To wonder how the bloody hell people afford private education for their kids?

[HarderToKidnap]

Thinking about TTC and getting WAY ahead of myself I idly googled the local private schools. Bloody hell!! HOW do people afford this? My DH and I earn 100k between us every year so certainly not poor, but with a mortgage (on a two bed terrace) and other, what I consider to be reasonable, outgoings there is just not a way it could be done. So all these children being privately educated, do their parents earn masses and masses? Or am I missing a trick?

(Incidentally I wouldn't send my kid to private school - comprehensive was brilliant for me and if a child is going to do well they will do well, I believe. Was just wondering.)

My in laws spend £180,000 on school fees every year (4 kids). I don't even ask.

Good private schools are oversubscribed so clearly the customers are doing just fine

We afford it as it our number one priority is to send our 4 kids to private school. We also get a discount as we send so many lol. Our house is only worth 550k though, we could afford around an 800k house on our salary but we prioritise school instead and only live in a small 5 bed semi rather than a bigger detached.

I make around 75K gross, school fees are 3K a month for 2 children (im in London). I have no car, house paid off, very few outgoings on holidays etc. Children have been in private from Reception. I'm lucky I have savings from before but the reality is I work to pay the fees.

Are you expecting your parents and in laws to pay ? Wouldn’t occur to me to expect that.

I just can't see the PE would have been "better" for me in any way except possibly academic.

The academics are often the main point. We are sending our son to a prep school. We’re in a state primary black hole and didn’t even get allocated a place at any of the six primaries we put down as our choices.

But the academic performance at the school we have chosen are the key reason we chose it.

We know a lot of grandparents that pick to the bill for the fees. Apparently it’s tax efficient or something and a way of passing on the inheritance early.

Some other parents own successful companies or have some incredible jobs like this couple who are both plastic surgeons. We also have parents that are very well known actors. I don’t think £100k will cut it.

When DS was at nursery it cost us £9k a year. He started private prep school and was £6k a year. We could afford it and had £3k less to pay out. It rose to £8k a year by time he finished.

if we could afford nursery for 4.5 years then prep school was easy.

didn’t continue with private though as went up to £30k a year for secondary !

Snap. Then DS got in a good grammar locally so didn’t do the secondary private route

All these posts about private schools keep making me think about an article I read about how state schools in parts of London are closing as they don’t have enough children. People moving out as the areas aren’t affordable and those that can afford it send their children to private school.

Then I imagine all these posh people wondering where all the people have gone to to clean their houses, empty their bins and serve them coffee!!!

I dislike London and private schools so luckily something I don’t have to worry about. My children are doing very well in normal state comprehensives.

https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/13/city-without-children-dystopia-new-reality-london

Why the fuck do people resurrect ancient threads??

This thread is a teenager!

My cleaner commutes in from Kent. Even if they move out they can commute in to work.

A niece from abroad attending 6th form boarding school in the U.K., told me of a fellow pupil who was one of 7 children, all of whom were at various boarding schools. They were Brits, too, not offspring of e.g. foreign oil billionaires.
Must say my eyes were watering a bit at the thought of the £££££££££.

It was a joke about the posh people. Just a little image in my head! Posh people will never struggle they will farm in help like you said.

I don't think it's fair to believe that higher and additional rate tax payers never struggle. Everyone has their own problems. Both my husband and I are additional rate taxpayers and my husband works till 4am very regularly. He has health issues from working at his job and I've only just managed to convince him to cut his days down to four days a week. I still find him sneakily trying to log in on a Friday and on weekends.

We have help because we are both tired and burned out.

Wow you really need to get over yourself. Loads of people work really long hours minimum wage jobs to survive, just to eat and heat.

Only on mumsnet can you boast about your cleaner commuting from Kent and thinking that’s ok 🤦‍♀️

I mean this message is just as rude as if I told those people who struggle with money in the UK to get over themselves because starving kids in Africa (although we are getting there aren't we as a country). The comment was made about the cleaner to contradict your statement. Empathy isn't something that just operates one way.

You must be a troll. This can’t be real 🤷‍♀️

Strange post
It's like saying how do.people afford to go on so many holidays.

Not rocket science everyone earns different amounts of money.
Everyone chooses to spend differently.

I feel sympathy for those who struggle to pay bills and food, I also feel sympathy for those who don't but have their own issues to deal with but I have to say I would struggle if they acted like you.

Why are you replying to a post from 13 years ago?

OP here!!
Saw this pop up on threads I’m on and thought “don’t remember contributing to that” scrolled up and it was an old username as the OP!
Anyway, TTC was successful and DS is about to start secondary. Got in to a super selective grammar so private school never an option. Maybe for littler DS who isn’t quite as academic.
We now earn a lot more but outgoings are a LOT more and still think we would struggle with school fees in terms of managing the life style we have now as well and tbh I much prefer the lifestyle!

I’m not sure if you’re for real and I don’t really understand what you’re saying.

But I’ll bite! The reason why I have little sympathy for you is that you have choices. You can solve your problems easily (like you said your husband has reduced his work hours). You could take your children out of private school (that’s an assumption based on the title of this thread), you could sell up and downsize. Some people don’t have the luxury of these choices.

Did you even read the article I attached?

Someone working to the extent they suffer health issues as a result is going to be a struggle and a worry for both themselves and their families, regardless of whether they’re low or high earners.

If you are strict in reserving your sympathies for those in the most desperate of situations, then you’ll find no one in the UK to be worthy of them.