Employer contributing to private school fees

[SchoolFees]

In a recent discussion with a few other mums regarding the affordability of private school fees, especially if you have more than one DC, I was surprised to find out that there were quite a number of parents whose employers were contributing to their DCs private school fees.
How common is this? If you are fortunate enough to work for such an employer how much is their contribution?

Please don't think I'm underplaying the dangers and risks of your job! That's what I meant when I said spouses should not be in war zones if at all possible. I used to work in foreign policy and have colleagues from security forces of a number of nations. I certainly don't argue against allowances - how on earth could I? It's just that they vary enormously between different services in countries, and what seems to be 'necessity' in fact often comes down to national 'tradition' - nothing wrong with that. In other foreign services and military services it is far more common for children to be in a 'local' international school (paid for!) when in service abroad and simply in a local school back home, and yes maybe moved from time to time. Of course most of these countries don't have a large number of boarding schools so maybe it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation - which came first - the boarding schools or the norm to use them. But the British system is actually fairly unique.

It also depends on the length of the tours/appointments one gets. If you could be guaranteed 5 years in one place from year 7 to 11 for instance, then yes, possibly the need to board would disappear. The UK military does not work like that, so over 5 years you could find yourself going from Devon to Scotland (different education system) to Swindon or elsewhere, and you can't plan or forecast where you will be going next. That's what makes it hard. The Forces aren't family friendly, though being a Forces brat and wife I should know that!

My honest opinion is that - for the kind of job/living conditions you experience with dangerous and difficult postings, then, given the UK educational system, an on-going allowance sounds fair. For a life consisting of an entirely non-risky tour of embassies interspersed with Whitehall then I'm not sure why the conditions and allowances are any different from those of expat international civil servants or expat multinational employees. In those circumstances the 'continuity of education' argument can start to sound awfully like 'it's quite alright for this private sector child X to leave boarding school because their parent has lost their job/overseas post in the recession, but it's certainly not alright for that child Y to leave boarding school because counsellor Y's post in Paris comes to a forseeable end. Parent X might have had a higher salary but a much more vulnerable job and possibly hardly any pension at all. Those of us in the (non-dangerous) public sector have more secure jobs and pensions.

All living costs is fairly common on private sector Expat contracts (i.e. where you have moved at the employer's request and at their expense) - DB2 had school fees paid in Japan for 3 years on that basis (and parents had rent paid, etc - generally speaking it is based on difference between cost of living @ home and cost of living abroad, but everything is negotiable).

..and as for why - well, presumably because the employer thinks the value that the employee will deliver by being wherever it is they want them to be is worth the extra cost. With my parents, as it was a one-off, they no longer got fees paid when they (reluctantly) came back to the UK but I can see that if you were in a role where short postings abroad were the norm then you might well be able to negotiate the employer paying all the way through school on the basis on continuity of education.

we are expats in the Middle East and we get an allowance. DH works for a British company and when DC1 and 2 were at school out here his company paid for their school fees which were quite expensive for a day school.
DC1 and 2 now in the UK at boarding schools and DH's company pay a flat rate towards it of approx 3k per child per term. Sadly this no where near covers DSs fees which are stupid money. Real pain is the company only sponsers 2 children and we now have DC3 and 4 so will start getting even more expensive when DC3 starts school in september

Unilever does this for people on 4 year contracts from outside the EU, the same as they have to cover their healthcare too if there's no reciprocal agreement in place between the countries.

Scaryteacher is right - it's for continuity reasons that fees get paid. There are a lot of "lovely safe" postings which some people might go on, which have no decent British schools (if you think they should slot into the state system when people go back to Blighty - fair enough assumption). You wouldn't take a 13 year old, I would think, on a three or four year posting to eg Canada or South Africa, and stick them in the school system there, to hope that they could slot back in to the local comp for their last few years of school - hence boarding school allowance when in UK or day school allowance, if somewhere the child has been boarding, or will board at when you go overseas again.

Am I making sense?

Hallo Mrs S, how is Paris? Brussels remains the same.

I'm simply saying that it's generally a very British notion - the continuous boarding school payments - when the parents are back at home. If you talk to foreign diplomats (eg in Brussels!) they are often astonished at the system and the potential costs. What is considered absolute necessity for one country's foreign service is often born of tradition.

Also - when you come home you surely choose the best school for your child at home. My sister's DC is 12 and she (sister) is considering a three year posting in Singapore. International school will be paid for during that posting as per most normal expat contracts. Clearly the fact that DC will have to resume schooling in the UK when she returns (and where, and what type of school) is part of all the factors to be considered in the decision whether or not to take the post. But I think the fact that she might 'slot back into the local comp' (horrors!!! not for your children, obviously!) (which actually is a rather good comp) is one possibility or indeed sister might save some money for a private school following the IB at that stage. It is a process that a great many expat families who face foreign postings manage to deal with.

What in my post gave you the idea that mine wouldn't slot back into the local comp? I don't see anything that has lead you to that conclusion.

The IB - which is offered by some schools in UK - state as well as private - helps matters a lot more when looking at international education, but as I said, you might struggle to find a school offering this somewhere like Wellington or Vancouver - hence the idea of boarding school.

My children are not in the British education system at the moment, so, yes, if we come back to the UK after Paris, we will probably look for a school that offers IB, as they will be 15 and 13.

And a lot of foreign diplomats simply stay at home - or the wife does - when the child reaches a crucial stage of their education.

