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?

I know a fair few women who had kids early 20s, but as I said, also don't know what people do to afford private school, so there's no need to be patronising.

Eton fees are currently £63,300 per year. That’s a fair wallop more than my son’s school and - I would imagine - the vast majority of UK private schools.

I run a small events business. One child on a scholarship and bursary so most their fee is paid.

Pretty much everyone in our private primary is in their 40s. Kids were born mid to late 30s.
For us, being financially secure before kids was essential .

If your job is too outing, you must be someone there’s only one of in the country? Prime minister or another member of the cabinet (although you could simply say you were a politician)? Queen? King?

🤣🤣🤣
It’s very specialist and very few people do it but I meant the combination of my job and some very specific things I’ve posted about would make me identifiable to anyone on here who knows me!

Eton calls its terms “Halves”. So it’s £63k per year, not £126k.

Mr husband is a Lawyer. Parents of children’s classmates are a mix of Premiership footballers, tv personalities, C9nsultants and business owners.

We were 41 when our eldest went to secondary, although we did the whole “state to 8” thing so started paying school fees from 38.

By that time we were both very senior in our careers so it hasn’t really been a struggle. One of us pays the mortgage/household bills and the other pays the school fees and we both have roughly the same amount left over each month.

45 mins out of London, the average first time mum in our suburb is 36+, I only knew one person under 30 in anti natal class

Surely it stands to reason that most people with jobs that can pay for private school will have been to university, so it’s fairly obvious that most will not have been having kids in their early twenties. Of all my uni friends and colleagues the very youngest anyone had a baby was 30.

Well exactly and even women who had kids in their early 20s will be less than 5 years younger than the OP... It's just a bit dim to ask if you"ll be an older parent when you were 25 when you had your kid.

Fair enough, I suppose most of my friends from uni don't have kids yet and most of my friends with younger kids went to uni later or not at all.

Lots of the mums at my eldest's primary school are younger than me though, and in my mind I think I assumed people who send kids to private school must have inherited wealth. Happy to be proved wrong.

if you mean not paying the fees themselves either because grandparents are or because they have trust funds or have already inherited, I don’t know everyone’s circumstances in a school of 1300, but of the 25/30 closer friends of my daughters whose parents we do know, all are paying fees themselves from income or pensions (ie police as retirement much earlier). VAT meant fee conversations became a thing!

It is definitely not easy in the south east - we’re paying over £30k a year per child per year (secondary).

Whereabouts are you - we are south east and most of the secondary schools are £9-£11k a term so that’s where the 30k plus is coming from. Definitely not boarding.

one of my children is going to a London school for sixth from where the fees are even higher.

My friend's son goes to the most expensive private secondary school in their city on a 95% bursary (he's exceptionally bright and their household income isn't high).

In my child's state school there are lots of parents with jobs that in the past could have probably afforded private (senior medics, professors, lawyers, engineers etc) but these days without wider wealth it's not possible (especially if you live in an expensive area as we do - vast majority of us live in a 3-4 bed mid terrace, nothing grand).

2 people I know ride horses for a living (one is putting 2 kids through now) the other is putting 3 kids through and works in a management role within the NHS

My cousins went to private school parents had pretty usual jobs but there was a compensation payment for a car crash which probably paid for it. They live in an area where everyone seems to go to private school. Another set of cousins went to private school and Uncle works in fashion. Other people I know who send their kids are all military as it provides stability.

The fees add up to £63k in the link you provided. So it’s around £63k per year not what you said.

Teachers when our daughters attended.
Our daughters are solicitors. Their children attend private schools too.

We have a bit of an unusual situation as we don’t pay fees (kids on full bursaries and double scholarships). Friends with children at the same or different public schools are business owners, solicitors, farmers / land owners, surgeons, GPs, or they are in the forces so are subsidised by the military or they are teachers at the schools so get 50% off fees per parent. There are a fair few families who afford the fees through generational wealth as well. I only know of one family (with one child) who are fairly low income (a nurse and a nursery worker), who have their child at a private prep, everyone else is relatively high earning or have inherited money. I think it probably depends a lot on your area and the type of school as well, as there is a huge range of fees between a day boy at a minor prep school and a boarder at a well regarded public school.

Astronaut?

43 when they started secondary school.

MN is obsessed with grandparents paying fees, or private schools being full of the children of footballers and celebrities, as the lower/middle-middle classes love to denigrate anything they have been priced out of.

I suspect the vast majority of the 650,000 or so students in private schools in the UK have parents who are comfortably-earning middle class professionals - doctors, dentists, accountants, lawyers, management consultants etc., and that footballers’ kids and the like are a tiny minority.