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

Depending on the school there may be quite a few international students there too, so wealthy people from abroad are also propping up the system.

If you have a mortgage, you need to earn above 200k between you in order to afford one for 1 child. We have considered it with DH but we cannot afford it, so pushing DS for 11+. School fees around us are ca. 30k per year and most of the people who go there - many parents came from Dubai, they have their own businesses, work in finance, drive Teslas and live in modern palaces. We wouldn't fit in anyway.

That’s not true. School fees have outstripped inflation by miles. When my parents sent me to private school in the early 90s, they were immigrants and professional but middle income earners who sacrificed a lot and scrimped and saved to send me. Very modest house, very few holidays, no extras. It was doable then and there were many others at my highly academic private school in the same situation.

It’s very different now. My DH and I do send our DD to private school and it is largely funded by generational wealth (his not mine!) in that we were able to buy a home using family funds. School fees we pay with our jobs and we are lucky to earn enough to do so although it’s a bit of a squeeze despite a good joint income. We don’t earn so much that I don’t have to think carefully about general spending. It would be entirely unaffordable if we had a mortgage too though. Other parents at the school are either really high earners or have benefitted from generational wealth like we have. I no longer think it is possible to simply scrimp and save to cover fees anymore.

For us, we downsized to a small mortgage-free house. I work in my own business, including weekends. I also work a second job. My husband is well-paid, but also works a second job. We don't have expensive holidays, we don't fritter money away. We have one more year to go for DS and then can exhale.

We couldn't have done this if we'd had more than one child though.

We’re considering paying for private school for our son. We have large age gaps between our children, so we will only be paying for one child at a time. The fee is £6.5k per year.

DPs salary is £160k. He also gets large bonuses (this year was £22k). I earn approx £30k (fluctuates as I am self-employed). We also receive low rate DLA for our son (he has ASD and ADHD), as well as child maintenance, so that money will also go towards his private schooling. We can afford it on our salaries without that though, but appreciate we are on almost £200k basic.

Grandparents for us. My in-laws are self-made and incredibly rich, and have up until the last couple of years shared none of that with us, but grandchildren are a whole different ball game (along with a couple of enormous tax bills for them which prompted them to realise they’d be better off actually spending some of the money they’d hoarded over the year rather than sending directly to HMRC…).

So ironically despite being in solidly middle-income careers at the moment, we know we’re there for the long haul even with the new VAT rules which is quite a reassuring position to be in.

I realise how very lucky we are.

It widely varies- at the cheaper end I would imagine parents make sacrifices & have help maybe.

Some of the most prestigious independent secondary schools charge up to 50k a year if a student is boarding. That's serious money.

By not having two children, for a start.

We pay from salary (jointly we get just under £200k gross). It covers one child
and still allows for mortgage payments etc.

When the mortgage stops, we will be able to pay for 2 children from salary.

We paid out of income and savings to start with and there was very little overlap where the DC were at fee paying schools at the same time. Similarly to child care all through my income went on school and DH’s kept a roof over our heads.We used to go on holiday but it would be far from 5* luxury and we didn’t have new cars or lots of clothes etc. DH inherited some money while DC 3 was at school so that took the pressure off. Lots of people were on our situation, some were subsidised by GPs and some had very large London salaries. The DC were not at private schools from start to finish , they went to a variety of schools.

My kids went because my ex paid it. He was a high earner (I don’t know how much as he was cagey like that, but on top of school fees for two kids I also got circa £3k in child support pm so he must have had a very good salary). All history now as I’m on a low income (he’s on even more money now but I don’t benefit in any way). Kids are grown up. It was stressful though as he used money as a weapon to me so I was very glad when they left school. I would advise my two to try and put their own kids, if they have them, in the state system unless they have a ton of money,

Are you sure that’s a year and not a term?

Not high earners here. We live very frugally to send our child. Fees have gone up astronomically in the last 5 years but he’s there due to a complete failure of the state system where we live to meet his needs.
we only have one old car, shop in Aldi, don’t go on holiday or out for days etc
It’s tough when I see other people buying new clothes and going to concerts etc but we only have one year left. We pay our fees monthly, and I know others that pay more in nursery fees than we do

We have four DCs and DH was earning £200k plus until last year (redundancy - still looking for a job..!) but we decided that we just couldn't do it for them all. My parents managed boarding school for my brother and me on significantly less income - but fees were significantly less then, as were housing costs (relatively). Most of our friends privately educating are doing so via inherited wealth, 2 very high earners (bankers, management consultants and lawyers mainly), or have children on scholarships.

Both DH and I went private all the way through - my parents advised us not to step on the treadmill unless we were REALLY sure about it. We moved to a grammar area and they have all done really well at grammar (so far one Oxbridge, one RG, and two still to go...).

We pay for our children to go to private school from my husband’s salary.

We don’t have generational wealth and have no help from our parents as they aren’t in a position to do so. They also aren’t inclined to help financially or otherwise which is fine as they’re our children.

Fees where I live tend to be between 15-22k per year unless you opt for a top private school which is usually one which offers boarding and has amazing facilities.

I'm a SAHM and husband works in finance. We both worked hard, had kids later in life (mid thirties) and saved hard. We can afford holidays etc but having them in our mid thirties meant we could pay more off on our mortgage.

Certain sectors are more lucrative than others tbh!

Not a floaty post as I realise it could be taken this way; just our situation.

Grandparents, which is essentially an inheritance sacrifice of sorts. However with fees shooting up so drastically, we’ve agreed a fee split going forwards. Our chosen secondary is 25k per year inc vat, which is pretty reasonable for London.

Ex paid for 3 through London day school from age 7 to A level from his salary and very large bonuses (c. half a million a year) working in finance. Only 1 still left. But we were “ordinary” compared to some at the school. Big house in niceish area near the school. We still took good holidays but he did feel the pressure. No family wealth or similar. Some at the school definitely GPs paying.
only the super wealthy could then pay for the kids to go to US universities.

Generally my salary has covered one child. Have taken out second mortgage to cover the overlap for the next 3 years. I have basically no pension. I’ll have to keep working longer once the kids have left school in order to get anything saved for retirement.

Sorry, yes, of course that’s a term!

You don't have to send them from age 4, we send m/are going to send ours at 9 from year 5, that saves quite a bit. Also don't live in London so the fees are a bit lower, I think about &15k for junior school. Husband earns a high salary with good bonuses but we are not mega rich.

Due to the age gap and not starting until year 5 we will only have 4 years of double fees when both children are attending.

I paid out of my salary but only had one child - live in a two bedroom garden flat - would’ve liked another child but felt couldn’t afford a larger property in London and two sets of school fees .

Through salaries and not having a big house, not having lots of holidays etc.

We have one child at private school. Dh earns 99k I earn 70k. I pay the fees and dh pays mortgage, bills etc. we couldn’t afford two kids.

Prices have gone up significantly in recent years to the point where value has to be considered as well as affordability.

I earn over £200k and decided to move house recently to be in a catchment of fantastic state schools rather than go down the private route. I gave noticed last week to the private pre-prep school we’d reserved a Reception place at and confirmed we wouldn’t be taking up our place.

We could afford the fees for 14 years but don’t believe it is value for money anymore particularly in the uncertain political climate regarding education.

We know a few others who have done the same. One of the knock on effects is that each of us who has done this has deprived a lower earning family from obtaining a place at the best local state schools. I’m not sure that’s in any way an ideal outcome from a wider societal point of view but as parents we have to do what’s best for our own children.