Private school

[Jubba]

How many of you send children to private school? What are the benefits?

Do any of you send more than 1 child? And roughly how much a mo th does it cost you!

Thank you! ❤️

My daughter with dyslexia was failing in a state school. We have sent her to a specialist dyslexia school/ it is absolutely worth every penny

There's no automatic benefit of going private. It depends on what the other options are.

In my area it would be a waste of money going private vs some of the great state schools.
You can get smaller class sizes, but the jury is out in terms of research evidence whether it makes a difference.
You get social selection so your children are fairly likely to only be mixing with affluent middle class or higher children.
Extra curricular are generally consistently better than your average state school, but a good state school can easily match private.
If the private school is strong academically, they may have a way if suggesting parents of children with SEND take their child elsewhere.
Or you could get a nurturing private school that can better support Some SEND than an overstretched state sector
Better curriculum in places due to not having the pressures of SATS etc.
I get the impression at primary things are a bit more holistic in some prep schools (others do for the 11+ what state do for SATS though)
There's the benefit of being able to IGCSE instead of new linear specs (if the school wishes)
The behaviour on the whole will probably be better as part of 'we paid fees so don't arse around'
Teaching quality is no better than strong state schools in my opinion (but is significantly better than in struggling state schools)

It depends on the schools on offer and which would suit your child more.

We do because the local state provision wouldn’t have suited dd at all, in fact friends who teach there told us not to send her. She could have gone to Grammar but it’s quite far and the Private school is less than 5 minutes walk and quite a few of her friends also live nearby. She wanted to go.
Plus we can afford it ( and she gets a 25% scholarship too)

Thanks all. We have awful state schools here. Class sizes are about 34 children per class.

It’s around £2000 a month for 2 children to go where I am.

We have thought about moving. But all the amazing state schools near us are over subscribed and there’s no guarantee of entrance.

Our local schools are average at best, low aspirations and poor extra curricular activities. Nearest grammar school is 1.5 hours away.
We moved DS1 a year ago to private Yr3 and he says he loves it.
Cost for 1 child is £1k per month.

£2000 a month for 2 children, so £12000 per year per school? You're presumably not in London or the SE, where it is more like £15-20,000 for the most sought after schools.

You need to calculate fee inflation of at least 5% per annum (which means that fees will pretty much have doubled from reception to sixth form) plus sometimes larger leaps at certain points such as Y3/Y7/sixth form. Uniform can be expensive but many schools do second hand sales.

Boarding school are more like £30-40k p.a. but there are 2 decent day schools near us (not in London /SE) for £12-15k p.a.
School uniform shop is a must and you can buy just about everything at 25% new price

School costs vary from around £12k p.a. to £42k p.a.! Every independent school sets their own fees, so you need to look at the specific schools in your area.
If you start a thread stating your area, or listing the schools available to you, I'm sure you'll get lots of relevant help- there are usually MNers with children currently/previously in them.

We send two to private. It costs about £600 a month for the youngest in reception and £900 for the eldest in Y2. It goes up to £1000 a month by Y3. The benefits are school dependent. I like this school because it's small and family orientated. Lovely green grounds, more flexibility in the curriculum, forest school, lots of music.

I am in the south east actually. Not London though. Thanks all. It’s defo something we’re thinking about.

@Jubba then are you sure that £12,000 per year is accurate? That's low for a good private school in the SE.

coffee = that's about what we paid in lower years in all the children's private schools in Bucks. DD is about that at the moment (year3)

In the average prep in London it’s about 12-15K I think. We pay about 600 for one and about 1000 for another. It’s a fab school and we can afford it but we don’t do big holidays or anything.

£12k is on the low side for London preps, except possibly for reception - some charge a lot less for reception than for other years.

devonshirehouseschool.co.uk/fees-and-application/
www.lyndhursthouse.co.uk/admissions-fees.php
www.hendonprep.co.uk/admissions-fees/fees/
www.stanthonysgirls.co.uk/admissions/admissions-procedure/

@KoshaMangsho do you really pay only £7,200 fees per year for one child? Which school if you don't mind me asking?

