School fees - How do you do yours?

[dependsreally]

Do you save in a particular account, so the fees are always there, or pay as you go, or are there other ways of putting the money by?

Just starting down the road and have 2 years to get the money together to start with all this, so looking for experience in how to go about it.

TIA

what is fees composition?

Monthly on direct debit

It is our largest overhead and often makes me wince. The school doesn't do prepayment options.

I pay mine at the beginning of each term, can do direct debit each month too but not used that service. Our school has just started accepting credit cards!!! Im planning on paying the summer term fees, extras etc with my tesco cc and earning billions of clubcard points!!! fees for Summer will be £5541!!!

Our school offers pre payment too which apparently has huge incentives but I just dont have that much money hanging around!!!

OMG cows! That must really hurt!

Fees composition is where you pay (say) two or three years in advance in a lump sum.

Usual term is a % reduction in your fees plus sometimes the fees are fixed at a set amount (so you're protected from inflation), but you generally can't get the money back once paid in.

Our school won't fix the fees so not worth it in our case as the reduction isn't big - even though fee composition should suit us as DH gets an annual bonus which we use to cover the fees. So you need to check the terms carefully.

No doubt about it, the fees definitely hurt. For two boys I'm currently paying nearly £7,000 a term - and it gets much more painful when ds3 starts/when you get to the senior school.

we'vew four boys at 3 different schools, tho' 2 are linked junior and senior, we pay monthly by dd no extra charge, schools 1 and 2 over nine months from july - march so each term fully paid for by the time it starts, school 3 has the 3 non paying monts spread across the year - eg no fees aug. dec and april tho it may very from those months. Tis an eye watering amount each month - makes the mortgage look tiny

why do you lot hate to put your trust in the state system

It's partly a choice southastastra, partly because not every child has access to a good state school, partly because parents have been let down badly in their childhood because of failings in the state education system, partly because they were privately educated, everyone has their own reasons. I did put my trust in the state system, it let my son down very badly, I'm not prepared to put him through this again, I'm exercising my right to choose.

Termly for both of ours. We have one big scholarship, fortunately - but still feel slightly faint on the first day of term. If comes from our current account if we have enough in it; failing that, it comes from savings which we hope to replenish one day. School fees day always makes me delete emails from Johnnie Boden and start darning DD's tights.

(Silly question, SEA - we all have different reasons!)

because i teach in it se astra - if you are lucky enough to have access to a good state school then lucky you, the learners at ours get a really bad deal - our CVA is around 970 - basically meaning nearly every learner would do better at another school i and my colleagues work really hard to give them all the best chance but are hindered by lots of different reasons - my local secondary's CVA is even lower i'm not prepared to handicap my dc's in that way.

It makes me laugh when people on here comment about how lovely their child's state school is, how supportive the teachers are, how good the education is and how many extra curricular activities their child can do, they then give people grief for going private. In the real world good schools like the ones their children attend are hard to find, alot of us have a choice between sending our child to a sub-standard school where they are bullied or going private. There's not alot of choice in this if I'm being honest.

it's not funny belledechocolate

I know, I've heard it so many times though.

I pay my taxes - that's how I afford to send my children to school!

Don't yours go to a Grammar school though Seeker? We don't have them here, it's the local comprehensive or private, like alot of areas in the UK.

yes, no grammars here either, should have moved years ago and made dh drive 50 miles to work each way every day

There aren't any primary grammar schools, and if the one at secondary hadn't passed the iniquitously unfair 11+ she would have been at the local high school (not comprehensive - there are no comprehensives in our area).

But that's your area though seeker, you have a grammar school so there's something better then a naff comprehensive. In areas where it's the naff comprehensive or the naff comprehensive then what's a parent to do?

But in my area if a child does"t pass the 11+ there isn't a comprehensive to go to!

They go to the high school or a private school though. The whole education system in the UK is flawed, if you live in the right area or have the cash then you can access the right education for your child. There's no choice if you think about it, it's luck. I don't think that parents who send their child to a private school should get such a hard time on here for doing this, like everyone else, we are trying to do our best for our children. The parents who spend ££ paying for a tutor to help their child pass the 11+ so that they can attend a state grammar school are no different. It's just playing the system and making it work for them. I'd say that converting to a religion to gain a place in a church school is far worse though, it's lying in a way.

Absolutely about pretending to belong to a religion - that's the worst. And it's largely a myth about faith schools being better anyway - so they are lying to no purpose.

I am very pisssed off about the God-finders. But I am equally pised off about eh people who don't even consider state education. The people who imply that if we cared about our children we would pay for their schooling, as if it was an option open to everyone. Then[people wo don't realize that 93% of the population use state schools - and the vast majority of them have no choice,

And the other group I despise are the onea who assupe that any school you've paid for is automatically better than a state school...

There's alot of dire state schools, there's also alot of dire private ones who are out there for the money or who cherry pick the families so they only have 'low maintenance' children in there. I don't think you ever know if a school's the right one for your child until they are there. You can meet with the head as many times as you want, you can discuss your child's needs but school is a complicated set up, bullying for example, it goes on everywhere, it's how it's delt with that makes the difference. I've met head's who refuse it exists, I also know of one who believes that 'god will sort it out' (I kid you not). Faith schools are not better, the faith is drummed into them more though. Every child should be able to go to a school that best meets his or her needs, I'd love to not have to pay for my son's education, I pay taxes, we've tried one and it wasn't what he needed. I know it's not open to everyone as it's expensive, the secondary school he will be moving to in september is even worse. I'm relieved that I can do this for him though.

I don't assume - I look at the results - that's how I know it's better. We can just about afford the fees for private school because we have a 10 year old car, no foreign holidays, no Sky, no flat screens, no laptops, no ipods, no iphones, distressed decor, DIY skills, tesco value bread etc etc. Our hard earned money, our prerogative on how to spend it.

Exam results don't show you th truth though notabully. They 'select' who sits the exams and who doesn't. They are not always better if they have good exam results.