If your child goes to private school, what job do you do?

[scrambledeggy]

Just curious really- I don't know anyone who has kids at private school, but I always pass a massive one on my way to work and wonder what kind of jobs people do to afford it?

Husband is a partner in big law, I’m in consulting but freelance part time these days to be available for the children

Own our own business and I am
fastidious with investments so we have more than one income stream

My friend works in a private school and has recognised footballers, minor celebrities and a well known local gangster amongst the parents. More traditionally a lot of parents seem to be property developers.

I'm not in the North of England, sorry, although sometimes I fantastise about living in Northumberland... Bamburgh Beach...a thousand heart emojis.

Anyway, I would research all the public/private schools in your area to see if any of them offer means-tested bursaries. You'll never know if you don't look and try.

I've never had a big salary. Mine went through public school from 13 to 18. Academic scholarships, plus bursaries. I used inherited money as well. I made the decision to live in a modest house and drive an old estate car, as per.

I should maybe add that my siblings and I also went through public school, instead of us having holidays abroad or an expensive car, so perhaps it's a mindset?

Mine didn't go to one of the "top flight" schools, like Eton, Harrow, Winchester etc, but it was, and still is, long established, well-known and successful.

Other parents were barristers, lawyers, dentists, farmers, business owners, a few army, and an overseas cohort. And there were some, like me, who had not much money at all, comparatively. There was no snobbery, nobody roared up in a Porsche, nobody cared about anyone else's income.

What a public school education will give your child/children is to reduce by a big chunk any sense of inferiority complex. I know, it isn't fair, but not being terrified out of your wits at an Oxbridge interview is already an advantage. Mine are involved in outreach now, to state schools, encouraging state school students to apply for Oxbridge.

Eton (Boris Johnson, David Cameron, Jacob Rees-Mogg) clearly goes way too far. We have all fairly recently witnessed the outcome of arrogant children attending an arrogant school.

A genuinely good, kind, public school will instill a striving towards academic success, courage, endurance, empathy, humility (yes, I really mean it, humility) and graciousness. It wlil provide opportunities to try sports that state schools don't, or can't, offer.

If your child has unusual academic or sporting ability, that's a really good start. Some (many) public schools will want French at entrance exams. If so, employ a tutor asap

All best. whatever you decide.

You're paying their uni fees?! Damn

I’m a SAHM, but DH and I own a sports agency company. He’s the CEO, I just own 50% of it. Most parents I know have pretty normal jobs and make sacrifices to send their child to a private school

Thanks for the kind words! Northumberland is a lovely part of the world (I'm in Yorkshire).

I'm actually not interested in private school for mine, and we already drive an old estate car/have a cheap mortgage. I like to think I can still encourage them to value learning anyway. I actually personally attended Oxford from a state school background.

I definitely respect other people's reasons for wanting to do it, though.

The issue many of my DD’s friends at her sport had was they easily got sports scholarships for being national and international level.

then they got to private school, and they were wanted for every school sports team going. The ones I kept in touch with the kids had all given up the sport by the end of the first year because it was impossible to meet the schools sports demands and train at a good level outside school. The kids were exhausted.

there is an excellent private school near us where dd would have loved to go, and would have qualified for a full sports bursary due to the level she was at. They had good academics and supported elite sport. She went there for a swim gala and loved the whole environment.

problem? It was a boys school. We looked into their girls school- no sports, no sports facilities and scholarships were for arts and drama.

extremely annoying and put me right off private education.

Oh I do know another family but the kids are really clever and got scholarships so they didn't pay much.

@PILEALLTHEPILLSONTHEFLOOR Tuition fees for uni are nothing compared to the school fees we now pay. Even if they end up at an Ivy League College.

Me and my brother were sent to private school in the 80s and 90s on a solicitors salary and nothing else.

Today, my kids go to the local state school as there is no way we could afford for them to go.

The people I know that send their children private either have help from grandparents, or are both relatively high earners (IT and environmental consulting).

I went to one, but I had a scholarship.

I only know one person whose children go, and she’s a very sought after private surgeon.

At our school parents were: lawyers, builders, music promoters, convenience store owners, nurse, teachers, IT specialists, gardeners, accountant, cybersecurity expert, doctors, hotel owners, office administrators and I know two students whose grandparents paid. Quite a variety. My DH was a lawyer and we used to joke that a good sign of wealth was having four kids in private education at the same time. He did put four through but only two at a time.

