Private Schooling Affordability

[JW2014]

Hello, I was wondering if anyone would be able to help me as to affordability of Private School.

Myself and my partner have a combined income of about £100k pre tax and are looking into private schooling for our only dc which will be about £30k a year. Post tax and pensions our income is about £5k a month.

I think it would be doable but my partner disagrees... I'm not sure of all the extras that it entails above and beyond that £30k and how much I should roughly budget per month for it to be affordable.

Thanks :)

I assume you are talking about a boarding school?

Agree with grovel unless you mean boarding school £30k per year is too much. Day schools would be less.
Also depends on what age your dc would be starting.
At some schools the fees change according to the age of the child. So fees will be lower for primary than for secondary.
Most schools would expect fees to be paid termly, but some schools do allow you to pay monthly.

Yes, both myself and my partner work shifts so I think that while the GP's are fantastic at helping us out with childcare, a more stable life (at least during term time) would be more beneficial as there are no kids her age at either of her GP's and while it would be hard for us, it would be better for her being able to spend time with kids her own age as she hates missing out on stuff with her friends all the time because of our terrible work life balance.

Would you be entitled to any amount of bursary with this income?
I think it depends on the schools you are looking at and your fixed outgoings.
Could you afford a percentage raise in interest rates, how safe are both of your jobs?
Do you have savings that would cover fees in the case of redundancy.
Could you afford the extras your child might want, this can be anything from around 2-5k a year.

I've been trying to work this out and asked the school how much music lessons, trips. Uniforms etc would be to get a rough idea of extras. It is hard as so many unknowns re jobs, mortgage rates etc !

Some schools vary greatly from the rest as well in terms of extra costs and amount of bursaries offered. Some even offer some form of fee assistance to people earning 150+, some specialist schools do.

Our combined income is far less than that and we've been paying for two DCs in private schools until this year, totally out of income.

The two added together were considerably less than 30K, though.

Most boarding fees are now over 30k a year ours is pushing 35k a year. Basically you looking at at least £2500 realistically your looking at £3000 a month in school fees. The obvious things you need to answer is how large your mortgage is, what is the cost of your utilities council tax etc. what about other fixed costs petrol etc. my DH reckons you've got to be on a minimum to 130k to afford it. Fees increase yearly usually a bit more than inflation.
Extras vary, we pay for everything, pens paper text books etc it averages another £350 per term, more when they sit state exams I think they alone added another £350 last term. Trips are also bunged on the bill, contrary to what many assume they're not always going of to exotic locations most are fairly optional but if your DD does a foreign language there's likely to be some sort of exchange your likely to want her to go on, art and related subjects often throw up regular trips to museums and abroad , English trips to theatres etc. Then there's uniform, much can be purchased second hand if your organised I'm not but some things can't be especially shoes/trainers etc, boarders usually need two of both, boarders often do a lot of walking. We buy quality shoes and reckon on two pairs a year, a sporty schools children may go through 3-4 pairs of trainers a year that's not taking into account growing feet.
Frankly unless you choose to live very frugally and have very low outgoing then I think you'll struggle.

Couldn't you go for a (private?) day school and a childminder or aupair? How old is your DD? Is it that many years until she can come home / go to activities with her friends without there necessarily being an adult there?

It seems insane to spend that much money if the only reason is that you work shifts so after school activities are a bit tricky.

I also think an au pair would be a good idea and still maybe cheaper than boarding including the after school activities, which can be a lot cheaper for the same thing offered to the boarding/private sector.
If your outgoings are small though and you don't have a large mortgage it would be easier to afford fees, it all depends on outgoings as well as income.

It really depends on your other outgoings too. If you are mortgage free then its probably doable. If you have a 1500pm mortgage its going to be tight.

