What’s the comfortable household income for private school in London?

[gobbledoops]

Just that really. I have spoken to a few colleagues who are in the 200K household income range, which to my mind would have put them comfortably in the private school for two DC zone, but who are sending their kids to state schools because of financial concerns. So, private school parents, what do you earn to be comfortable sending two kids to private schools and paying for after school care, mortgage and all the bills?

Let’s not make this a VAT thread please.

In DS3 (6 year old, going into Year 2) class, I would say around 1/3 to 1/2 of mums don't work and it was broadly the same at primary in my older DSs' classes. And those that did work, either did part time or casually from home. The issue is that in order to afford childcare (most nurseries around here are around £100 per day) or pay £15-£20 an hour net for a nanny, you need to be on a least 70k so not worth it for a lot of mums. Middle son is at a private schools and all the mums I know work although he is older/year 10 so partly to do with that.

It’s unsurprising that the big factor in this choice is the huge cost of London housing.

When we were vaguely talking about moving back to London for the kids’ secondary education, the cost of a nice, but not amazing house in a place we liked (probably the outer reaches of Hampstead) was about 2 million. We instead spent 1.2 million, which meant less than half the repayments for a house in a lovely commuter village and sucked up the commute. We also had a great state village school which freed us of several years of school fees. It has been a great choice for us, and we’ve just been able to get a pied a terre In Zone Two which the teens are now loving!

Bit of a mad question because one family on £200k will have different financial commitments (mortgage, supporting parents/other family members, other debts) than others. Some people may have a household income of £200k but no mortgage due to inheritance or family gifts - they could afford school fees for 2 kids easily. Another family may be mortgaged to the hilt in which case they would not be able to afford school fees even though £200k sounds like a lot of money.

Everyone's circumstances are different.