Realistic plan to pay school fees or not?

[cargear01]

Hope to save 60k by the time ds is 5, hes 2 at the moment and I have 24k.

I am able to save around 1k a month towards this at the moment (I do this without factoring in the cms below and can manage).

it would mean when school fees start that I could pay half from the 60k and half from my own income. I haven’t included cms in my calculations as I don’t want to ‘rely’ on it (insane that that’s the state of this country but I’m working on worst case scenario). That said, ex currently pays 700 maintenance and he is a workaholic so I suspect it will go up. He works in the nhs so can’t really get out of it.

do you think my plan is doable? Should I be doing more? Is it totally unrealistic? I have assumed fees will be around 18k a year when dc starts, taking account of inflation.

@AinsleyHayes i don’t know anyone in Lichfield but it’s around 40 mins from where we are now. I could look at it. Which primaries are good there?

This.

Many kids thrive in state school!

Have you actually looked at the state primary schools in your area? Just because your experience wasn't ideal it doesn't mean that it will be the same for your child.

Also, you absolutely need to factor in financial support for university. If you blow all your savings on private education will there be anything left for this? Most maintenance loans don't even cover accommodation these days. DD would have had a miserable time if we hadn't been able to top up her maintenance loan (she wasn't able to get a job because she had a very full on course and health issues).

Sorry I don't think you can afford it on those figures OP.
When my DC was 4 we started looking at private schools with a view to starting in state school and moving to private age 7. At that point fees were £7k per year for a 7 yr old at our chosen school.

2 years ago our DC left the private school age 18 and we were paying £15k a year for 6th form.

So whatever figure you have in mind for fees double that for the fees you'll be paying 12 years down the line. I know your earnings will have risen but you'll have run out of savings.

This is why many people delay to upper primary onwards as they're more confident they can afford to see it through

you have nothing to lose by trying a state primary. Children's experience depends largely on who is in the class with them, which is pretty much pot luck. Could be friends for life, or nightmare bullies - hopefully far more likely to be the former.. the point is, you just don't know until they are in the class - I spent yesterday with a good friend from a state primary - we have been through decades together, infertility, divorce, cancer, etc we are near retirement now

Are you sure? We call them state schools in the UK, public schools are posh boarding schools like Eton and Harrow.

I think I’m around the same area as you, my DS goes to Repton Prep and it’s absolutely fantastic. He is in his second year of nursery there and will move into reception next year. You can use your 15 hours also FYI. PM if you want to ask anything!

And even more bizarre when used by someone who claims to have been a teacher. Rather undermines your credibility.

You can pay in advance at some school. I'm planning on selling a property to pay the school fees up front for my two then using the maintenance I receive from XP each month for extras, uniform, trips etc.

Is that the Peak District? I've only ever visited so know nothing about the schools, but it's a beautiful part of the country and I assumed quite wealthy. There must be some areas with great schools surely?

Most of them, tbh. There is a lot of new housing going up at the moment. You could also look at Barton-under-Needwood which is probably a bit closer to your current location. I don’t have personal experience but have heard good things about the village schools (separate infants and juniors).

I am glad that you are considering state primary school after all.

I estimated £250k to educate a child privately from reception to sixth form, factoring in compounding impact of annual increases. That is fees alone.

In your situation if you're set on private, I would start with the most nurturing state primary you can access and then move your DC to the feeder prep school of the senior school you are targeting for Y5. That gives you an extra few years to save and reduces the overall cost burden, but your DC will benefit from any prep the private school does for any 11+ assessments.

Success in the early primary school years depends to a large extent on parental involvement imo. Read with your child and reinforce the school maths - really it's up to you at this stage.

Honestly I think if you have to ask the question, then deep down you know the answer is no.

3-5% rise a year is low in this environment. Potential increase of 20% from VAT. Additional costs that come with the school - lunches, after school clubs, different uniforms, trips.

You may think him going to a state primary school would be bad, but I’d wager that starting him at a private primary and then having to remove him because of cost issues would be worse.

I think this either needs to warrant a discussion with your ex to see if he is happy to commit to paying half of the fees (which I do not think he should be required to do if he doesn’t want to), OR you need to consider finding a good state primary. You could then pay for tutoring and / or extra-curriculars such as sports and music lessons on the side of this with the potential of sending to a grammar for secondary? Or even getting a scholarship to a private school for secondary.

But please don’t force this idea that private schools are the only option because you personally had a bad state school experience. There are thousands of children who had quite horrific experiences at what were meant to be some of the best private schools in the country.

I agree with others that I would use a state primary and save your money for secondary. You never know what may happen - you may get ill and lose your job for example. In general, if kids have attentive parents who read to them, help with homework etc, they can do well at state primaries. It’s secondary when things get difficult, and when the benefits of private education are more visible. There’s a risk you could use up all your money on primary and beginning of secondary, and end up having to move your child to the local comprehensive in year 9. Kids really struggle with those transitions.

By doing this, hopefully your DC will also move up to senior school with some existing friends.

One thing I forgot to add- I taught kids who moved from private to public schools halfway through because parents run out of money or moved or dad stopped paying once he had kids from in his new relationship. The transition was not easy although in long term the children did OK. It's much easier to go the other way round! So if you wont have enough for the whole thing, Id really reconsider state school in first instance.

Secondly, you may think schools in the are are not great but this may not be the case. Go to the open days,s peak to local parents. I thought schools around me were not fantastic, but then looked around and found a few gems. And actually schools that got very good results from kids coming from deprived area, which is much harder than in an affluent area where most kids have private tutors outside schools to get the same result. So don't snub the local schools just yet that easily.

Depending on the schools you are actually considering I’d look at state primary until Year 3 (ie Reception, 1 and 2). Therefore 3 full ‘free years’

We put 3 dc through private school aged 2 to 18 and regretful now that we didn’t do some state schooling (we are paying the price and still playing financial catch up)

In Year 3 at our prep there was a total change from pre prep to prep - new classes, uniform, teachers etc, so very easy to come in to that set up from outside as everyone has had to change.

I think it would be too tight. Maybe consider private for high school and send to a local primary school. That gives you another 9 years to save so you’d have well over £130k which would make paying for fees, trips, uniforms very comfortable so you could probably save a bit less each month which would make life more comfortable in the here and now.

Wouldyouguess private to public?? Same thing surely??

@Wouldyouguess public ≠ state in the context of UK schools.

We were very fortunate that my DPs paid for DS private education. They looked into it and school fees don't count from an inheritance tax perspective.

I know you want to do this by yourself, but honestly it does seem like you would leave yourself very tight financially. I'd either start at state and if it's really not working out then move, or wait until late junior school or start of senior school, or see if DGPs might want to help.

I think state primary and then private secondary will be the best option. You can change to saving half each month and using the other half for extra curriculars through primary potentially.

I think the worst outcome is private schooling through to mid secondary and then running out of money. I know a couple of people who had to move to state mid way through secondary and it has really affected them. They've never seemed to 'fit in' anywhere. The only way I can see this not being an awful outcome is if there is a really good state school or grammar to send them too if you ran out of money but then if that was the case you probably wouldn't be considering private primary.

So which public school did you teach at? Winchester, Eton, Harrow?

I find it unusual that someone who has spent time teaching in the U.K. doesn’t appear to understand the difference between a state school and a public school.