Can we afford private school?

[Zorigami]

Hi, looking at putting DC's in private school - primary at this stage. Combined fees would be £17k pa but I am sure there are loads of extra's. Based on our household income, it will be a squeeze and will have to apply for bursary and look for better paying job etc.

What other extra's should I be looking at to try and work it out affordability. Uniform will no doubt be expensive.

And yes I know state schools are fine - just not our local ones.

Thanks.

One of the things that really stuck out for me when I moved DS from state to private prep was how many specialist teachers the private school had. The state school had one teacher per class who taught everything including a language (which most of them couldn't speak themselves). The prep school had specialist subject teachers for music, drama, languages and PE and from aged 7 they also had specialist teachers for English and maths.
They did have many extra days holidays but the school had an onsite holiday club which was cheaper than other provisions and worked out at a maximum cost of £500 per year if you chose to use it for every week of the school holidays. Extra curricular clubs were included in the fees whereas we had been paying for those at state school.
Uniform was expensive.

To address the point somebody made about Sahms: I have worked full time and my children were thoroughly miserable and I found or difficult to find time to support them. I am now a SAHM due to disability in the household but even so I have far more time to dedicate to my children and they are happier. However, some children are very happy despite having parents who both work full time. I don't think we can say that working parent is better than SAHM or vice versa as each child and family is different.

Fees depend on where you live entirely - what you're quoting is not dissimilar to what we pay for fees alone for two DC. I reckon we play approx. £5-6k extra a year in terms of lunches, uniform, trips, music lessons etc

Agree re the specialist teachers in year one.

Taught French by French teacher music by schools music teacher. Swimming etc with PE staff.

Dd has developed in so many different areas.

Lovely to see.