Private school - how much do all the 'extras' add up?

[reastie]

We are loosely considering private school for DD. She's still very little but we want to decide where we think she'd be best placed so she can go to the same nursery as school (ideally, although I know these things dont' always work out).

The fees are in the region of £9000 - £15000 per year (primary school) depending on her year group at the school and which school we plump for. But I know there will be lots of extras (expensive uniform, school lunches, school trips, possibly music lessons (although if we did this I think we'd do it out of school anyway) etc etc etc) and just wondering if anyone had any idea how much extra this would tot up to or what to expect in this way. Do students get charged for text books at primary school? Are there other fees (other than registration type fees) or payments which are made that I have no idea about? [clueless]

You may not find the extras cost much more than they would at a state school - and private schools frequently have a second-hand uniform shop, no disgrace to use them, everyone does. Some fees include lunches, mid-morning snacks etc. This often accounts for the difference in fees quoted. You need to ask what is included. Same applies to trips

Interesting kerry . I had already thought I would shamelessly use the second hand uniform shop all the time . Will have to look in the small print I guess. IM v limited experience though everything at private schools are more expensive eg school trips more than would be at a state school, but I guess it varies and maybe that's just the schools I've had first hand experience with.

DS1 is just about to start reception and his brand new uniform has cost about £250 including blazer £90, coat £50, hat £25. All the shirts, shorts etc are from M&S. Lunches and compulsory trips are included in our fees. We probably won't do music lessons as my son is more sporty so he is in the sports club and french club, both of which are free.

Uniform is made to last and second hand items look like new and cost next to nothing. Often lunch is included. My dd's school also includes all school trips. After school clubs are free or cheap and she has swimming once a week. Wrap around care from 7.45 to 6 is excellent and cheaper than using a childminder.
I spend less on extras than a few of my friends with children in state schools.

DD going into year 4. I budget about £1000 for extras that is musical instrument, author visits, trips etc. That is per year. Uniform second hand shop probably spend about £50 per year.

We had to pay a £100 registration fee at the start of the process which reserved the place, covered costs of testing, taster day, various parent receptions etc as part of the admissions process. Then once we "signed up" there was an £800 deposit to be paid on top of the first term fees which is repayable when he leaves the school after any "extras" from his last term deducted (he is now 11 and school goes to 18) so I have effectively written this money off by the time you take inflation into account. Uniform including loads of compulsory sports kit came to about £700 and we couldn't buy most of it in the second hand shop as they had a total replacement of all sports kit this year (just my luck, first time in 8 years they had changed it).
Musical instrument tuition is about the same as we were paying before outside of school at £16 per half hour lesson. Trips and activities come to about £800 per year.
On a side note, he is on a scholarship and means tested bursary, however NONE of these extra costs are covered by the bursary which is purely for Fees so do factor that into your equation even if you think you will qualify for a bursary.

Just checked one school of the several in our area and the fees there cover lunches but it's £10 per time for after school stay until 6pm (can't imagine I'd use this anyway) and £21 per session for music lessons. Doesn't say anything about trips so assume that's all extra.

3nations to £700 on sportswear. FWIW I still fit into my joggers my DM bought me when I was 11 for secondary school - think she wanted to get them so big that she never had to buy me any more

We pay approx £25 per year for stationary (dd at secondary). Textbooks vary from about £45 this year to £125 for first year, however you can recoup a lot of this by selling the books at the end of the year, and obviously buying secondhand saves cash too. Some schools provide all textbooks & stationary but as long as you know up front you can factor this in to what you can afford. Some schools also charge for exam entry, I know you are looking at primary at the moment but may need to consider this for the future.

We are charged £140 for 10 music lessons (1/2 hour). Have priced this outside school and I think we get a good deal.

The curricular trips (compulsory) are similar to amounts charged in state schools and have been no more than £30 per year. There are other optional trips like modern language trips (DD went to Germany for exchange for 10 days and it cost £240 - they were flying), but they also do a few more expensive trips such as New York, Honduras, South Africa, China and these cost over £2000. DD never did any of them (didn't want to). I have heard of state schools going on skiing trips costing over £1000 and a trip to Disneyland Paris for £400, not sure of the educational value of that one, but I am sure it was justified (at least on paper!), so I think trips are as expensive as you want to make them.

