How much do you need to earn to pay for private school?

[PfizerFan]

From experience, do you reckon it is doable if both parents earn around £60k?
One child, not a huge mortgage.
What are people's experiences of this, with all the extras?
Not talking about myself, just wondering..

We earn about the same, and have a very generous offer of a large sub from grandparents, and we’re still in two minds.

We have two kids, so with the sub, putting them both through is about £40k - £60k depending on which school we choose.

We can afford it on paper, but that’s a lot of family holidays, driving lessons, even a house deposit, so it’s just the question of what do you value more.

(we haven’t decided the answer yet!)

No idea on secondary but for primary the catchment can be absolutely tiny. So you can live very close to a great primary but still not get a place and end up at the rubbish school round the corner.

No idea on secondary but for primary the catchment can be absolutely tiny. So you can live very close to a great primary but still not get a place and end up at the rubbish school round the corner

That's not really true now because there aren't many rubbish primaries and falling pupil numbers have increased catchments.

I was thinking more South East London, where there are options that don't need catchment.

Kingsdale, Graveney, Prendergast, Askes New Cross Gate, Grey Coat, Chestnut Grove etc. As long as you are happy to travel and up for a crack at the aptitude tests there are lots of really great secondaries.

In London can’t see it. Some private are more £30k a year plus the vat now.

We earn similar and have had 3 children at private school until last week.
it’s been just about affordable for the last 4 years but the extra VAT cost has meant we are moving them back to state as each child reaches the next key stage.
With 1 child I think it is definitely affordable if they it’s not Eton for example.

From experience pre-VAT it was doable with one parent on £48k and one on £38k. Obviously it's steeper now but yes both on £60k should be totally fine.

That's about our income, mortgage of 1k and 1 child. We would have been fine but when we got an excellent state place thanks to falling birth rates the cost benefit analysis didn't stack up for private prep. We are stashing the cash as long as possible before hopefully switching at secondary, could be earlier/later. This removes a bit of anxiety about job losses etc

It depends on your other outgoings and how many children you intend to educate.

Amazed its as low as 5k per term. The primaries we looked at were about 25k pa. which we didn't fancy...

I'd start state and if you arent happy move.
5k pa (saving you 10k pa) buys a lot of tutoring if grammar is your aim...

We earn about this, near us is currently about 23k a year and slightly higher for seniors, plus uniform and trips and ASC is £20 a day. It's a stretch too far for us especially for primary. Or would stop us being able to save anything much at all, our mortgage is just over £1400

Surely depends on school! Cheap basic one or a school sending dc to Eton and Wycombe Abbey! Then you need to consider which senior school. The best cost a lot and you will struggle. Lesser ones are cheaper but their attributes vary and some aren’t great.

Cheaper option is move to where there are good schools and grammars.

We went state for primary. Private for secondary. 3 k per year so less expensive than most (semi private). Me sahm. Dh 60k per year.

Just to flag that tutoring is rife in preps too- so the kids are getting into grammars but I’d guess on top of school fees parents are tutoring too. Can you afford tutoring on top?

Don’t start prep with the hope of getting into a grammar. You need to sit down and work out income/ outgoings, assuming they will be private until 18.
There are too many variables for us to say whether it’s affordable to you.
We moved ours to a private school in year 7. Prior to that we saved the money “as if” we were paying the fees - the idea was we wanted 2 years of fees saved up and we wanted to see if our finances would cope, and we wanted a big cushion in case either of us lost our jobs we wouldn’t have to worry. In the end with the vat changes we had less than 2 years but sent them anyway.
we’re slowly making up the “difference” - bonuses etc all go into the school pit (typing error meant to say pot but pretty accurate!) on top of fees, it coats around £5k a year for trips, school bus, school lunches, uniform.

In Sutton, most good state primaries will have plenty of kids prepping for grammar exams too and the necessary peer group. If you do private from the outset, you run the risk that the aim/culture is some sort of elite uber expensive private secondary school. Once private it’s much harder to go back. I have seen a lot of my friends and colleagues fall into the private school lifestyle trap. Much better to save in an ISA for your child long term especially under this current Government.

This is good advice.

It's not about your incomes - it's about your outgoings.