to be upset that DD is leaving her Independent School because we can't afford it anymore?

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Not that I am upset at DH or anything but just feel very emotional as today was her last day (she is 5 and in reception) and I burst into tears when I gave her teacher and TA their presents. She loves her school and DH nor myself were happy about her going but needs must.

Was I a pathetic emotional pregnant wimp or a normal feeling mother?

Felt a bit embarrassed to say the least.

Oh chin up. She'll be fine you know. Where's she going to next?

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Absolutely normal.

DS (12) left his school on Wednesday and DD (10) tomorrow as we are moving 200 miles away. It is hard but you know what? They are adaptable little people really.

I feel sad for DS now he's finishing kindergarten for the summer hols! Just that he really likes it! Have no pregnancy excuses either. An sure she'll benefit from having enjoyed her first experience of school and will settle in to her new one well.

Well I got a nice leaving present too - a lovely bill for £1200 for 3 months fees, which we cannot afford to pay. I soon dried my tears when I opened that!

Is that because you didn't give a term's notice?

Quattrocento she is going to a local village school 10 mins away. Lovely school - has a good name and outstanding reports. Glad I won't be having to fork out £300 for a uniform either.

There must be a lot of people atm having to remove their DC from private education, self-employed especially.

I have been stung with fees too as we were unable to give the full notice.

No, they let us off with not giving a terms notice because they upped the fees 12% without giving us a terms notice so couldn't really say much. We pay monthly and since June we have not been able to pay, doing so would have left us struggling. I explained this to the head and asked him to maybe give me a payment plan, I will have to get in touch in September and see what he says.

Sympathy for you, but better now than later and so much better for you as a family then struggling and worrying about fees all the time (imo).

I know evangelina, she will soon settle in her new school and she has got until beginning of September to forget old school!

Of course you are not being unreasonable and I am sorry that you are going through this. I know of a few people in the same boat at the moment.

We won't be going down the private route as there is no way we would ever be able to afford it, even if our situation drastically changed I think I would only consider private education if our mortgage was paid off (dream on!) and I had a few thousand in the bank, it seems too risky otherwise.

We were in this situation a year ago. DD2 (11) had to leave much loved Enid Blyton style prep, spent much of the summer in tears of terror (her, not me) before starting at scary local comp. One year on, I have never seen her so happy. Good luck, you'll all survive!

Quite normal to feel like this - coming to the end of a phase in your child's life is often a bit sad - but hey, she's got a lovely school to go to, you won't have horrible bills to pay and the uniform won't cost an arm and a leg. (£300 for a child in reception ).
evangelina makes a good point - better to be practical, make the change now, and enjoy life without constant money worries. I have some friends who pay for private and am secretly horrified at some of their situations - eg families borrowing huge sums of money for school fees. It's a very high risk strategy - what if the bank pulls the plug on the borrowing? or they put the kids through school and then spend the rest of their 'golden' years in poverty as a result? No fun at all!!
Also, there will be plenty more people in your situation over the coming years. The profile of out local private schools is rapidly changing - they're filling up with overseas students from Hong Kong etc as many of the local clientele just aren't prepared to push themselves to the limit to pay anymore.