Hi Scaryteacher!!

The problem Bellissima is that you can't really move the kids from the end of year 9-11, or once they are in sixth form. We are here until ds has done his GCSEs in 2012, then it doesn't matter where we go as he will be going hopefully to sixth form in the UK, which takes Forces boarders, but is not a boarding school.

I'm sure yours could slot back into the local comp Mrs S, it's just that you give the impression that's not optimal. Just as, should you be in Brussels like Scary, there is school funded by all the Member States, also open - gratis - to children of diplomats of the EU member states and NATO serving military staff from a variety of countries and indeed attended by many children of such staff, even when on short postings. And yet there is a marked absence of the children of such diplomatic and military staff from one particular country. The English sections are crying out for more native English speakers, to the extent that the UK authorities grumble about funding English speaking teachers 'for others', and yet those authorities prefer to spend far more taxpayers money per child on boarding fees back home. What is good enough for international civil servants and the children of diplomats and military staff from other countries (and I'm sure that such staff serve their countries well too!) is, it would seem, not good enough for FCO and MoD kids. Why?

Scary, you are always so much more eloquent than me! That's exactly what I was trying to say. Ours will probably go to a school in UK when we get back that does the IB, or maybe one of the American schools.

The eligibility criteria for the EU schools is very strict. I worked at NATO and mine were not eligible - only those who worked at the Commission were eligible - even those at the UK diplomatic mission to the EU struggled to get places.

NATO children from other countries certainly attend the EU schools (cat2) - and the administration of the schools will tell you that there is a marked absence of applications from the UK representations vis a vis other representations. In meetings about funding the schools there is a certain sense of embarrassment if the UK representation people attending are asked where they send their kids. Well enough, I'm hijacking and I'm not even (currently) based there - this isn't personal bitter and twistedness. But I maintain that what seems an absolute norm and necessity to the British foreign services is often regarded with some astonishment by those of other countries, and that many expats manage and indeed have to move their children from school to school at various ages.

'should you be in Brussels like Scary, there is school funded by all the Member States, also open - gratis - to children of diplomats of the EU member states and NATO serving military staff'

It is NOT open to NATO serving military staff - NATO come bottom of the pecking order to get your kids in - been there, done that. The Fonctionnaires at the EU can get their kids in, but if like us, you are NATO, then EU, and then back to NATO, we would have had to move ds three times, and that is not continuity of education. Ergo, he goes to BSB, where he has continuity.

There is no room at the EU schools, they are overcrowded, and certainly for all the Brit mil kids here it is BSB or boarding in the UK. BSB mainly because it offers GCSEs, and that is what most of them would do if they went back. Where we are in the UK normally, no-one does IB, which is why we went to BSB.

The other problem is the notice you get to move with HM Forces. I think we are staying here for another 3 years, but between now and when dh is due to move appointments that could change and we could be sent back to UK. You can't just 'slot in' to comp; it depends where you are sent, what GCSE courses they do if your child is in Year 10; do they match what they were doing previously?; what space is available; do you have to go to appeal to get them in to a good one, or do you just send them to the one with 29% A*-C passes down the road. If you don't have your own home, and the Married Quarter people won't give you an address, you can't apply for a school place until you have an address, ad sometimes you only get that two weeks in advance. It is because the process for getting a school place in the state system is so awful, that we have Continuity of Education allowance to avoid that; or one spends potentially years living apart from your spouse in order to have your child educated locally.

I know NATO kids from other nationalities attend the EU schools. The eg Estonian section is undersubscribed, so they were welcoming anyone.

It was a big bone of contention that the Brit Bit was FULL, EU STAFF had PRIORITY and people like me, who worked as a CIVILIAN at NATO, and Scary's husband, who is military, DID NOT QUALIFY. And nor did my friend, who worked at the British Embassy.

Haven't read the whole thread but t answer your original question, I remember a guy i went to uni with saying that he and his brothers school fees were paid (perhaps just contributed t ) by his father's employer, which, iirc, was Shell. I don't think they were expats or required to live away from home, I got the impression it was a "perk".

And when we went back to the UK, Lambeth, our LA, told us that they would not be able to find school places for our children until after school started, they may not have gone to the same school and they would not consider us for school places until we were physically back in the country, which was two days before the school term started (although we knew we were going back a few months before).

We didn't go down the private route, we moved house, to a LA which was much more helpful and accommodating.

The Estonians are at BSB, several in my ds's tutor group!

Oil companies used to vary hugely in levels of continuity - my dad got my fees paid for up to 2 years after returning to the UK (for GCSE/A-level course continutity), and covered half fees for up to 2 children for another 3 years after that.

Friends whose parents worked for other companies were lucky to be allowed to stay to the end of the academic year, and it wasn't uncommon for someone to leave school in the middle of a term.

Message withdrawn

Can say (sorry again OP as I know this military/diplomatic thing not really what the thread was started for) that here in Bucks the council makes it clear that there are certain priorities (as regards 11 plus testing dates/grammar school places) for service families moving in and out of the area - which is as it should be.

As for private companies then, from the parents I know at school yes conditions vary enormously, and I have the impression that for some they became a lot worse recently. One overseas family I know (think coy was GE) was told at Christmas 2008 that they were staying at least until the end of the school year and then two months later were told they were being repatriated immediately - had to negotiate for children to stay until Easter. General company policy was that expats and their allowances were suddenly too expensive.

Incidently OP - since some of us are being very transparent - why are you asking?