To think only the super rich will be able to afford private schools?

[donniedarko89]

I live in a fairly affluent area, full of private schools. We are comfortable, not wealthy, and considered private for secondary eventually (and who knows, with the cost of living crisis), while enriching the state primary's offer with lots of extra clubs and activities. Noticing that more and more families are doing the same, even high-earners who would in the past have gone private by default. Are private schools going to become only for the ultra rich, especially if the fees spike up with a Labour government?

They'll have to ensure that they don't price themselves out of reach of their traditional market or they'll cease to exist.

I do think they'll struggle for awhile though, until wages catch up with inflation. I expect they'll have a financial buffet to see them through a few lean years.

They already are only used by the ultra wealthy, I don't think I've ever met someone who went to a private school tbh.
If you can afford to send your child to private school perhaps you are more wealthy than you originally thought? At least compared to the average joe

financial buffet

Id love to go to one of these!😂lmagine a table stuffed full of cash to browse through.

If they have enough super rich or international rich families willing to pay, they wont worry will they?
Why should a private school care who their students are?
Or they will find a way to keep the upper middles in some how
Two stream school with a private-lite version ?
30 pupil classes for the lite version?
No frills version?
Does it worry you?
Why?

I think a market will open up for no thrills independent schools. Selecting on behaviour and academics but not really doing small classes and impressive facilities.

If you can afford private at all you're pretty well off. Hth

This

When I was a kid I knew a lot of middle class but not rich rich kids go to private school as I did myself for a while.

Now i don't know anyone who kids do.

There are loads of things I did as a kid that I can't imagine being able to afford for my kids, weekly horse riding, 2 weeks in Greece every August, lived in a massive house. Delusional dream for me now!

My parents were comfortably off but not rich.

Not hugely. We have an only child and going private would mean giving up other things.

Oops used wrong username, sorry!

Depends on your location. Our local no thrills independent is quite cheap (less than £900 a month Inc food and clubs!)

Still too expensive for me though 😂

It’s not what I’m seeing where we are tbh.

If anything there are more people going private for secondary (admittedly I don’t know anyone doing private primary, as my DC are in state primary) than ever before. I have a 13yo in SW London private secondary and my 10yo hopes to go there too-the 11+ tutor he is working with has never been so busy and says more and more people want private.

No-one I know who is opting for private school would fall into the super rich category (for me ‘super rich’ would mean multi millionaire types?). But there are lots of professional parents (accountants, doctors, lawyers, business/sales people). All would be considered very well off compared to the average person of course. Many are funding private school with the help of grandparents. But none of them ‘super rich’.

Loving the no frills- no thrills thing

I say "quite cheap" - my only comparison is a full frills and ponies independent school near us that's more like £2000 per month!

@Eurydice84 you do realise that private fees would often equate to one parents while take home pay?

You're very fortunate if you can afford it.

Who should they be for? Most kids are priced out of them. Some people seem to believe that their kids should be able to get an Educational advantage over most kids but it's unfair as soon as they're priced out themselves.

Not sure how that would appeal to the parents who go private for the networking and contacts though. I see a lot of that around here - parents all do business with each other, Alumni come back for evening talks.

I'm not wealthy and my child goes to a private school. The local authority pay for it. They need it and so the government pays. So it's not "only" the rich. There are 1000s of children in the same position.

Well, some pretty cool olympians and famous business owners attended the "no thrills, no ponies" school 😉

The very good prep school near us is £9k per year per child. It’s significantly less than full time childcare so in theory you could afford it if you can afford childcare or if there is a stay at home parent. I realise that secondary and boarding schools are more expensive.

I do know people who have only had one child partly so they can afford private.

Given 1 in 7 parents are skipping meals currently, I am struggling to care about private school fees.

If you are choosing whether or not to send your kid to private school, you're affluent.

Indeed.

Well put.

Depends on the area. We are in the south west and dd’s school fees are £15k per annum for sixth form. She has an academic scholarship (not means tested) worth 10% of the fees. There are some very wealthy students at the school, but all of dd’s friends come from middle class /professional families eg university lecturer, teacher, lawyer etc.

School fees have gone up a lot in the last 20 years, but so have incomes at the top end. You need to be in the top 10% for income to be thinking about affording private school fees, and probably the top 1% for boarding school fees. But, that's a different mix of people to what it was a generation ago. Lots of people who can afford private school fees don't really realise that their income is so high relative to the population, because it's not that high compared to the people they know.