Do people expect ROI after paying private school fees?

[Enrew]

By ROI, I mean getting into top unis/ prestigious job/ high performer in a sport etc?

I ask after a family friend spent around 120k on child's education and child dropped out of good uni course to become personal trainer/ influencer. Nothing wrong with that career choice imo but friend seems resentful/ annoyed that after spending so much money child won't be doctor/ lawyer / banker and they could have done this career regardless of where they went to school. It's as if they had expectations all along.

I have no experience of private school system myself and my DC will go to local state school but thinking about it if I was paying out thousands per year for DC to have top education, I'd probably have some extra expectations.

our children go to private school - orimary and secondary because we like the relative small classes, the good teaching, the sports / drama / music opportunities and yes like minded parents who value education.

they know the tap will be off if they dont have a project whether it is uni or something else, if they have a project we ll support them of course.

so no. Children are not an investment.

we support our kids becauee we love them wnd because we hope they ll find their spark and rhey have their own drive.

we stopped at 2 because we knew we couldnr support them the way we wanted to if we had more children. Our retirement plans have nothing to do with them earning. Their future earnings will be for them.

how selfish parents can be if they expect their children to give them an ROI is beyond us

No - I don't care what my child does with her private school education so long as she's happy and fulfilled.

My parents definitely had an expectation of what they'd be buying by paying for my education - unfortunately my public sector career path has been a constant disappointment to them.

My colleague had an awful bullying experience in private school. It happens anywhere. I'm glad your daughter has found somewhere she can be herself and happy, that's all that matters.

Most people I know who were privately educated don’t earn a great deal. This is because they had choices. They went into the arts, the charity sector, media, teaching etc.

I don't think many parents expect it, there was a trend at our university of girls going to check a box - they were expected to move to London, marry a banker and become a SAHM after their degree, so never using any of their education. It was purely to kill time and as a status thing.

I knew a couple of millionaires who flat out owned private schools - it wasn't their main business, they used it to funnel money as a tax dodge. So ofc they sent their kids there too.

God no. I paid school fees to minimise the chances of my DCs being completely put off education. ROI didn’t come into it.

That’s highly unusual for private schools.

Having worked in the charity / arts sector is is heaving with private school types as very few people in the working class community I grew up in knew what classical music / modern art etc was. And it’s handy to have a trust fund when you are working on low wages.

I don't think it is. I know lots of people who went to other private schools and none of them experienced many expulsions either.

Hard to answer either way - as I don't think private schools have to publish stats on this

I think there are a HECK of a lot of children with SEN who were socially isolated / bullied / not challenged enough etc at staff who were moved to private by their parents who just want a happy child. And people who don’t send their children to private don’t see this. Quite frankly the state system is appalling for so many children. The government needs to take action to control the bullying fgs. Remove the disruptive kids. Stop pouring all the effort into the not so bright kids and ignoring the bright. And up taxes on all of the population to allow the education budget to be doubled.

Are private schools likeky to expel pupils (.except in extreme cases) due to loss of income?

I’ve never heard of a private school that doesn’t even do detentions. The pressure from parents paying £££££ a year for their kids to learn around other well behaved kids is usually the reason for the strict discipline.

Personally I think yes it just makes sense that private schools wouldn't be trigger happy to expell pupils because it would not only lead to loss of income - you can't instantly replace a pupil even if you are an oversubscribed school - but also it would be odd putting to potential parents. Who wants to send their children to a school that would expel them if they were at all difficult?

Our private school recently did a survey of parents asking them what they valued about the private school experience. Good discipline was in the top 3.

No, no ROI expected. I’m just paying for an easier and nicer life for them in real time (and me: school is open 11 hours a day; all extracurriculars are on site and then dropped home by school coach) . Zero expectations above what a state school could provide when l’m looking to the future.

Thank you, I was about to ask!

Abother one here. I want DS to enjoy learning in a peaceful environment. Afterwards he can do what he wants to do. I hope we have given him enough common sense so that he won't be an influencer though..

Well, mine didn't. It was a very good private school too, sometimes top 10 in the league tables.

Behaviour was generally pretty good anyway so it wasn't really needed, I guess. Also detention would have been very very unpopular with parents who mostly drove to pick up their children, well into secondary school. I can't imagine it would have gone down very well if you had been told to wait around for an hour because your child was in detention.

Exactly. What were the other two out of interest?

Children aren't possessions. Mine were state dd1 and private dd2 for 6th form and all the success is hers and hers alone.

No I didn't.

I wanted them to have a good education within a nurtured environment

Isn't there an assumption here that private schools will "make" your child intelligent and therefore successful?
Plenty of intellectually mediocre kids going through the private system who are not going to be cut out for university degrees at all, let alone red-bricks.
Could name you a few children of celebrities, for a start.

Never going to be able to afford private school for my kids.

On one hand I would expect more, to reach their full potential. Set them up for a decent life. It makes me wonder if all that money would be better for a house deposit?

But I’m torn, I would rather they were happy and on minimum wage than 100k and antidepressants. But having finical security can make a world of difference.

Yes I did and bullying was absolutely rife as were lots of other things. I don’t think expulsion was a major source of punishment at my school, in fact I don’t recall anyone being expelled.

Extracurricular activities and academic excellence.