How do parents afford private school

[Tonnnnnn]

Around here private school fees for secondary school are around £30k per year.

What sort of salary is required to fund two kids at private school? I am assuming both parents need to earn around £100k mark or one parent needs to earn £250k.

Even then, mortgage, holidays etc.

Aside from a few high paying industries ( banking, law) most places would t pay this much unless you were senior, and there are thousands of private school places around London.

Wonder if people are using their salaries or if it’s family
money paying for the fees

Yes 55k each. Take home is approx 85k combined. I think I said that but absolutely no way we could afford it on 55k combined income, no. And we are paying for a ‘cheaper’ private option than many. I know for example we couldn’t afford it if we lived in London or the SE as the fees would be a lot higher and our wage wouldn’t be as we would have the same jobs and same pay (no london weighting).

Yes and it’s interesting that the poster says that they consider £100k plus as wealthy but two people earning £55k each have a significantly bigger income than one person on £100k.

You said that you consider a salary of 100k plus as wealthy but someone on £100k takes home approx £68k per year. i.e. far less than you and your DH do. I’m not having a go at you, I just find people’s perception of wealth interesting.

Yes you’re right. I guess I am thinking about a family where 2 people earn that.

As a single person though I think i would feel well off on 100k without kids to feed and pets and so on…but I do take your point about this because this thread is about who can afford private school and I guess there’s no absolute answer but it’s got to be around the 100k total earnings in the household depending on the region of school. Obviously with grand parent help this would be lower.

Spurred on by this I looked again at our finances today and we have approx £500 a month left which is for emergencies between us after we’ve paid for all we do and need monthly. Nothing in our life is extravagant other than private school (17k) everything else is pretty moderate. We do spend around 7-8k a year on holidays per year so that’s the only other extravagance. I know that figure is significantly less than many of our friends who earn similar and don’t do private school.

I know it’s a choice and that if we weren’t paying for education I’d likely feel more well off or be investing and saving etc.

If I was to make the choice again, with the introduction of VAT on fees I am not sure I’d do it again, when we chose it was Covid, fees were less, the alternative was bad and moving house seemed impossibly difficult during Covid so we shelved all that and chose to stay put (not to move into a different catchment) and go privately. Thankfully the education and school has been excellent so on that front it has been a good decision.

For me what ‘broke’ the state system - at least here in Scotland - was the move to ‘inclusion’. Pupil referral units were done away with, permanent exclusions banned. The rising need for specialist SEN schools were also not met. This saved the council a ton of money but led to soaring violence and destruction. State education in Scotland is no longer able to teach children who want to learn.

We have 2 DC (y9 & y6) and have had them in private school all their lives. All paid for by financial planning, modest lifestyle and one high(ish) salary. DH earns about 120k and I'm just under 30k pa so not rich really. Ok, we do live in the far north so very affordable housing, manageable mortgage, but id say we've done it just by working hard over the years and managing our money properly and keeping off the rat race! It doesn't feel too strained tbh, its not like we're scrimping on everything. We're immigrants and have been in the uk 20 odd years now, so no family money etc. Wouldn't put them in state school tbh but would gladly welcome a scholarship but wouldn't make a huge lifestyle change just for a grant. Eg moving to a boarding school away because of securing a massive scholarship... wouldn't do that. Will plod on till the end, lol. I look forward to Uni fees, nothing will be higher than what we've paid all these years so Uni will feel like a breeze i'm guessing

@OneSillyCrab what household income would you need to have to consider a household to be "rich" if over five times the national median household income, and in the top 2% of household incomes, is in your view "not rich really"? Where does the threshold to "rich" lie?

Dunno tbh.. i suppose i consider us having growing long term wealth but i never really consider ourselves rich.. which to me i think it's more to do with lots of disposable money available to spend freely, which we certainly don't have. Perhaps i (wrongly) compare with folks at our kids school whose parents pay their grandkids' fees, inherit huge sums or property and pay off multiple kids fees yearly upfront, others own huge family businesses or old money... none of which is something we'll have or expect to happen to us, plus being immigrant we do send a lot of money home for various (non income generating) purposes. But of course when u put it that way (against national median household etc) then it's a different picture. i completely accept that and take your point.

I agree. We are in a similar boat to yourself. Whilst we have more than many, we pay school fees from earned income, we have a mortgage etc. I’d consider rich people to not pay school fees from earned income.

Can tell here that you sent them in the past. Oh how the consultant salaries and tuition fees have changed 😭

Timed it right and got a job at the private school I wanted my DS to go to. 50% discount (some schools offer 70% fee remission). There’s also scholarships and deals with the Head that can be added on to reduce fees. Single mum.

I work in finance and make circa 90k gross so I take home about 5k per month. Fees are 3k a month for 2 kids. Ex gives me £800 a month. Remainder gets wiped out with day to day stuff. Home paid outright so no mortgage. Single parent. Every parent in our class has a very high earning father, mum home. Half the class has some sort of SEN. For me, the schooling has been worth it. My kids (no SEN) are happy. I think a state school may have also been fine but it's worked out this way now.

We pay from our salaries, that said the fees have gone up significantly in the last few years. A few years ago we had three children in an independent prep school, eldest was full fees, middle was awarded a scholarship so 80% fees (but lost 5% sibling discount) and youngest did get the third child 10% discount. The eldest two moved on to state secondary schools so we now only pay for the youngest however her fees alone are not much less than what we paid for all three. She will be moving to a decent state secondary next September so no more fees thankfully which is a relief.

Having had children at the school for many years now, I would say there is a real mix. There are a small number of families where a trust fund covers the fees, there are also some where grandparents pay however there are many that make sacrifice, some more than others, to be able to pay.

We do both earn good salaries however we have sacrificed being mortgage free and subsequently delayed our own retirement to ensure the children had the benefit of attending a decent primary school.

I suspect that option wouldn't be feasible to us nowadays as the fees are a good 50% higher now than they were when we moved the children there. Cost of living, increase in wages, increase in national insurance and now the VAT - the number in reception this year is less than half than it was historically.