How to budget for prep school?

[justasmalltownmum]

Hi everyone

I once saw a very detailed thread about how to budget for prep fees throughout the years. I can't find it, so started this one.

First DC. Fees are approx £4K a term. What else do I need to consider? How much should I add for uniform? Trips? Any other extras per year? Then the fee increases per year.

TIA

Hey OP. Find out what the annual fee increase has been to date. It will likely be somewhere between 3 and 5%. So work out what it will be by the time you start and each year after that. They increase every year. On top of that there's usually an incremental rise as they go through the school so by Year 6/7/8 the fees will probably be a lot higher than in Yr 3. You can then work our the total cost of sending one over 6 years or whatever it will be depending which year the school starts in. You can also work out the monthly cost. If you think you'll be in the same financial situation as you are now, start paying the fees and anything else you can afford, into a savings account. That way you have a decent buffer.
Uniform - I'd budget 800-1000 to kit them out initially.
Our extras are about 10% of fees on top.
Everything else is included at ours but check as it's not always.

Agree extras were about 10% but it may depend if lunches, trips, activities such as swimming are included or not. Annual increases can be up to 8% plus increments as they progress through the school.

For uniform, only name/take the tags off bare minimum. There may be a second hand sale early in the term and then you can return some of the new stuff.

Thank you all. Some handy tips!

Hmmm
Boarding prep: 6k fees
Initial kit out: 1.1k - lots of uniform because they wear it 7 days a week, plus stuff like pillows, towels, tuck box etc
Boarding preps don’t charge extra for clubs, but they do for most musical instrument lessons - one instrument is about £300-350 a term.

Maybe one proper away trip a year - could be anything from £300 to £3000 depending on where it is to.

Then there are always opportunities to donate money to the school…charity auctions, bursary appeals etc.

At my DS's prep the only extras were music lessons everything else was included. School uniform wasn't outrageously expensive and the school ran a second hand shop which everyone used even the richest people especially when replacing things.

I usually had about £750-1000 in extras a term including breakfast and after school club plus trips.