I do. But that’s because he’s under 5 and I get the 30 hours off. He only does 3 hours a day!

ah I see, it's nursery or kindergarten rather than school. that makes complete sense, I thought you were talking about proper school. I was very jealous!

Yes, DS age 6. We are only having one.
Advantages- smaller class sizes, more individual attention, more opportunities to do things like music, dance, drama and sport. Longer holidays so we can go on hols when it’s cheaper. School don’t get het up if he’s off poorly or we take him out for a day at the end of term. Teach to 11+ which as we want private secondary makes life easier.
Disadvantages- DS is one of only 7 boys in his class which isn’t great for friendship circle. He’s happy enough at school and has friends outside school though, so this isn’t enough of a reason to move him.
His school fees at the moment are 7k per year so it’s not too expensive with 2 parents earning decent money.

I lived abroad and my primary age children went to private school. Would recommend going private if you can afford it because of small class sizes, facilities and extra curricular activities. The teachers just had more time to understand my children and meet their needs. They are in a very good state school now but I really have to do more at home with them. I personally went to an inner city comprehensive and went to top universities. So the state system does work.

We've paid about £5k a term in prep school, rising to just over £8k a term in 6th form.
Started out in London and moved to Surrey.
It was the right decision for our child.

I pay just under £1000 a month for one in prep that includes lunches and a couple of early drop offs. School is a through 4-18 school but fees significantly higher in senior school. When I had 2 I paid one monthly and one termly from annual bonus. Slightly risky strategy as if bonus hadn’t come up would have had to have dipped into savings but it was always fine. That was about £13/14k by the end of year 6 so would have been £2200 for 2 in prep per month

Only have one child - prep was @£1500 per month age 4/5 but now in final year 6th form @£6500 monthly - wish my salary had risen in line with this rise in fees too

Yes but only because she's on a mod bursary (70%) advantages are better facilities, smaller classes and self selecting students but they are cosseted away from the real world and can struggle at university if they have been spoon fed too much at school. Dd1 went to a college of 3000 to a university of 12000, dd2 will go from 350 to 15000, I worry she will be overwhelmed.

Ps fees are circa £10k here for primary rising to £12k for secondary. We pay £4500 for boarding thanks to bursary.

We live in Surrey and my son is at a prep school just over the county in Berkshire, 20 minutes drive from us. We pay £600 a month, £7,200 a year and that includes lunches, school-led extra curricular, before and after school care from 6-8 and all holiday care. In terms of cost it feels like halfway between an independent and state school but in terms of educational experience, it feels more like an independent.

We’ve been there since September (my son is in preps/juniors), it’s small, nurturing with good discipline and small class sizes, max 21 in a class and experienced teachers. He’s getting on so much better than at his previous state school although my older children did fine at state school, it was really that my youngest was a bit easily-led and he benefits from experienced teachers and better discipline - he’s academically reasonably capable.

The school does not have fabulous grounds or brilliant sports facilities, but they have use of a local boarding school pool and Forest school facilities, they learn three languages and have all the wider extra curricular opportunities, art/pottery/cookery etc plus preparation for the local grammars (because many children don’t go on to private secondary).

I think state v private really depends on both the child and the school, as I said, my other children did well at their state primary and have gone to state secondary with no issues.

I have 1 ds at a private school (4-13 boys traditional pre prep and prep) and ds2 starting reception in sept.
DS1 is anxious, has inflammatory bowel disease, has dyspraxia and now we know he also has dyslexia. He started reception in a local primary, sadly not our closest or even second closest (both small and over subscribed) and didn't settle. The school couldn't cope with his intermittent diarrhoea and kept sending him home. Struggled with large class and was middling academcially so the teacher had no time for him. The teacher was very good, just stretched.
DS1 moved to his current school. with class of 15 and very nuturing atmosphere. They have managed ds well and he has come out of himself. H is academically behind most of his class, who sre all super bright high achievers but he is happy there. Homework and behaviour at home is a nightmare but that is nothing to do with it being a private school.

DS2 will go there too for convinence and my feeling the boys will bond better if at the same school. He appears 'normal' so might be ok at any school. The experience for ds1 has been so positive given his difficulties I feel it would be unfair to treat ds two differenetly.

I would look at your local schools, state and private and se how you feel. You can always start in one and move later if needed.