Private school other costs

[EducateMi]

If your children go to private schools, would you mind sharing how much you roughly spend per year per child excluding school fees, and what on? E.g. school trips and uniforms etc. Are there any other financial considerations when looking into private schools? Thank you.

uniform expensive but a roaring second hand exchange via Facebook saves loads

all trips are included, including the packed lunch

all after school clubs are included aside from one.

I was constantly harassed when in state for money for this and money for that. None of that in private

Not a huge amount TBH

Music lessons about £250 a term
Lunch included
School trips about £15 a term
Uniform is generally bought on sales or from second hand shop. Also other parents give stuff away on our WhatsApp group.
After school activities can be free or £5 week ish if you choose something you have to pay for.

Events prob once a term about £10 a ticket
Food and drinks about £5 per head

Sports equipment is provided but you can buy your own (cricket stuff hockey, stick etc...)

That's about it off the top of my head.

Ours have so far varied quite a bit. I think we paid about GBP 600 for Michelmas term and GBP 800 for Lent term. We live abroad, however, so a good GBP 200 of each of those was airport taxi costs for DD when flying home. The rest of the Michelmas bill was things like full sports uniform and equipment (everything bought new), stationery costs, the Christmas ball costs, which were about GBP60, plus the costs for various weekend activities for boarders, like a visit to an Escape Room (DD is a sixth former so there are a number of more costly, non-compulsory weekend jollies.) The Lent bill was pretty much all field trips - two two-day trips to London and one four-day trip to Wales. I haven't had to sign anything off so far this term, so I'm hoping to get away with a bit less (famous last words 😁).

Thanks for the replies so far, really useful information. I’m also interested in understanding the potential cost of ‘optional’ expenses like residential, skii trips abroad etc. if anyone has any insight. I saw here people say they are expensive, but would be good to learn some actual amounts. Thanks!

Our private school sadly adds on costs for lunch (£500 per term), residential trips (£300-£600 depending on where), musical instruments, chess, martial arts etc (£300 per term). We also pay a termly insurance contribution. There is also teachers' Christmas and end of year gifts to factor in and the never ending charity fundraisers.

My extras bill was around £500 a term, uniform £300 a year, overnight trips very expensive, £1200 ish each but optional

Mine varies depending on the term.

we have actually just had an email about a skiing trip in January. It’s £1450 for 6 nights but includes everything once there which I think is reasonable. They have asked for the £450 deposit today, then £1000 on Septembers fees.

our uniform is definitely better than his last school where everything was very specific and had to be bought from one retailer. His current place I can get away with M&S trousers and shirts, which keeps the costs down massively. PE kit is generally passed down and there’s an online second hand shop which most people use.

on top of that, I might spend £15ish when they have an author in to buy a book, or maybe £30 ish for a school trip, but mostly it’s all included and isn’t so bad.

Not sure of exact costs but extras are

• wrap around care
• camps or childcare for the ridiculously long holidays
• Our school has lots of paid for clubs eg dance
• trips
• uniform, including stupidly expensive PE kit
• contribution for class fund for teacher gifts etc

We only pay for bus (day pupil) £700 per term plus the odd day trip. Lunches are included as is all stationary. The biggest cost apart from the bus is the bloody sports uniform at around £600 (school uniform for the first set up was around £400).
There then might be the odd couple of £15-20 per term. Yr 7 so not the big overnight trips yet.

Sorry forgot to add that clubs are all free and also compulsory until Yr 9 apart from LAMDA/1-2-1 music lessons at approx £30 per lesson.
The school day ends at 5.15 ish so we don't need wraparound care but it is available for an extra cost.

Oh yes, sports uniform! Each term it's a different sport, so an entirely different kit each term 😒. Football in winter, rugby in spring and cricket in summer.

One DC is moving to another private school in September and will be using a school coach at an additional cost of £2k per year.

Last week 4 day residential £550
Skiing £1700
After school clubs £330
Teachers kitty present £35
Ad hoc £1 for charity / dress up days / cake sales £20-30
Day visits to somewhere educational £20-30

I honestly think it varies considerably on the school and you're best to research on the schools webpages or find parents at same school. We're planning on sending DS to private next year and DD will follow in 5 years time or so. I've done lots of research on the 2 schools we're interested in - uniform looks like the big one but second hand market good, books but they can be bought second hand, bus for us looks like an extra £100 a month and maybe same for lunches. School trips don't look too bad - compulsory ones are local and a few hundred but things like skiing aren't compulsory.

We have 2 sports per term 🙄 Plus running and swimming throughout the year!

Threads like this are largely pointless because each school varies so much. You'd do better off naming the schools you are considering so that people with DC there can advise you.

There is a conception that private schools have loads of expensive extras, but this is not my experience at all. My DS are at a private school in South London, and the extras are hardly anything.

