Am visiting a potential indie school for my DS tomoro - what should I ask the Head?

[stillenacht]

The school is 5-18. Accepting boys in senior school for first time in 2010. DS is currently in year 5 (in state primary) but thinking of getting him to repeat a year either to do year 5 again or finish at current state primary and do year 6 again and then entry into year 7 until year 11 (straight thru in indie school). Thats the plan anyway. Trouble is....money - do you think they will be crying out for our cash (will be paid for on equity of house) and do you think we can ask for a bursary/discount at this time and if it will be favourable received. I have been saving for last 2 years and have managed to save enough for 2 terms (!) fees so we will remortgage. The school has vacancies within his year group.I am very nervous and out of my comfort zone (I am a teacher even!). Any words of advice/tips? Thanks

independent fees are closer to $10k than £20k, will.

I think willali is overstating things somewhat.

£20k pa for a day school is huge, £10-12 more typical.

3 out of 4 independent schools I've spoken to were completely fine about children out of year group.

£1000 for one school trip & a bit of uniform?? In 8 child school years (at yr 6 and above) in an independent school we've had 5 residential trips, three at around £300 each and two (exchanges) at £200. Oh that's forgetting CCF courses (a weeks sailing, air experience, mine sweeping, leadership etc), at the grand cost of £1.50 per day (including transport)! Hmm, I can barely keep him at home for that. If money's an issue for school trips look for a school with a CCF section!

Scholarships still do exist for up to 50% off in lots of places.

and our household income is well short of 6 figures and we've managed independent fees for two children for years without family assistance.

thanks snorkle

nice to hear some encouragement

DD's school starts at just over £10k for Y7 and goes to approx £12.5k for Y13.

This includes all field trips relating to the curriculum, school lunch and afternoon tea, textbooks up to Y11, exam entry fees, travel to sports matches, after school prep supervision until 5.35pm.

Music lessons are extra - about £160 per term and music exam entry fees. Ditto LAMDA.

Trips such as skiiing, riding, sports tours, take place in school hols and competition for places is fierce so no-one has to go.

If you can get them through most of it and things go horribly wrong financially, schools - and other educational trusts - are more likely to support through last yearof GCSEs or A levels than lower down.

And yes, means-tested bursaries are available. And some still offer non-means tested scholarships.

IIRC GDST suggests in its literature that if parents can afford it, they decline the financial assistance attached to their daughter's scholarship and she will be an Honorary Scholar - and the money can be used to help someone who really needs it.

Agree also with out of year - DD's school has pupils out of year in both senior and prep school, either in front or behind where they should be.

thanks sue w too

Stillenact depending on your mortgage what you say is doable. We have a combined income of around £60 and have planned for an up to £10 k drop if the recession hits us and we have two children, not one.

We put aside £1,000 per month out of our taxed income before they started and have two years worth of fees in reserve. We continue to save the same amount each month to pay the fees. This will rise slightly when dd goes in to juniors next year and again into seniors but we have planned for that.

We will have one compulsory residential to fund in juniors, cost £200, all other trips are free. Music tuition is extra and so is LAMDA as in Sue's school but we do that for a living ourselves so dd does that with us.

Uniform comes from the second hand shop, there is no stigma, it is totally encouraged as helping the PTA.

my plan is by the time DS1 starts year 6 we will have enough for his year 6, 7 and half of year 8 fees in savings (thats including saving as he goes thru the years) - we currently have enough for his year 6 (he won't start until Sept 2010). I am saving atm £500 a month which is ok but couldn't do too much more.

We will then remortgage (prob in 2011) for the remaining fees to take him up to end of year 11 (so roughly around 40K) - our mortgage is half the value of house and we have way over 100k in equity atm (fingers crossed)After year 11 we will then review and see if he can get scholarship/grammar place/sixth form college whatever he wants to do....

£6500 a term for three terms plus extras adds up to around £20,000. This is what we are facing for secondary school 13+ co-ed day school(with boarders at £8000 a term)in the South East and ths is by no means out of the ordinary for this type of school around here

£6,500 a term!!!

EACH!!!!!!

Blimey!!

The ones we are looking at are all around £3,300-3,500 a term

Have just checked out the most 'elitist' independent schools in the locality (South East London) and their fees are approaching £4,000 a term. They get marvellous results and have excellent facilities, opportunities etc.

Wow! £6,500 a term - incredible (do you get gold plated GCSE certificates because i would demand them for that money)

boarding schools often seem to rip off the day pupils I think, though I suppose they do offer longer days, so you do get more hours than at day schools.

don't want to out myself by saying which school it is, but it is not the most expensive around these parts!

just for comparison purposes just looked up Charterhouse school fees for a day boy and it is £7500 a term.....

well thats silly money in my book - you are simply paying for the school name because they are as likely to get 11/12/13 A* at JAGS/Dulwich/Eltham College as they are at somewhere like Charterhouse (and the difference in fees is prob about £2500 at least a term)

Indeed also just as likely to get those grades at grammar school (we had about 10 out of 150 get 12 As last year i think and near enough 100% 5 A-C) for free!!!!

There may be a certain amount of paying for the name stillnacht, but I suspect the style of education is very different - so it may well be that people choose to pay for other reasons too.

Not all boarding schools hike their day fees though - In our area the day independents (secondary) are between £3k and £4k a term, and the boarding school that has just started taking day pupils charges £3.5k per term - right in the middle of the range.

of course it's silly money but they charge what the market can bear don't they! Another thing is that some of the cheaper schools (certainly in these parts) are the most highly selective and so are not open to the majority of middle of the road plodders like mine! Grammars are not a realistic prospect either for many people for geographic and selection reasons.

So we choose the school we choose and suck up the enormous costs because we think it's worth it, but with our eyes very much wide open and a bucketful of gratitude for those who help make it possible.

Always good to go into these things with your eyes open - willali. I'd forgotten how expensive boarding school day places could be to be honest. I'm sure you are right to a degree that they charge the market rate; but I expect there may be an element of not wanting too big a difference between day and boarding fees too. We are out in the sticks a bit, so fortunately prices seem to be rather lower.

The day schools round here (Bucks/Berks) are £12,000 a year on average plus extras. Boarding schools are double that and weekly boarding a bit less. I hope my ds is bright enough to get into grammar school...

Some boarding schools there isn't a lot of difference between day and boarding. E.g. friends whose children go to Repton - they are allocated space in their house anyway and can leave uniform etc there. They can be dropped off in time for breakfast and the school day finishes at 9pm.