2025 Private School Costs (just a rant)

[sherbsy]

Just a rant ladies as I wanted to get something off my chest...

My DH and I were lucky enough to go to private schools as kids. These schools weren't exactly posh, they were just former grammar schools (i.e. academic student factories) that converted in the 70s to private schools because the Labour government at the time told them to.

I know it's a privilege to go, there's a choice involved, a compromise etc. Neither of us ever went on holiday as kids or had many luxuries and our parents endured a lot to be able to afford it. I'm grateful for all they did and I wanted to do the same for my children.

But despite having good jobs...we just can't.

My rant is just at the excessive cost of it all in 2024. We both earn well and it's still beyond our means. With VAT being added in January, I'm not even sure it's worth it anymore.

When I left in 2000, it cost our parents ~£6,500 for a year. Inflation adjusted, that's about £12,000 in today's money. By no means cheap but both the schools we went to are now charging ~£22,000 per child, per year. That's before you factor in uniform, lunches, trips, exam costs etc.

Finding £44,000+ after tax every year with today's marginal tax rates, mortgage costs, food costs, energy costs etc just isn't possible for us...and I'd surprised many people can find it.

I know it's a middle-class rant, I know there's privilege involved but can anyone else empathise with us? It just feels like the Labour government have twice pulled the ladder away from capable kids (once in the 70s and now in 2024), offering it only to the rich ones.

@Blessedbunny " You get out what you put in. So if grammar schools encourage more intelligent children to do well, and they do well, there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s called raising people up not pushing them down. We are not all equal - intelligence is a particular attribute that meets a normal distribution across the population"

Of course there's nothing wrong with intelligent children doing well. There is something very wrong with a system that perpetuates the idea that privileged children are more intelligent than less privileged children. Which the grammar system does.

'capable kids' will do perfectly well at state school - my two children got 3A* grades at A Level, are at top universities now, and went to state school. This is the way it should be - everyone gets the same quality of education and those who are capable of achieving the highest grades, do. I say this as someone who could afford private and instead have used that money to fund experiences, university, and will in future give them a house deposit.

Oh well; suck it up OP.

It's an upper class problem - sorry you're not even richer (not)

I find it fascinating that the VAT addition has been the cause of so much angst on this site for the last few months, whereas the narrative set out in the OP is the British middle classes being priced out of private schooling because of rising fees, wage stagnation, increased chasing of wealthy overseas families. In that context the added VAT is neither here nor there?

Why is Labour the bogeyman here - is it vibes, just seems the sort of thing labour would do or do the other factors feel too abstract/out of direct control to blame?

I went to private school 11-16 and ran as fast as I could out of there after my GCSEs. I went to a state sixth form and Oxford.

I've been teaching in a state secondary for 20 years, which my eldest DS now attends. I couldn't be happier with it. There are outstanding state schools everywhere, far better than the private school I attended.

'capable kids' will do perfectly well at state school

That's not the reality. Children starting with similar attainment at the end of primary show very different attainments at the end of secondary, depending on which schools they went to.

There is wide variation in progress 8 score among schools in England and an alarmingly large number, over 1 in 5, have less than -0.3 progress score and do not improve.

See here for example, https://ffteducationdatalab.org.uk/2024/04/changes-in-schools-progress-8-scores-over-time/

State schools produce wildly different outcome given similar cohort, some are very good, and many are unfortunately not so. That IS the problem. If they are all similarly good across the country, many private school parents will save the fees and gladly send DC to state.

And people who blithely advise here to move house near the catchment of a good state school are disconnected from most people's reality.

The state school my DD was offered (which we did not list) has a P8 of -1.08 for the high achievers who go. They do over a grade worse at GCSE compared to equivalent kids across the country.

It has minus across the board, but when you dig into the stats, it’s very clear that the high achievers are not pushed at all and the focus is on the low achievers to try and get them over the c-grade barrier.

DD is a very high achiever. I would never let her go there.

But the ‘good’ and ‘outstanding’ schools with a positive or at least neutral P8 were all full. Even the ones we should easily have got into based on the previous years numbers.