The uniform is not expensive - the blazer is black polyester, cost around £30. Any black trousers are fine. OK, the sports kit is reasonably pricey, but the PTA holds regular second hand sales, and there are only 2 kits to buy that cover all sports played. (1 games kit & 1 PE). I don't think it costs any more than the kit at the local grammars.

You can take packed lunches in, it's not compulsory to buy school lunches.

Music/drama lessons are completely optional - cost £280 a term. All other extra curricular clubs are free.

There are expensive trips abroad that you can chose to go on, but these are optional. DS1 is in lower 6th and has never gone on one (his choice) and doesn't feel like he's missed out by not going. There is a field day once a term that everyone takes part in, but I've never had to pay for those trips, or for any GSCE fieldwork day trips.

It varies somewhat between schools so things that can make a substantial difference (but which are not always easy to find out without careful research) are:

school uniform: must it be from one named supplier, if so are they expensive?

extra uniforms such as sports kit (how elaborate is it, who is the supplier and how many bits of kit are required?)Some schools keep the uniform quite simple and use same kit for several sports. Others have a specific sports uniform for each sport and may have ‘home’ and ‘away’ kit for matches. Also beware of kit becoming more elaborate and expensive higher up the school. In the younger years it may be a very simple sports kit and that is all you will be aware of when you are considering the school. But later on when competitive sport starts with other schools the sports kit may become more elaborate and expensive.

school transport such as school coach for travel to/from school if you need this can add several hundred pounds a term.

school clubs and wrap around care. Prices can vary quite a bit between schools. Also some schools may offer wrap around care at a reasonable price to help working parents and/or the juggling of siblings attending after school clubs on different days. Others wont offer this and you may need a nanny or childminder for pick ups which may work out more expensive.

Longer school hols mean more holiday childcare costs.

Little or no extra help provided free of charge if your child needs some assistance in an aspect of their school work. I have experienced state and private prep for my children and the state schools will have group intervention classes for common areas of difficulty for young children whereas you will likely have to pay for a private tutor or pay for a school-commisioned tutor (with a school mark up added to their fee) for any extra help at school.

oh and ps, school lunches are sometimes included in school fees while some schools bill themas extra so that can be a few hundred extra per term. This should be apparent in school admissions info though but you need to liik out for it.

Expensive school trips are usually optional and places may be limited so children don’t feel excluded or the ‘odd one out’ if they don’t go.

*you need to look out for it, not liik out for it (sorry, typos creeping in).

I think each school will be quite different in what they deem as extra.

Our fees were lunches included.

The initial full uniform / sports kits (with multiple kilts/tops etc and sports kit including hockey stick / pads / gloves etc) : £700ish

Since then I'd say about £150 - £200 per year replacing lost / outgrown bits.

After school activities are included except where they get a specialist in like Judo or Tennis - that would be about £70-£120 per term. Swimming is included.

Residential trips: about £1,500 ski trip for a week. £500 uk residential trip for a week. Both optional and there's a good amount of students who choose not to go.

There's the odd workshop or visiting theatre company which will be charged around £7-£12, but this is rare.

Outings are between £0 and £30. Pack lunches are included. Transport to and from venues is included. Wrap around care is included but with optional breakfast/evening meal charged at £3.50 each.

Music is quite expensive. £25 for a 30 minute lesson, but of course optional.

I've got one at private and one at state.

The state school uniform actually costs more ( eg blazer £80 for the state one and £50 for the private)

Music lessons - £12 a session at both schools

School trips - cost seems the same. Ski trip cost was about the same too.

Lunch works out cheaper at the private school and the quality is far superior too.

The private school fees cover lots of enrichment activities ( one afternoon a week is devoted to trying out things like horse riding, tennis , golf , and loads of other fun things )

Our private school isn't one of the elite type schools and the fees are at the lower end of the spectrum.

Paying for each GCSE and A level exam taken.

They differ a lot so you really need to check with your preferred school(s) but for us:

£450 per term for lunch
£500 per term on various clubs
£265 for a week of the school run holiday camp

Uniform is expensive e.g. £100 for a blazer but haven’t bought any in nearly 2 years as the reception kit out all still fits

Trips maybe £50 max but they’ve only had 2 this year and are too young for residential

Mine don’t do music lessons

Parents night out mixers- £50 for 2 tickets plus the babysitter

Most clubs and trips included. We pay extra for ballet but you can pay for a few others like speech. Teacher collection of around £20 for Christmas and end of term.After school care, but this is very reasonable. Uniform similar to state costs. Much more emphasis on second hand uniform shop than state. The school tries very hard to keep things down. Some optional PTA things like seasonal social events.

Limited additional costs. £220 a term per instrument for music lessons. Uniform we mostly get second hand. Trips have been free until Y4 when we’ve been asked for £50 for an activity based trip. Otherwise it’s £1 donations here and there and £5 a ticket for entirely optional PA type events out of school hours.