Uniform (and sports kit) is probably the biggest expense but as stated above there are ways of making it affordable

Ds's old prep used to charge parents to watch their children in the school play. For some odd reason they would hire a theatre, and tickets were £10 each! Seems ridiculous now I think about it. They also used to charge per term for the after school clubs, as well as the trips.

Depends largely on the school.

We're in the south west and pre-prep uniform isn't too bad but more expensive for prep mainly because of all the sports stuff.

Trips are extra but not too much really and the majority of clubs are free. Music lessons are about £150 per term.

Our fees are at the lower end of your scale so I suspect the extra costs are also at the lower end.

Oh lunch is free and you could drop off at 7.30am and pick up at 5.30pm and that's all included in the basic fees too.

You must be in a different area to me as we only pay half your first figure for DD's prep school - down South. Lunches are extra but she now has a packed lunch as most of her friends do and so that's half what i used to pay for a cooked hot lunch so I'm not fussed. All trips are 'free' as they are accounted for in the fees...one per term although the residential trips - one per year - are extra and not compulsory and so far DD hasn't wanted to do them.

Uniform is initially expensive as the second hand uniform is never small enough I found but is a god send after then as you can sell your outgrown stuff and pay for the next year and so on as it's all good quality and lasts well. PE kits are expensive as they change from term to term depending on the season and they outgrow football boots etc from year to year.

Music lessons are £160 per term (10 lessons) which we don't do in school as they miss paid for lessons for them I found plus outside school they're £10-£12 per lesson so it's a no brainer imo. They are encouraged to play at least one instrument so it adds up.

Lots of free teacher run clubs though which are great especially if you work just a bit later than 3.30pm some days and don't want to use the afterschol care club facility.

HTH

The senior school DS is going to charges £15k pa which includes travel, lunch, books, exams and most extras apart from a laptop and optional trips. School day is 8.00am until 5.30pm.

The schools nearby that charge £12k or so are the ones where absolutely everything is an "extra".

Uniform really can be bought second-hand and very few people buy everything new.

Most after-school activities are free. My DS isn't musical so that is not a consideration for us. We budget about £1k extra for everything and have managed well on that so far through Prep. We also pay optional insurance in case DS is ill and misses school which would reimburse the fees in that event, this is about £75 pa.

Alot of you seem to get much better deals for your money than the schools in my area . I'm in the South East in what might be thought of as quite a naice commuter area, lots of folks with lots of money not including us sadly and lots of demand for private places as we have the 11+ so people want to do all they can to get their children through and into the grammar schools.

dia never heard of that insurance - is that via the school or something private you've chosen to do?

We try and keep 'extras' to a minimum, but dc are allowed one paying club (approx £70-£100 each per term) and then just whole class trips which cost from 0 - £245 for a residential. DS has had one residential per year from y4.

for DS - pretty much all uniform from second hand shop for around £150.
After school care free from 8-8.30, and 4.15 - 5pm. About £2 for 5-6 pm. All of which includes snack and drink.
No text book fees, but we provide all stationary.

for DD - second hand shop uniform £125, sports kit new from shop £250
After school care free 8-8.30am, £10 4-5pm, £8 5-6pm. Provide own snack if required.
Again no text book fees, but own stationary (particular brands specified by school) used down to scissors and glue sticks.

The uniform is of course more or less a one-off expense with top-ups as you go.

Other extras are music exam fees £30 ish, teachers presents £10x2 (Xmas and July), Music books £2-£10,

As you can see, costs vary wildly between schools so it pays to know a parent well enough to ask about costs at a particular school.

Ideally I would dress dd up as a boy and send her to ds's school!!!! Odd that they vary as much though, as the schools are kind of affiliated as sister schools.

Depends also if you feel the need to 'keep-up-with-the-Jones'. Then you get into having a 4x4, holidays / skiing, huge birthday parties, designer clothes, horses, personal trainers etc etc etc.

hth.

Oh and now DD is upper primary (yrs 3-6) we need to kit her out with pens, dictionary, thesaurus, bible, clipboard, coloured pencils and felt tips, glue, scissors, compass and much more. Paper and books are provided up to this year but once in yr 5-6 we need to provide them.

Our school offers an insurance too although we personally don't take them up on it so think it's commenplace.

Uniform pretty cheap as all secondhand. Music lessons £250ish per term. Lunches, most trips included. After school care for DD £10 per day we use. Books included.

School's habit of charging things like team and school photos without asking is moderately annoying, though.