We were already restricted in possibilities due to her SEN. So she goes private.

Am trying to collate enough evidence for DD2 to be able to successfully get her into one of the decent state schools - I’ve got 4 years to manage it, because affording another set of fees given the inflation and cost of living may be beyond us.

Of course it's not true. Grammar's are the golden ticket to smart kids from poor backgrounds. The opportunity they provide is absolutely fantastic.

The problem is accessing them - house prices in catchments price out poorer people.

I don't know why academics often deny this. It's painfully obvious.

I was talking to a doctor friend of mine on Friday whose daughter is in Year 6 at a state primary. He said he'd considered private school (there's a lovely all-girls one at the end of his road), especially since he's got two daughters.

He's a consultant (so's his wife) so he confessed he was anticipating sending them both there for Year 7.

However, he said that with the cost now £23k each (and rising), he didn't want to have to find all that cash after tax. Interestingly, despite going to one himself, he didn't think it's even worth it anymore.

IMO, this shows that independents are finished. When doctors (classic private-school canon-fodder) stop sending their kids, the writing is on the wall. Buckle-up.

I know quite a few state educated doctors who have gone down the state route for their dc. I suppose it’s less of a scary idea as they have been through it themselves.

And a 2 surgeons

Because academics focus on data, not comfortable narratives. Even in fully grammar areas (and at schools where admission is more determined by test scores than by proximity), those who attend grammars are significantly disproportionately from more affluent families.

Once controlled for prior attainment (socioeconomic attainment gaps start from
about 3) , there's still a big gap in admissions.

At least half of that gap can be explained by private tutoring.

(And I know you're not keen on what academics have to say... but grammars may not be all that in terms of results, either.)

Depends where you are. Our local private school would probably close without the offspring of the local hospital doctors and GPs throughout the county! Stuffed full of them!

Though your anecdote is a heartening one to hear.

When doctors (classic private-school canon-fodder) stop sending their kids, the writing is on the wall. Buckle-up.

Those that want to keep going and have big endowments etc will find a way to attract pupils special discounts or bursaries or whatever for the top performers academically
Or more and more students from abroad

Those that don't go down the route may decide it s not a viable business concern and may close yes. Or switch to specific age groups where there is demand like nurseries.

I’m in London, in general it’s a lot more diverse across a number of spectrums.

I didn't go to private school, neither did my child. I think VAT on private education is ridiculous, these parents are propping up the state sector, saving the government £8k per annum in secondary school costs. Bloody stupid and so unfair.

And certainly getting into the grammars in London requires time &/or money. It’s quite normal to tutor extensively from yr 4 & I know tutors with 2 yr plus waiting lists.

😂 Ok everyone! We have been Warned 🚨..

The author of that report went to Hangzhou High School, an English International school in China with exceptionally high academic standards and, yes, entrance exams.

@sherbsy "Of course it's not true. Grammar's are the golden ticket to smart kids from poor backgrounds. The opportunity they provide is absolutely fantastic"

No. Smart kids from poor backgrounds just don't get into grammar schools. The "golden ticket" is a comprehensive school with sets.

And?

@paularan "The author of that report went to Hangzhou High School, an English International school in China with exceptionally high academic standards and, yes, entrance exams"

What's the relevance of that?

Erm, do you not find any irony and sadness in the way that someone who's directly benefited from selective education now releases a report suggesting it has no benefits?!

I still can't get over the hundreds of threads about this. Private schools have always been expensive and the vast majority of people could never afford to send their children to them just like the vast majority couldn't comfortably afford to buy a Gucci handbag. But people on these threads feel they're entitled to be able to send their children to private school. If you have to "scrimp and save and not have holidays and eat crappier food" than maybe you should consider it's just not worth it.

You are not rich. Just accept it. Only a very small number of people actually are and you are not one of them.

@paularan Who better to know? If he had been at a non selective school, you would be accusing him of envy and of wanting to facilitate a "race to the bottom"!