How much to budget for independent secondary?

[Isit2021yetplease]

We are just trying to work out if private education is anywhere near our realms. I've been trying to work out full possible costs by adding around 4% a year increase in fees and bulking it up to factor in stuff like lunches, buses, trips etc. I'm coming up with £200-£250k per child for private secondary - does this seem right? It seems an awful lot and a lot more than I had in mind.
What kind of household joint income do you think you need to facilitate this? I'm just curious as to what level people think they can comfortably afford it?
We currently have a joint income of around £100k however we both work so pay for childcare out of that. We are fortunate to have a small mortgage, but I still don't think we could get close to affording private for 2 kids, despite the fact I feel like our joint salary is quite reasonable?

Ours cost nothing like that. Fees were around 20k per child per year, for 6 years, then buses, lunches, uniforms, extras and the odd trip. Hard to give a total but certainly under 100k per child. We saved about half in advance and paid the rest out of income.

@DuesToTheDirt I should probably add my 2 are only just starting school so I have factored the fees increasing 4% every year until they every start, then continuing to increase each year. That means termly fees which are £3k now (and the ones around us are much more than that) will already be £4k per term with compound interest over the next 7 years, and over £5k per term by the time they finished.
£100 per child would definitely be do-able with a lot of saving beforehand - do you mind me asking your rough termly fees?

Typo in my last post - about 10k a year per child not 20. The kids left school a couple of years ago, but looking it up the fees for secondary are currently about 12.5k per year. 6 years not 7 as we are in Scotland.

If your kids are tiny presumably your salaries will increase as well before they start secondary?

@DuesToTheDirt I hope salaries will increase but I"m not sure they'll increase enough to keep in line - especially mine as I think we will struggle to both carry on working as we are once they enter the school system and we have holidays to factor in. £12.5k per year is good - we're Hampshire way and some of the cheapest I can find (which is obviously not the best way to select the right school anyway!) are already £15k per year.

Surely it depends on the school. My friend's children ( twins) have just finished independent school which cost her upwards of £75000 a year for both! That would definitely put a dint in anyone's budget!

DSDs private (sort after north London selective, tho she's currently in primary) today costs £21k a year in secondary. So that's nearly £150k already not allowing for price increases...

DD's is now 20k a year, was 15k a year when she started 6 years ago so watch out the price hikes can be very expensive.
Plus all the extras of course, which probably amount to another £3k a year or more if going on the ££ foreign trips

It sounds about right to me but obviously varies massively based on which school you choose. The advice I was given was to budget for at least a 5% fee increase every year. Obviously the more expensive the school the more likely the extras will be expensive too (rich families are happy to shell out thousands for ski trips etc). At the less expensive schools it's normal for parents to have been saving for private for years before hand so it's not like they could necessarily afford the fees from their annual salary.

I don’t think I’d be trying to put 2 children through a private school on family income of 100k. I’d probably make sure I’m in an excellent state catchment and then use some money for activities and trips + help through uni and onto the property ladder etc.

To answer the question, I’d probably want at least 10k/month after tax to feel that indie for secondary is doable without too many sacrifices.

Wow ok yes £10k a month after tax is probably about £200k a year isn’t it - so a long way off what we’ll be looking at having even by that stage I think. I can see why though.

I am debating a 3rd child as would love one, but if I thought we could afford private for 2 I would sacrifice a 3rd child for that (as obvs 3 would take us way out!) hence thinking about it so detailed now.
We could just do private 6th form which would be do-able but I feel like at that age it would be very tough to move and may not be a good move for them.

Loads of kids love at sixth form so I don't think that would be an issue although you often see it the other way around, children moving from private to state at sixth form, to access the large dedicated sixth form colleges which l, because of their size, can offer a much wider variety of course*.

I honestly don't know there is a significant benefit to private sixth form only or not.

• disclaimer - this might be regional to near me

The fees in ours started at about 16k in year 7 and by now (6th form) they are 24k per year. On the top of that, you need about 1k per year for trips, uniform, days out to theatre etc

Private schools near me (SW London) all about £6-7,500 per term so you'd be looking at around £19,000 - £24,000 for a year when you include lunches which are typically £250/term and school buses. That's for secondary so for Years 7-11 and then 6th form fees vary.

We’re paying £40k per year entirely out of earned income (for 2DC -this includes lunches; we have no transportation costs as the schools are both walking distance). DH and I earn about £200k (gross) between us. We’re at the point where this is comfortably affordable. We do actually have enough savings to get both DC through to the end of private school (although we’ve never had to dip into them).

It's definitely regional. Locally £15k p.a. rising to £16,500 for 6th form, so c. £110,000 for 7 years.

@HainaultViaNewburyPark that is a great situation to be in. I don’t think we will be there unfortunately and I think comfortably affording it is quite key.
Thank you everyone. Unfortnuaky living in Hampshire doesn’t help As there are no “cheap” options. Think we might be best off as someone said at a great state with private tutoring, and money for university and beyond. (And maybe a 3rd...!)

My grandchildren are in private schools in N W London and South Herts and the fees for Secondary are already £24k a year. When my son went to private school in 1986 the fees were £3k. It seemed a lot of money then.

When my son went to private school in 1986 the fees were £3k. It seemed a lot of money then.

I think they were tax deductible too back in the day?

OP, it’d be sad not have another child that you want just to pay for school fees.

Fees vary a lot. They are £10-15k typically for day school here. The one my friend ms kids attend is nearly £15k but includes buses, lunches and wrap around care

The 'extras' will vary a lot from school to school.

Some include lunches, some are extra, some you can take your own.
Uniforms can cost, but increasingly so can those at state school. My DS school was very relaxed in terms of uniform being happy with any brand of shirts, trousers and jumpers as long as they were of the correct colour which kept the cost down. I know others can be ridiculously expensive.
Compulsory trips weren't too expensive (eg fieldwork days etc)
The big trips - skiing, abroad etc are not compulsory and have limited numbers so not everyone can go anyway.
Some you have to pay things like exam fees, but not all.
Depending on location, they can still use public transport to get there - don't have to use school transport. You would have to get them to a state school too.

Ours is £20k per year for 2 dc but with only a 1 year overlap
Extras aren’t a lot either

It should be relatively easy to figure out if you can afford the fees.

My advice would be don’t underestimate the extras: uniform costs about £1200 for four DC; plus specialist sports kit. ECAs are all pricey as are the lunches at an extra £6 per child per day.

I’ve had to buy my eldest two new iPads this year (plus keyboards and pens). Then there’s books, school trips and various “contributions” throughout the year.

When my DC we’re younger there was a time when the fees were a stretch and I was worried I’d made the wrong decision. Our financial position is very different now so I’m glad I stuck it out but if it hadn’t I think it would have felt a slog.

This is what I meant about extras.

My 2 were at two different private secondaries.
One had compulsory lunches but cost £3.30 a day.
The only books we had to buy were the set texts for English GSCE at one school, nothing at the other (many text books are on line these days anyway).
The only extra curricular I had to pay for was music lessons - and that would be the same at state school, or if we had gone privately out of school.
Both schools had regular charity days/mufti days etc, but again these happen at state schools.
I've never had to provide electronics, although both had their own laptops, but that was our choice.

It pays to do your research!

Surrey/Hampshire averages about £15k for girls, slightly more for boys. I have many, many friends on £100k salaries who have two kids in private. As always it depends on your expenses and lifestyles.