How do people afford private school?

[PopGoesTheWeaselYetAgain]

Following on from discussion House of Commons today, how do people afford private school fees? Is it by sacrificing holidays and other luxuries? That wouldn't by you a year, but did she perhaps mean a term? How do you pay for the other two terms?

I'd appreciate it if posters refrained from speculation. I'm interested in people's actual financial circumstances and decisions.

I am not sure what you are getting at too? If you are working part time in a minimum wage job then no you probably wont be sending your child to private school unless you have generous GP's.

For us we didnt have previous relationships with children and maintenace to pay. We dont have expensive hobbies but we do like to go on holiday. Like others say the nursery fees set us up well along with a 5 year gap between children.

I don't think this question can be easily answered. There will always be a range of levels and sources of income.

My DCs are at an independent with very generous scholarships which makes it much easier as we are paying out of our incomes. We're definitely towards the lower end of the income bracket of parents but dont feel like the poor relation. We do have to make choices. I'd definitely like to be able to afford a better class of holiday but not too fussed about about a newer / flasher car.

Which reminds me, I recently had to go to an evening meeting that took place at the state school my DCs would have attended. I was a bit early so sat in the car outside school. There was a school event the same evening and families streamed through at high speed, all in new 4x4s. I was genuinely shocked that every single car was new (or nearly new) but I guess that reflected financial choices too. Having seen the families and cars, it was clear that actually my DCs independent education is offering is offering a more diverse experience. A bit off topic but I've only just thought of the unexpected contrast.

That's interesting. There aren't many only children at all in my daughter's year at school. In fact, I'd say there are more families with 3 kids than only 1.

Most parent where we are seem to be paying from earnings though I'm sure there are some getting family help. The demographic is almost entirely two working parents with at least one parent typically in law or finance (though not all). A lot of the mothers work part time rather than full time.

I have two at private school, fees are currently c.£12.5 a term. I earn high 5 figures. We live very simply, don't have regular overseas holidays, don't waste money. We both work FT and could manage on husbands modest earnings so mine are mainly spent on school fees.

That's how we do it!

Exactly this! 👏
Many posters keep on praising the European education system without being aware that in most of Europe (definitely in Germany) there is a grammar school equivalent (if memory serves be right, called the Gymnasium) system. This system helps academic children and the not-so-academic ones. They all find their tribe and for the academic children it's not uncool to be interested in studying.

What’s hpb?

My parents did it because one was a very, very high earner and the other was a high earner and spent entire income on just the fees (two of us at 20k per year so 40k of taxed income). Some people have their parents sell a house, downsize then use the money for grandkids.

Private schools are for rich people and it’s even harder than it used to be to be ‘rich’. I’m surprised that people are surprised!

So I think one was on 250k and the other 70k or something

Yeah I guess

My late MIL used to be a HPB (Holiday Property Bond) member. Basically it's a bit like a timeshare, you buy points for a lump sum and then each year you redeem your points against a holiday but they have villas, etc all over the place. We were able to go away with her to Portugal and Venice years ago for very low cost.

Holiday Property Bond - Transform your Family Holidays (hpb.co.uk)

Only a tiny minority of British people - 7% - attend private school.

So isn't the obvious answer, for the majority of them - they afford it by being rich enough?

If you want to go into "how" they got rich, well that's a whole other can of worms...

(Cue lots of posters saying with a straight face that they "went without" to afford it 🙃)

My question was along the lines of, do people just easily pay it out of income,nor have they saved before having children, and/or ho without things
What are the financial implications for most families.

It's really quite a straight forward question, and pleanty of people have managed to answer it. 😄

@PopGoesTheWeaselYetAgain I'm always asked how I do it for two. I have no mortgage plus I earn just close to 6 figures. At 6k per term per child, I have nothing much left after fees and bills. I did save a lot pre kids so if there's an emergency, I can always do that. In my class, it's largely wealthy dads, mum at home situations.

It fascinates me that the few underperforming state schools are almost always in areas of significant social deprivation- which also also seem to be populated by people who can afford private education. Something doesn't add up there!.
I remember being gobsmacked when a friend pointed out that her childcare bill was more than the fees of a local private school. I didn't believe her so had a look. She was right

People also seem to think that underperforming schools are RI or inadequate but there are many issues in some schools graded good and outstanding too.

