When is it financially reasonable to choose private?

[magbags]

For anyone who has chosen private education for their DC,can I please ask roughly what percentage of your household income is spent on school fees? If money was no option I would definetely choose the local private primary school for DD (it's lovely) but in reality this would be a massive and long term financial stretch for us. It feels risky to choose this school when we don't have money in the bank to pay for it all (we would pay as we earn iyswim). I am not comfortable with any of the other local primaries tbh and will be slightly heart broken if we decide we can't make the leap and pay the fees. I need some advice about whether we CAN afford this school or not

Moving isn't our preferred option. We love the area we live in and as I mentioned we are right next to DH's parents, which is so valuable in terms of support etc. The only down side to the area is the local schooling. The two private schools within a 5 minute walk of us are both excellent but a place will set you back around £600 per month and will increase in subsequent years. We have 2 DC and if I send one I will of course then want to send the other too! This is a lot of money to us.

I don't know you, the schools near you, or your family, but was also somewhat beguiled by the truism that prep schools cost what childcare costs. And grandparents have offered to pay...

Have you thought about the impact on other educational activities? I've worked with a lot of bright Oxbridge undergrads form a variety of backgrounds, and all seem to have been able to pursue a passion outside of schooling, supported by their parents, be it learning another language, having lots of books around, or just going to places of interest. These would all seem unknown expenses to you at this present time.

Basically, I would suggest thinking not only about how much you are willing to risk spending on education, but about whether schooling is the best way to spend it. A 'decent' school, extra-curricular academic interests, a well resourced bedroom and a quiet workspace may be much better than a 'lovely private' school, as well as more flexible.

But I'm jaundiced-I went on a scholarship to a private school which was nowhere near as good for me as the state grammar I left...

10% of pre-tax income here. It will go up a bit higher up the school but even if I don't get a payrise it won't be more than 12%.

Quattro if you have one child you have an income of 300,000? if you have two children then it's 600,000?

or do you live in Australia or something

No I don't live in Australia but our school fees are not £15k a year as DD has an academic scholarship and DS a musical one.

We do both work though - it's not just one income. Housing costs are high in our area. The additional childcare and help around the house which is absolutely essential given the hours we work are correspondingly costly. Throw a few pension contributions into the mix and that's a whole lot of balls to keep in the air.

I do worry about the financial commitment. Of course I do, you'd have to have substantial capital before you're in a position not to worry if one/both of you lose your incomes.

For one child about 1 seventh of my yearly pre tax income. However I actually have two so it's double that.

My house is much smaller/cheaper than my income could provide but this has been deliberate to afford the school fees.......and yes it's been worth it.

Just come across this thread as we're musing educational choices for our DC, a little early perhaps as i'm only 12 weeks pregnant. I would like our DC to have the same educational chances that I did, but am wary about going down the private route unless 100% sure we can afford it through to 18. I went to a private school until 7 but then my parents had financial problems so I entered the state system, a good church primary school and then after passing the 11+ the local grammar school. However i was bullied from 7-15 due to my early school, i wouldn't wish this on anyone.

Where we live the state primary is excellent and only a 10 min walk from home, however the comprehensives do not have good results nor 6th forms. I would like if able our DC to have the chance to take 10+ GCSEs and A levels like I did, are these reasonable aspirations? My initial thoughts are state primary then into the private system at 11. DH's opinion is wait and see how academic DC is before we decide.

Sorry for thread drift.

Justtrying the only thing that puts me off the idea of only private secondary school is that the child has to pass an entry exam. I feel that's a lot of pressure to put on a child at that young age. Would need a back up plan in case they don't pass too. I could be driven mad worrying about all of this.

Am pleasantly surprised by the pre-tax calculation. For one child it would be about 10% here. But we have a big mortgage too.

I think the cost of moving (financially and emotionally) should not be underestimated. Sometimes a move to a better area with better schools means a huge increase in house price, to get the same amount of space. It's a really sluggish housing market at the moment in terms of selling (and it sounds like you won't be attracting extra buyers with great local schools).

I would recommend having at least a years worth of fees (for all dc) saved for unforeseen circumstances. Then paying as you earn won't be quite as scary.

Forgive me if I'm stating the obvious, but family holidays and a realistic amount of spending money need to be accounted for in the budget, so that you're not signing up for all work and no play for years to come.

I would have thought that you also have to factor in cost of uniforms, trips clubs etc that can also build up...in the state and in the private system

magbags

Private entry exams are not, in my experience (successful scholarship place offered at 3 Headmaster's conference schools) very rigorous. They are certainly much less so than an 11+-basically designed to weed out those whose achievement is very very low and to allocate scholarships. Most pupils getting above 4 in KS2 SATs would pass.

We do it on a combined wage of about £55k. Fees are roughly £6k a year at present (year 1) on top of that uniform is very expensive, the blazer is £85, and ballet £45 a term, recorder the same, speech and drama the same, it all adds up.

Bursaries of up to around 25% are available.