Well there are extras and extras

Our fees include meals. The extras we pay for are:

• Music lessons - IME probably important to do this through the school rather than not. It's because they all do it through the school, and music is usually a very important part of prep school life. Also helps to access groups such as chamber, string whatever - approx £180 a term
• Uniform - one gigantic dose of pain at the start and then top-ups as you go. The dose of pain at the start was around £500
• Compulsory school trips - usually one residential a year plus one day trip - approx £300
• Stationery, calculators etc

We didn't have to pay extra for swimming because the school has a pool, but a lot of schools charge for that as well.

There are also optional extras that it is hard to opt out of

• Ski-trip - that's £1500 minimum and you will face pester power (this one's resistible)
• Birthday party presents - average spend per present seems to be around £20-£25. Everyone does full class parties to start with. So if you have 20 in the class, you're looking at £400 for birthday presents (keep a list and recycle)
• Birthday parties themselves - full class job. Always budget around £500 for these

It will vary depending on whether the likes of lunches, trips, books and so on are included in the basic fees. However have just kitted dd out for senior and uniform was well over £300, her pre-prep uniform was initially about £150 (including some 2nd hand) but we had to add sports kit and change style as she progressed up the school plus purchase a Bible, calculator etc. On our bill termly "optional" extras such as dance and music and clubs in Pre-prep typically added 10% - music lesson were about £17.50 per half hour for example - and any residential trips were addtional.

Our current extras are about £500 per term (boarding senior school) obviously meals are included and I think washing clothes but not dry cleaning suits etc. We pay for every piece of paper pen text books etc but not for attending extra curricular activities although we do pay for membership of professional sports bodies. Cant find the bill but I think we also pay for day trips. What we dont pay for is learning support and extra help.
At prep we paid for all extra curricular activities but not text books pens paper etc, and we paid for learning support/extra tuition and we reckoned it added another £800 per term onto the bill.

Uniform at the prep was nearly always second hand apart from "every day" uniform; trousers and polo shirts (which being boarding got worn out very quickly). At senior we don't have to buy the uniform from any particular shop so you can spend as much as you like. My DS's suit cost £55 from M and S some are in Gieves and Hawkes. Ditto every day uniform which I buy from JL as I know what size fits. Sports kit including three rugby shirts tracksuit hoodie etc came to about £300 and is still being worn in the second year. Then trainers x2 and football boots again you spend what you like.

It varies hugely I think - ds's uniform is not complicated, wrap around care is included, trips are v good value as they have their own minibuses and the school group has an outdoor adventure centre of its own. We pay for lunches (£130 a term I think) but they are good and all snacks are included which is 4 a day for those in from 8-5.30, and ds is starting music lessons in y2 which are £140 a term.

No huge parties/pricey presents here.

Prep school in the South East here. £160 for music lessons per term per instrument. Uniform: it all comes from the second hand shop, but I probably spend about £150 per year. Trips (voluntary): about £300 per year, which include being away for 3 or 4 nights at a time.

Compulsory trips, lunch, after school care and sports clubs are all included in the fees.

lady yes it's the expectations on gifts and birthday parties that I was thinking too - if I did a smaller scale parties/cheaper gifts would that disadvantage DD socially. I'm a bit at the thought of £25 per present per person in the class. Guess I'll have to top up and get everything in sales and tkmaxx

1805 yes to keeping up with the Jones' - I imagine there's a fair bit of that

I know things vary, but at the £25/head party presents. That is certainly not the norm here - we have received a couple of very over generous presents, but I would say the norm was more like £5 - £10 - and whole class parties are by no means expected either - I would say less than half of DD's YR class had whole class parties, and from experience with DS, the number declines as they get older.

Similarly with general keeping up with Jones' - there are people at my DC's school for whom money is genuinely no object, people who (I assume) are on reduced fees for one reason or another and relatively low incomes, and everything inbetween. There is no perceptible social disadvantage to the DC in not having holiday homes and multiple Bentleys.

Pick the school carefully, OP - not all private schools come with materialistic snobbery attached (not that I can claim to have done that - we just got lucky in that respect as the school is closer to home than even the local state primary and the next independent option is 10 miles away).

I wonder if there's a way to find out how snobby parents at specific schools are without knowing any existing parents at that school though

Could be tricky . You can generally get something of a feel for a school from the Good Schools Guide reviews, but other than that you just have to visit, and trust to instinct, I think. Maybe the Good Schools Guide need to add a "parental snobbery" score to their measures