In my extended family, one pays out of salary, which is something like 2m. The rest it's from a family trust (I'm not a beneficiary.)

It's interesting to see on here lots of people talking about sending their kids on quite low salaries. All the people I know personally who are sending their kids to private school are hugely rich. I have friends who went to private school in the 90s etc who are more normal. But nowadays, no, they are absolutely fucking loaded and would not really notice if the fees literally doubled. And the same seems to be true for the kids' friends. I haven't made an exhaustive survey but in general they seem to have, like, substantial houses in central London and go skiing all the time etc.

Husband owns business having sold one previously. I’m a Comms director.
Plenty of Drs, lawyers and hedge fund managers in our cohort. But also some pretty big household names across various disciplines. Everyone treats them the same as everyone else. 2 more years for us and they’ll both be done. It’s been 14 long years of fees that have increased at a rate I could never have predicted (did a spreadsheet 14 years ago and where we are now is laughable to my predicted rising costs)

They involve a form of gambling with other people's money. Compared to, say, building roads or excising tumours, it's not truly work. If there was no such thing as "fiat currency", these gambling jobs wouldn't exist.

My DDs left 5 years ago, but their fees were paid by GPs

Dc went for primary. At the time, household income of £60k. Grandparents paid one terms fees and we found the rest. Other parents were lawyers/partners, accountants, architects, hedge fund and bankers, celebrity personal trainer, producer of a popular series, surgeons, Gp’s, consultants. A couple of people had large families (4+ kids). One of those couples was a dentist and a surgeon, the other was a senior banker with stay at home partner.

This was all quite a few years ago though so pre covid and pre Vat. The last bill was just over £4k a term and I looked up their fees recently. Now it’s £7.5K a term.

Both of us are researchers , one in industry, one at university.
Other parents at school are teachers (state and private, mostly one child families), HR, loads of accountants/finance, some local
business owners.
Very little generational wealth (i can think of 2 families where grandparents help out).
Not super rich families, but school is SENDs heavy, so most parents had a choice between private or homeschooling

I’m head of dept ( project delivery) for an IT services co . DS1’s dad is a GP . We only have 1 in private (ASD/dyslexia) - could have just about stretched to DS2 but he really didn’t want to go and is thriving in our local state secondary . Very glad we are near the end in Y13, I’m a single parent and private school on top of running 2 households in an expensive city has not been fun. DS1 will be staying at home for at least the first year of uni , so costs will decrease significantly.

Definitely older parents probably helps. We are older parents and both were financially comfortable before having the DC and then paying the school fees. Our school is 30,000 per year approximately. So think of it as half each and I think that’s very manageable.

Being older we had paid off mortgages etc before we needed to pay out on school fees. No way I could have afforded it when I was younger.

My BIL thinks it’s ridiculous to pay for education and says he can’t afford the same for his DC. Yet though nothing of a solo ski trip in half term costing 10k because no one wanted to go skiing with him and he had to pay over the odds. Ditto his fancy car and lifestyle. It’s all about priorities.

DS goes to state school but round here I think a lot of people have fees paid by the grandparents. It’s a way of reducing inheritance tax if fees paid directly to the school.

I’m a university lecturer and DH a specialist consultant in the construction industry. We sent 2 DC to private secondary for year 7 -13 with a 2 year gap between them, so 9 years in fees overall. DC1 had a 10% scholarship and both had a 10% bursary for the first 5 years, until I got a pay rise. Then we lost the bursary but not the scholarship.
It certainly helped to be older parents with a smaller mortgage in a small house.
For those years we cut absolutely everything non essential from our spending to be able to afford it.
I don’t regret a thing. Our DC had an amazing experience which they loved, went to great universities and now in their 20s getting ahead in good careers that fit them well. We’re also enjoying life and spending money again!

My two have been at an independent for years and the vast majority of the parents (probably over 99%) have one or both parents working in finance or law in London. A small percentage are entrepreneurs or have grandparents who pay. There is also a high percentage of only children but I’m not sure if it’s higher than the national average.

Doctor and Finance - both parents work full time. Two at private school