I get made redundant we are screwed

@PassP0rtquery can I ask what your mortgage payments are per month please? We have a similar combined income

Joint income £130 Inc bonuses. 1 DD but saved up 2 years fees prior to starting. We can afford it but some sacrifices will need to be made.

You really need to look carefully at fees across the school. When mine started in reception the fees were circa £7k. Now in secondary they're £18k going up to just shy of £20k in September and that was with two years of no increases due to covid and remote learning.

Lunch is £5 a day - £25 a week. £5 house charity twice every half term plus a general school non uniform event once every half term at £5. Uniform and sports items cost approximately £400 a year. Wrap around for early birds and night owls in lower school is £10 per session so £20 a day if you use both. Trips are expensive because they go to expensive places. Often more to send one than our annual family holiday costs. If they're in an A or B sports team, Tour trips are "expected attendance". If you only did the bare minimum on trips/excursions you could probably get away with about £500 a year but on average I'd say it costs around £4,000 a year to go on one of the residentials.

To be honest I'm not sure it's worth it either and there are a lot of things about private school I don't like (not least the inherent unfairness of it). I really, really liked our local state. The head and the teachers that DD had were very caring and dedicated. But she wasn't happy there and wasn't making friends so we panicked a bit. She's never been good with crowds or a lot of noise. She is much more comfortable at her new school and that for us is the most important.

I'm not worried about having too many expectations because we are shelling out so much for her. I believe that considering how much time kids spend at school they need to be happy there and feel comfortable. That's what I'm paying for rather than any particular future outcome. Though it's easy to say that when DD is still in primary and doing very well academically...

I've spoken to some kids at secondary and some of them study 4-6h a day, ie outside their school lessons. How on earth is that even possible? The thought of that makes me panic as well. Is that what kids at private schools are expected to do? Does everyone study this much? Or is just in their GCSE year? I didn't grow up in the UK so I'm very ignorant about stuff like this.

In GCSE year this close to GCSEs then yes I'd expect them to be studying all evening. In the normal course of things 2-3 hours of homework a night

That's quite a lot. I didn't do nearly as much and I went to an elite school.

Probably only had 1-2 hours of homework a day (and I only did half of that) and just crammed in for exams the week before.

DDs most definitely don't do 2-3 hours of homework, let alone study for 6 hours!

Our cheapest local independent is £6200 per term. We have 3 dc and gross income is £115,000. I don’t think we’d even comfortably afford one in an independent on our salaries.

I’m not sure the cheaper independent schools are actually worth it but I’m not hugely against them or anything. My best friend’s dc go to one and they are fine but my dc predicted grades are just as good if not better. The only tangible difference is the behaviour luckily my dc are horrified and not looking to behave in that way/hang out with those dc so it’s important for them to understand different perspectives in life. I wouldn’t rule out independent if one dc had a specific issue and we decided to move her.

Fees will rise quicker than wages and will escalate up through the year groups. On your income with very small dc, unless you are anticipating huge salary jumps in the next few years, I would explore state options. Especially for secondary and I wouldn’t worry too much about the “fairness” of sending dc2 to private for primary just because you panic moved dc1. You have no reason to think that dc2 will benefit more from a £12k a year primary education than she would by having her household income boosted by £12k a year. If you put just 10% of those fees away for her during her schooling years then you could gift her a house deposit as well as being able to give her a very comfortable and enriched childhood.

Shy, quiet children who struggle with friendships aren’t necessarily better in small quiet secondary schools with a limited friendship pool. Often the big, versatile, diverse school communities are places where the introverted can find their tribe, and their confidence. It may not be the best for your dd but don’t dismiss it. Out of school activities are good for making different groups of friends which is great when things aren’t going well at school. Team sports are obviously great but sometimes quieter people benefit from things where you are with people but not necessarily interdependent. Swimming, horse riding, climbing, gymnastics for example. Scouts/guides/cadets are good for friendships too, especially for people who need a bit of extra help with the rules of friendship and need help being included, through shyness or other reasons. People like the “wrap around” element of private schools but it’s sometimes better to keep hobbies separate, and have friends from different places. Sorry, went a bit off topic. My income is similar but 4 dcs (mortgage under £500 a month). Not a chance could we have afforded it, even with the ubiquitous cutting back on cars and holidays. For just one child for one year I could have my booked holiday for this year 7 times, or I could buy about 9 replicas of my car.

Wow this is not the thread to read if you're feeling a failure in life 😂

My son finished private school last year (outer south east) - it cost £1k a month at first and steadily rose to £1400 a month. I'm a single mum and during that time I've been on between £50k + £60k a year. Not going to lie, it's been tough and I have no savings a v limited pension as a result so I will have to work into my 70s I'm sure. Obviously would have been impossible for more than 1 child. He's doing well now at a good uni but if I'm honest I'm not sure I'd do it if I had my time again.

My dream is actually for my kid to go to a good private primary school, then get into a top grammar secondary school so I can save £26k a year. My second choose is private secondary school.

Choice *

DC1s fees are £7k per year (primary). When we made the decision to privately educate, our household income was £77k and our mortgage was £900 a month.

We made the decision because the local primary schools aren't great (but secondaries are) and it was just like continuing to pay for nursery.

We are half considering it as an option from Y9-13 on a gross income of under £100K. Kids First/Middle schools are brilliant but the local high school is less great and if they can't get into the better one they aren't in catchment for it would be doable but tight.

We have 4 years worth of fees/incidental costs for one child (at current rates) saved up. If we keep saving at rate we do now then by the time eldest is in Y8 we should already have enough already saved to cover them both for Y9-11 and we'd have to save for 6th form after eldest started. With that approach it's doable for us. That said if the local high school improves or they can get into a better one or they really don't want to go private when the time comes we can go with state school & could fund tutors/activities with the money we don't need to save and keep the savings to help them at uni/with house deposits etc.

Even in cheaper parts of the country I would imagine you need to be on £150K plus gross before it's reasonable to just pay fees out of income without massively compromising on something else.

YABU because consultant doctors earn much less than £120k, you can Google the salaries.

Household income under £35k DS just finishing private school on full scholarship (sport's & academic)

Not a school with high end fees - approx £15k pa, and he hasn't felt out of place at all.

So it's always worth trying out for scholarships if they are available, it could reduce the cost more than you realise.

It's been fantastic for him, a great opportunity and he'll be leaving with friends from a good mix of families.

Our gross annual income can vary between approx £200K and £400K (depending on bonuses). We had 3dc in a £15K per year school until quite recently - one is still there, the other two homeschool (and we pay for private tutoring for them instead, which doesn't cost quite as much but is still approximately £12K a year for each of them). We could manage on salary only (£200K), but I think I would find it quite stressful and there would be a lot less space in our budget. Our home is fairly modest and we don't spend lots on cars, clothes, etc - we do however travel quite a bit.

Of course they don't. Many of them have supplemental private work. The vast majority of parents at our school are doctors.