I worked in one highly regarded school. It wasn't perfect but it was a nice school. There were still issues there, and staffing issues, and behaviour issues from a minority of students that affected others. There was also a huge culture of private tutoring for GCSE. My colleagues were generally good teachers, but the school results were definitely improved by the scale of private tutoring.

I live in a very affluent area. My catchment state comp is a RI. I have a friend who is a freelance SENCO and knows all the schools in the area. She told me in no uncertain terms not to send my DCs there.

.

We did not get offered a state school place we were happy with and were used to paying private preschool fees. We have one DC, so decided we would continue to pay what we were already accustomed to paying. However the grandparents stepped in and offered to cover, we suspect because a) they think London is dodgy and b) we only have one DC, so there was no pressure or expectation of replication). I don’t think you can waste money on education or health.

We earn £140-170k a year between us (both of us careful to stay under £100k so our incomes are broadly equal).

1. We decided not to buy a large house like our friends did and plugged a lot of savings into it so our mortgage was under 40% loan to value.
2. Husband has a company car allowance and chooses his cars so they are under that allowance (and we don’t need to pay extra). I drive an 8 year old car.
3. No commuting costs - we’re both mostly remote workers.
4. We cook from scratch using the methods my mum taught me - lots of tinned / frozen / discounted veg / bulk buying. It means we do one big non-perishable shop per year (£1,000) + monthly top ups of £150-200 a month. DS’ school lunches are £60/mth. We’ll spend approx £100 every 2 months on eating out. I don’t think that’s bad for a family of 3. It could definitely be better if we didn’t eat eggs / tofu / meat weekly - but I like to have a variety in.
5. Local state primaries are okay but recently changed so our catchment now doesn’t prioritise children who live closest to them. The Private School we chose turned out to be closer than all three of the other State schools.
6. Grounds are better at the private. They do PE everyday from preschool. They learn music each week from preschool.
7. We were paying £900 / mth in childcare and nursery fees and realised we weren’t missing the money. Local private prep is £300 a month more - so I stopped feeding one of my regular savers to make up the difference.
8. We don’t tend to take huge holidays every year as I’m scared of flying. Lots of little trips & one big holiday every 2-3 years.
9. With private school fees, mortgage etc we’re still able to save approx 25% of monthly net income. This was important to me.

Two kids in private school; we both work full time in relatively senior jobs, mortgage was paid off when the youngest was in junior school. School fees are paid out of income but we have set aside an emergency cash stash that should cover 3/4 years of school, so I can sleep at night. Live relatively modestly: the car is 16 years old, we don't drink, eat meat once a week, eat out less than once a quarter (and then usually it's a pizza), we only ever have either Netflix or Disney. Holidays are abroad but always staying with family so no eating out involved and no accomodation costs.
We do like opera and go a couple of times a year. Usually theatre a couple of times a year and 3/4 exhibitions. Other than that, we are quite boring and like staying at home and having friends over. None of this is specifically to save for private school, it just happens to be the way we like to live.

The prep school I might send my children to is cheaper than their nursery so in theory anyone who could afford the nursery could afford the prep school.

A lot of grandparents paid the fees at our children’s school.

By never going abroad-just chucking a tent of the boot of their beat up old Volvo and setting off to Cornwall.

It’s the same in Romania. They have a grammar school system and on top of that they have language schools which are heavily subsidised by the sponsoring country, with very modest parental financial input. In these language schools they only speak in the sponsored language; the ones I know of are German an Japanese (it’s a given that they’ll all learn English, and given the emphasise that the British government puts on learning languages in its own schools its hardly likely to be sponsoring the learning of languages in another country).
needless to say it’s a fairly self selecting type of parent who sends their child to the language school.
and in the UK? Can’t have grammar schools, they are unfair and divisive and little Jonny who could sit GCSE math in reception has to sit and learn math with Nigel, who will never progress past counting to 10 despite 1-2-1 support for the whole 14 years of his schooling….because that is fair.

Just pay it out of salary.

There's a full range of answers at our school:
Teachers get a 50 per cent discount
Wealthy families with trust funds
Families paying it out of income

Also there's a full range of fees from £15k for a day school to £50k for boarding.. makes a big difference