Would you pay school fees in this financial situation?

[ipalo]

I’ll start by saying if you’re not interested in private schools then not much point responding… or at least put yourself in my position that I would love to send my dc to private school so it is very important to me.

I will have around 1,800 spare cash as in cash that could go direct to savings each month. I have already built up around 15k following a recent house purchase where I had to start saving again from
scratch. Obviously 15k is nothing for school fees but this is where this 1,800 is going each month at the moment. Dc due to start school in a year.

Would you put this into school fees? If I do it will mean my savings will be around 300 a month (private schools round here are circa 15k a year).

Could you have him go to state primary school and save up to go privately for secondary?

Yes I do agree it depends what the local state school is like. Ours is outstanding which is why we went for it. If it wasn't we probably wouldn't have risked it.

The other option is to use tutors to give them a boost if needed.

You have to do a school by school comparison to work out the value add. For us private preps weren’t worth the extra over our outstanding state primary. But, there are gaps- very little music provision for example. However, it is still cheaper for us to do that out of school than it would be to spend £18k a year on prep fees. We are also saving hard for secondary to make private an option at that stage. There really is a massive difference at our area between provision at that age and the value add is much stronger.

I didn't go to a private school, wouldn't want to send my child to one (although there are none where we live anyway, that's right, none!) however I grew up in an area where lots of children went to private schools - it was very common to go to the local state primary schools and then go to the private school, of which there were many options, for secondary education. Maybe that would be a more realistic option for your family, allowing you to save a bit more for a few years yet? Regarding the 'only £300 savings' comments (from others) lots of people work hard and cannot afford to save even close to that amount. It also depends how good you are at saving that actual amount or whether it's more a target - saving £300 and not touching it, except for very good reason, isn't the same as aiming to save £300 but more often averaging out a fair bit less (which is what often happens in practice). Good luck whatever you choose, those pupils I knew who only went private at secondary level all seem to have done just as well, in job terms at least, as those who went for their whole education.