There is a second hand uniform shop that helps lots too.

Holidays aren't much longer than state and holiday club is £20 a day.

When our 2nd starts nursery there in 3 months we are really going to struggle. We live in a small house, have an old car and don't go on holiday abroad (or if in UK we buy through last minute deals). All dc clothes come from ebay normally and you can get some beautiful clothes for a couple of £ on there.

The school isn't a 'posh' one though. All the parents there are things like probation officers, electrician, accountant, marketing managers, sky engineer etc.

Basically we don't live the lifestyle that you might expect from the wages we have and that's because all the cash goes on school fees. As they get more expensive we will think again at each step.

hth.

Just trying - what about the early school caused you to be bullied at the later ones? I'm asking because we are currently thinking private prep school then one of the local grammar schools for senior. If necessary we would do private through to 18, but academically the grammar schools and private seniors are on a par with each other.

School fees are about 10% of our post tax income for one child. It's worth every penny to us and I'd cut a lot more things before I considered school. I don't work full time and could bring in more money if it was needed so that was our cushion.

DD has dyslexia, dyspraxia and dysgraphia and the state provision is a joke. If we couldn't pay for fees out of income we'd sell up and downsize our house to free up the capital - or return to the state sector and become the biggest PITA parents this county has ever known.

DS is currently in reception in a fab state infant school but he'll go indy from year 3. I'll probably take on more work then to cover those fees.

school fees approx 30 % of post tax income ( this is for 2 children) 1 child is weekly boarder and this figure includes music lessons, trips, speech and drama etc etc. fees rise dramatically at our school from yr 2 to yr 3 , at moment have 1 in yr 6 an d1 in yr 1 and total bill last yr was £28,000. I feel slightly sick at thought. but it is worth every penny

We're currently in the same position as you - my DS is due to start Reception next September and we've been looking at both State and Private and have fallen in love with one of the Preps. My DS' pre-school teacher has suggested he would benefit from smaller class sizes as he has attention/concentration issues but is bright. Our state option is Ofsted 'good' but has 30 kids per class (double that of the prep).

We have a second DC who we feel we should also treat the same so have been calculating things based on two.

We've been overloading on spreadsheets trying to assess if we can actually afford it. We've looked at actual expenditure over a year and split this down by month. We've then calculated what we could put into a 'school fees' account each month, starting now. We've then taken school fees off of the rolling figure right through until age 13 for DS (11 for DD). It looks like it's do-able but without expensive holidays, ever moving house or having a third child! Towards the end (when both are in the higher end of the school), fees are higher than what we put away but we would have saved enought to cover it. The worry then is how to afford secondary - My feeling at the moment is 'cross that bridge'.

This is based on me continuing to work part-time (2 days a week) so we have the 'cushion' of me extending my working days.

In terms of percentages, fees for both to start with would be 10% of gross household annual income increasing to 20% at top end of school. This equates to 30% of disposable income to start with, increasing to 60%. This doesn't allow for increases in interest rates or school fees though.

It will still be a constant worry and will mean sacrifices along the way but when you've got your heart set on something that's feasibly within your reach I think you need to go for it.

HTH

Thanks everyone. My feeling before this thread was that it may be financial madness for us to choose private, that we might be the poorist family in the school etc struggle to afford trips etc - but I am beginning to feel massively reasured that many of us here seem to be in a similar position

Do school trips etc tend to be very expensive in private schools? Are we talking the amount we would normally spend on our family holiday

Ds's school is pretty realistic. Other than the blazer (which like all uniform you can get secondhand) everything else is cheaper than our local primary school. School trips are included other than annual trip to theatre. Ski trips again are similar to those at state school.

Fee increases also kept to a minimum - none last year, 3% this year. Compared to one of the other local private schools that had a 10% increase this year.

neuroticwhome, bullying started at the state primary as I was deemed a swot and snob. I didn't really learn anything new at the primary that hadn't already been taught in the private school, I guess I seemed different as I joined an established class where everyone knew each other and I didn't live close to anyone or have a strong regional accent. Didn't help that due to family illness classmates couldn't come to play etc, some of the bullies also attended the grammar school and it continued.

How rigorous the 11+/13+ will depend on the school, by setting the exam and ( for the shared/common exams, or) the school's own marking and choice of pass mark.

How academically high you need to be aiming depends on the general area and the actual school. For the popular London day schools, the advice is consistently minimum of level 5. Most of the country isn't like that!

But you do need to do your research into the specific schools you think you might be interested in.

We pay 25% of net monthly income for 2 DC in prep school. Mortgage is a further 25%. No savings in the bank so we hope we don't lose our jobs!

Around here the secondary exams are very rigorous, I have known pretty bright boys in tears during them. But then the comps also regularly offer 10+ GCSEs.

There is no such thing as an ideal school btw.

If you are working purely to pay for the school it's a wring decision in my opinion you'd be better off stating at home and diverting your energy to keeping the home life stress free, nutrion excellent and 100/ attention to their home work.