If you have DC at private secondary school...

[tomhazard]

How do you pay for it? I'm not asking about your salary - just whether if a relative pays it for you, if you saved for it or if you pay it out your income? Or some other way?

We have 2 young DC (about to be year 1 and nursery) and we would like to have the option of private school for secondary. We live in an area where there is little choice in secondary schools and the one we would have to send our DC to is not good. Moving would be challenging because of DH work.

We are not very wealthy although good earners. Right now we couldn't afford it but we are planning to overpay on our mortgage so we would have much more spare income by the time DD1 is coming up for 11.
I do work in a private school myself and if I am still here by then, they could come here and I would get a 50% discount. Still the equivalent of full fees for the three years we would have 2 DC there though so needs some financial planning.

Paid from money left to me by my mother. I calculated what was needed beforehand, assuming 5% year on year fee increases. I pay for additional things (trips, uniforms, extracurricular lessons) out of income.

Pay out of salary but only have one child as could only really afford one - been in private since reception , A levels next year - over the years fees have gone up and now one term is only @1k less than the whole years fees when she started

We get generous staff discount otherwise couldn't even consider it. Rest will come from combination of income and GP contribution.

Orthepotofbasil is your discount more than 50%? This is my discount but at secondary 50% is still a lot especially the years we would have two DC there.

some offer more - Habs give 66% discount to any full-time members of staff, teaching or admin.

Out of our salaries. Huge expense and I am not entirely convinced it is worth it.

Very generous means tested bursary and the rest from salary.

Even with the Bursary it's going to be a tight few years.

75%. Hard to turn down

We pay. Still not sure it's worth it
Remember state schools can change a lot in 5 years

75%. Hard to turn down

Absolutely.

AveEldon I agree- just hoping to keep my options reasonably open incase it doesn't improve or does improve but isn't the right school for my dc. Like I say there is a complete lack of choice- it's this school only for our postcode.

20% academic scholarship award until end yr 13 (that is the max our school offers as most funds now go to bursaries as they should). The rest we pay from salary (we have over 3 years of fees saved as a back up though in case of unemployment, plus lots of insurance- unemployment, critical illness etc). Small mortgage with only a few years left now and only have 1 child to fund. Having said all that it did worry me at the beginning (DD moved to private at year 7, now going into year 9). Our state options were not great, sadly. We don’t have grammars and no really good comps unless you are religious, which is depressing.

Paying from income. Next month will be 2 sets of school fees which totals more or less my net income alone (£45k gross). No bursaries or scholarships. We wouldn’t go down this route if we couldn’t afford it. Longing term planning is key!

Fortunately, we’re a high dual income household and have recently paid off our mortgage (deliberately planned in anticipation of 2 x school fees). We do have investments as backup (ISAs) if we lose a salary so I don’t stress over it. No inheritance or parental help unless you count the occasional £100 birthday cheque! I guess that we were content to stay in our house (instead of moving/upgrading/extending our mortgage) and focused on increasing our income to afford what we perceived to be our priorities. Horses for courses! I’m pretty sure that’s what we would have spent the money on - a bigger mortgage and more expensive holidays!

Like WimpyDimple our two are on generous bursaries, rest is salary plus savings. While we do see the bursaries as generous, unless I increase my own earnings (needs to happen, really, anyway!), our savings run out halfway through the youngest's last year (he's just about to start boarding). So they are calculated quite tightly to what we can afford. The one on 75% is fully means tested, the other is on 20% scholarship / 30% bursary.

We may get some "early inheritance" in a year or two; if that proves possible then our bursary support will probably decrease.

Because your DC are so young, you can start planning early. Put away the full ISA allowance for you and your DH every year (think of it as it as half+ year's fees per child).
Then when they come to 11, you're more than half way there already.
If you struggle to put away that cash per year, think carefully about moving to a better area for state schools instead. I personally don't think private school should put families into debt so be realistic about your finances.

Fandabby thank you. We could put away this much, or we could overpay our mortgage so it's a really small amount left by the time DD is 11 and then pay out of income. Not sure what would be better.

Moving for a better state school is also one of the options that we are considering - would make work harder for both of us if we did that but not impossible potentially

Pay for two sets of fees out of income but we both earn six figures and yes it is a source of stress. DH in particular doesn't think its worth it.

I'd pay off your mortgage until then , then remortgage if you needed to if income wasn't going to cover it.

For those who have said they're not convinced it's worth it, can you clarify what you're not happy with? Is it that you believe your dc would be achieving the same level at state/ teaching not as great as you'd hoped or something else?