London private schools offering sibling discounts

[eighthourcreme]

Hi everyone - it would be great if anyone could tell me if their London private schools offer any type of sibling discount? We have four kids and for various reasons, planning for them to go private for senior school. We are also thinking about moving, so area doesn't really matter at this point.

I know there have been lots of private vrs state threads lately, and I know we could move close to a great grammar (and we might still do that) - but for now, if anyone could let me know about sibling discounts, I'd love to know.

So far I know that Wimbledon High and Putney High offers 20 percent off for third and subsequent children.

Others I've found are -

North London Grammar offers £300 off per child if you pay a year's fees upfront (doesn't seem like an amazing deal tbh!)

Abercorn offers 5 percent per child.

Any others? Get the impression that some schools don't exactly want to advertise this in all cases...I'd love to know WHAT schools offer discounts, but if you'd rather just tell me that your school does without naming it, that's useful too! x

That is before a possible 20% vat on fees!

A subset of Christians where it's pretty much a religious obligation to have as many children as possible to spread Christianity around. The analogy is that as a man needs a quiver full of arrows, the Christian Man needs 5, 6, 7. 10 children to go out and spread The Word. Which requires a lot of money. A Hell of a lot of money - and if they've got that sort of money, not only is there a more or less guaranteed income stream for the next 15 or so years as the children keep coming, there's likely to be a shitload of benevolent donations.

Presumably 'Go forth and multiply' is not militaristic enough for them.

When ds was at SPS (some time ago now but I don't think it's changed) we knew a family with 3 boys there who used to joke about their 'massive' (not) discount. One of the boys also had an academic scholarship worth, I think, £60.

Thanks 🙂 @NeverDropYourMooncup!

The north London school my girls attend (single sex) is a 5% discount for the younger child(ren) when the girls are at the school at the same time.

I think the ‘if you can afford it, you shouldn’t need the discount’ is a bit of a silly point, though. 6k is still 6k! It’s like saying ‘if you can buy a million pound house, why shop at Aldi?’ - surely it’s up to the individual how to spend and what is fair value.

also, discounting for loyal ‘customers’ is good business, no? If a family is paying a school huge amounts because they have three or four kids, discounts are a way of acknowledging that family’s commitment to the school. And (very minor point), families that know the school very well are slightly less of a headache from an admin perspective, surely?! 😂

@DibbleDooDah - could you name which one? Habs? NLCS? Channing?

It's not in London, I know, but I think that Charterhouse offers quite good sibling discounts, if that suits.

I agree that every little helps but I don't think it would make much difference to whether a family sends their 3rd child there or not and it certainly wouldn't usually influence a family to send their first born there rather than somewhere else if they had a whole host of children because realistically they might not all get in there.

@11plusdoneanddusted - true, I know the reality of it - fully aware competitive schools give no sibling priority! But I am just curious at this point to know what schools do offer discounts for multiple children, and how common it is….

I just looked at Charterhouse- they offer a sliding scale up to 4 kids! Although the likelihood of having 4 kids there would be slim I suspect unless very small age gaps! They are also (arguably) less competitive and therefore keen to get whole families who might have more options?

The policy is not usually stated upfront in the school websites. The best approach is to go to each school and ask their admission departments about sibling discounts and other admission criteria. This could change so be mindful of year joining. The siblings discount could be via scholarships in sport, drama, music etc if a few of the siblings are showing talents in certain fields or academic.

The PHS/WHS is GDST policy as well so may also change going forward.

Queenswood. Technically just outside London but a large number of girls live in Islington / Hampstead / St John’s Wood and travel out. Not particularly selective but not every girl applies gets an offer and they have a waiting list. Looking for average ability and above.

Our prep school in Herts (30 mins into Euston) offers a 10% discount for siblings where they attend at the same time. The school has just announced they are going through to 16 too.

St John's (Ridgeway) definitely does. It's also the cheapest private secondary school in London I believe as they get sponsored by Arsenal (or so the rumours say).

I think the ‘if you can afford it, you shouldn’t need the discount’ is a bit of a silly point, though. 6k is still 6k! It’s like saying ‘if you can buy a million pound house, why shop at Aldi?’ - surely it’s up to the individual how to spend and what is fair value.

Of course every little helps but if you are paying so much for private school in the first place wouldn't you want the right school for each child as opposed to a school that's offers a sibling discount to offset a tiny fraction of the cost.

Are the children close enough in age to all be at secondary school at the same time? Schools normally only offer any discount for the period of overlap so if oldest has left before youngest staryed then there would only ever be a maximum of 3 children attending at any one time.

Another thing, in the OP you say you haven't ruled out moving closer to a very selective grammar school. What would you do if one or more child failed to secure a place there? Seems a big assumption that you can just be in catchment and your children will all secure places.

I believe Hillhouse offers sibling discounts

St Augustines Priory in Ealing offers 7.5% for the first, 12.5% for the second and 20% for the third. Also some very generous scholarships! I think this makes a massive difference if you have more than two children at the school and is definitely one of the reason why I chose it. Girls only though so your boy would have to go somewhere else.

https://g.co/kgs/H8dHZKgSt James Preparatory & Nursery School
020 7348 1777