To be brutally honest I would be extremely wary of boarding on your level of income but there are lots of hidden costs to an au pair by the way and this may not be a cheaper way out. We had books and exam entries included in our school fees but £30,000 is really the starting price. There are lots of costs for sports coaching, music, drama, uniform, sports kit, not to mention trips. Girls, I am afraid, have more clothes than boys and this can get a bit competitive. 2 pairs of shoes would be seen as impoverished! Schools do give bursaries and you may well qualify if your DC is very bright but you would need to check the rules, if the school makes them available, of course. Some parents at our school seemed to start off paying fees and then claim poverty. Didn't go down well with others who were struggling because bursaries were paid out of fee income.

Do you have savings as a cushion? What would happen if either of you lost a job? Would you have to pull DC out if the boarding school?

The numbers look extremely tight to me. I think it will bring a lot of stress. I would be looking at a decent private day school plus a bunch of after school activities.

That doesn't sound doable to me.

30k on boarding alone; you then need to add costs of transport there and back, and holiday care as she'll get more holiday than you probably. This is going to leave you with say 2k per month for EVERYTHING else; rent, bills, food, clothes, uniform, extras....unless you have no mortgage/rent, I can't see it working.

Assuming you are talking about secondary, then there is less reason she should miss out on stuff as she gets older as she will be able to go places by herself. Admittedly we live in London with loads of public transport so this may be a London-centric view.

Also, even if you think you can do it now you need to work out if your income is likely to rise as fast as school fees.

There are some schools that offer flexi-boarding and weekly boarding which would be a bit cheaper and might meet your needs.

Here is an example
www.malvernstjames.co.uk/finance-operations/fees-2014-15

I don't have any particular knowledge about this school.

Milly

Do people really see others as impoverished and do people actually care?
I couldn't give 2 hoots what others have or haven't got and wouldn't get involved with competitiveness.
I suppose there are people like this outside some boarding schools as well.

Day child at boarding school, can stay later and access boarding activities.

My son stays unti 5.15 and then can stay for prep & dinner. Again they have a flex boarding option. Yr 7, 15k a year.

Day children can often stay at boarding schools and participate in activities prep etc. but it's not always that much cheaper especially if they are expected to stay till 9pm.

Long holidays are an issue your looking at 18-20 weeks. Exeats start often at lunch time in the weekday as do end of terms etc. parent teacher meetings sometimes proceed these so not always ideal for someone who works.
What about state boarding I know nothing about it but it at least a third of the cost.

I've got a pair at junior and senior day schools and the raw term fees come to almost 10k a term, so in total it is comparable. With extras I'm moving to put aside 3000 a month, having had to kick it up from the 2750 I initially thought. In my case that includes five sets of music lessons between the two of them. Seems to me the answer depends a lot on your monthly mortgage.

Maybe because it's a boys school but IME few are interested or bothered by how many pairs of shoes you have.

that sounds very tight to me. We pay 18k per year and dc is at school from 7:40 am to 7:30pm. He gets breakfast, lunch and dinner. Would something like that work for you? or weekly boarding?

"IME few are interested or bothered by how many pairs of shoes you have."

DD found that some of her fellow students were obsessed with whether your underwear was from Jack Wills and looked down their noses at anyone who wasn't planning to pay cash for their uni fees.

Most didn't care (including plenty whose underwear was from Jack Wills and would be paying cash for their uni fees).

I would second Happy Gardening's comment about state boarding schools. Our DD is at one and she and us are very happy with it. Tuition is paid for by the state and you pay only for boarding fees, which are about GBP 13k a year. (need to be an EU passport holder). Usual uniform, trips etc on top of that, but still considerably cheaper than GBP 30k. Have a look at the state boarding schools' website, www.sbsa.org.uk.

Depends where you live . Here in Yorkshire you are looking at about 12-15k for day pupils and probably a couple of thousand more for extras.
We are considering private for DD but have decided we will only do it if it's easily affordable as I want to hve a minimum of 1 years fees extra in the bank at all times in case of emergencies/change of circumstances.
Also, I don't want to be unfair on DS, although due to age gap we won't have to pay for 2 at the same time ( phew!) I don't think it would be fair if he couldn't go on school trips etc because all our spare money will go to DD's school fees.