How much do you sacrifice to send Dc to private school?

[VeryTiredMummyOf2]

I have 2 Dc, just want to know what people give up? And is it worth it?

Most private schools could not run if many children were on bursaries and many many children whose parents do not earn much cannot get a bursary at a school. I don't think the poor should assume the schools can always subsidise them otherwise the parents who can afford to pay would have far too high a burden. Manchester Grammar was trying to be blind to income and let anyone in who passed and Dulwich College when it used to get better exam results did that but I don't believe either has or does fully do that now.

Many couples can live on one income and the other parent goes back to work for the £12k or £10k a day school place will cost and the net income of their salary covers two private school places.

We give up nothing. Paying for school (and extra curricular activities, and holiday courses) is part of ensuring our children become the sort of people we would like them to be.

We don't live in as fancy a house as we could, I don't drive the kind of car I would like to in an ideal world, we don't eat out / have weekends away as often as I would like - that's about it really, no big "sacrifice".

I work P/T to pay for our annual holiday, Christmas, other presents and treats - DH pays the fees. It works for us.

We have stopped overpaying the mortgage, 1 weeks camping trip for a holiday, and meal plan to avoid buying food that gets wasted.

We have an 80% bursery

It would appear from the above that most people are sacrificing "extras" rather than essentials e.g. food and clothes and also feel its money well spent. Is this because schools are more generous with their bursaries than some think or because there are those who don't take up the offer of a bursary because they would have to sacrific essentials to afford it?

Xenia maybe I'm just reading the wrong school websites but I don't know of any senior day schools charging £10 000 a year. If your paying £24 000 a year for two the youve got to be earning £30 000 a year to cover the cost of the fees I believe the average wage in the UK is under £20 000.

It is not that hard to earn £30k if you're reasonably bright.

Haberdashers often in top 10 - 20 schools in the country near London is about £10,000 in juniors. North London Collegiate often the best in the country is a bit more.

Many women are not average, have above average IQ, know when they are 14 what salaries there are and what type of life they want and plan accordingly. Plenty don't get anywhere, earn a pittance and aren't up to much or couldn't care less about private schools. We all to an extent make our own lives.

I gave up everything....for three years and found that it wasn't worth it. Yes the school was nice...not perfect though...no school is. I decided it was too much sacrifice...we could not pay for ballet, horse riding, extra tuition and other things whilst paying school fees.

She's now in an outstanding state school and doing very well.

We would have had to live in penury, so we sent DD to the local state comprehensive with a view to paying for extra tutoring should the need arise. We are too old to make up the shortfall in income and pensions to do anything else (OH will be 67 when DD leaves school) and we were refused a bursary.

I don't often come onto the Education boards. However I just wanted to say that at 14 I didn't consider the need to get a hugely well paid job to put any DC I may or may not have through private school.

I guess I'm not 'up to much' then.

Xenia can you find me a senior school only charging £10 000 a year? The other problem you're also not taking into consideration is that with pushing 21 weeks holiday a year parents with junior school aged children either has to only work in term time themselves and there are few jobs apart from teaching in an indie/ university lecturing paying £30 000 + and giving 21 weels annual leave as well or find child care during the holidays and this can be very expensive.

We sacrifice for DS's school fee's (as the state choices here are dire) but if we lived in a grammar school area that would definitely be my 1st choice and we would have lots of fabulous holidays and reduce our mortgage. So another 8 years of rainy Devon and eye watering mortgage payments

How I wish I had spent more of my time age 14 planning future jobs, salaries and school fee's obviously 'not up to much' either...

Xenia... The elephant in the room is clear. If everyone followed your 'simple' solution to earning a huge salary.... The economy would fail.

Not everyone CAN be a doctor/lawyer/banker.... We simply don't NEED that many people doing those jobs.

Regardless of whether they are intelligent enough to do it.

I also find the idea of 14 year olds picking a career based on wealth creation awfully sad, buts that just me...

Join the club take.

xenia I do believe you are deliberately offensive sometimes. I made choices that did not lead to a high paid job. I am far from dense. At 14 I was deliberating between teacher/ flight attendant/ journalist/ famous children's author.. not one of those did I become!
Sometimes I wish I had made different choices/ chosen a better paid husband[!]
I could have taken a different 'turning'- but hey ho I am where I am and private school is out of the question. My children are/ will go to the local primary and probably a local secondary. Time will tell. My siblings all went to state schools and are very well paid. Not particularly brighter than me but made different choices. The most well paid who could send his 3 children to private school has decided it is not worth it and has got some stick from his wealthy neighbours. He argues that he and his wife did fine with state and he wants his children to mix with children from a variety of backgrounds and not have things handed to them on a plate.

This is near London £11,949 my daughter's old school Haberdashers seniors www.habsgirls.org.uk/general.php?area=admissions&page_id=2
I think I said £12k but I may have said £10k. As you can see the juniors is £9868.

Also £9996 seniors Royal Grammar Newcastle. Those are just two I randomly picked.

Manchester grammar £9996

Gosh at this rate I will have to report it to the OFT who a few years back found they had talked about fees in advance... All keeping below the psychological £1-0k barrier. Some people pay for posh schools where the fees are higher but you are just then paying for your little darling to be amongst others who are not very bright so you pay more for a worse result in a sense and of course most children don't have the IQ to get into these better schools. There may even be an argument that mothers who are bright and earn a lot have children who can get into these schools. MOthers with an IQ of teh average £100 or below work in Tesco or just are housewives and cannot afford school fees and their children would not be bright enough to pass the exams to these types of schools. ALl good fun.

Nothing really although we don't have as lavish holidays as we would if I wasn't paying school fees. Ds has a large scholarship for his next school starting in Sept so that should free up some income.

What are you on about Xenia?

All my savings have gone and I haven't paid into my pension for years.
It is/was worth it, I am home educating this term because the school want £6,000 for 9 weeks of summer term most of which will be sports and my DC aren't sporty do that's poor value for money as far as I'm concerned. I hope they will go back in September though.
We would have had more holidays if we hadn't had the education to cover and I probably would not have worked in the last three years but it's not been any great hardship.

I was asked if any private senior schools charge under £10k or at £10k which is a level I had suggested above. I found that as ever I was right and many many of the best ones do. That's all.

Then I found it amusing that so many awere charting virtually an identical sum given the investigation by the Office of Fair Trading into private schools Rugby and others a few years ago. They must not discuss or collude over fees which I am sure they probably don't now do as they got a massive wake up call when they were found to have been chatting about fee levels.

ALl good fun

xenia, you really are priceless and I am very pleased you are happy in your little world

[busmile]

happygardening:
Manchester Grammar School - £9,996
Bolton School - £9,357
King's, Chester - £10,362
Merchant Taylors, Crosby - £9,375
Royal Grammar School, Newcastle - £9,996
king Edward's, Brmingham - £10,395
It's not all grim up north - though sadly I no longer live there, and have to pay north London fees, for which we sacrifice just about everything apart from cheap red wine.

Wine is a sacrifice too far sicutlilium!

Xenia - my earnings are currently zero - at 14 I too planned, worked hard, excelled at school and was accepted a year early to a very good university, for Accounting and Law, I worked hard both at my studies and at earning money and after graduatation worked at a top four London accountancy practice - I was determined, high-earning and could have gone on in that vein for years - however I fell in love with a country bumpkin, decamped to a rural out-post and am now saddled with three little children, stuck in "community" living and regularly bang my head on the formica work-top wondering how it could all have gone so very wrong.

Queens of Chester is fantastic