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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

When is it financially reasonable to choose private?

67 replies

magbags · 06/11/2010 15:11

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

OP posts:

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emy72 · 08/11/2010 09:46

If you are relying on earned income from both set of parents, then I would make sure I had a back up of 2 years' fees, because if one of you were to have any problems leading to a loss of income then you don't want to pull your children out of school.

MrsOliverCarminowe · 08/11/2010 10:06

In our experience, school trips are no more expensive in the indie school than in local comps. They are not compulsory either, usually more kids want to go than can go, so there is a ballot and no shame in not going...

Appletrees · 08/11/2010 12:10

Thanks Qs. Brian, we are similar to you but with two at private. Somehjow, we'll manage though basically it is a case of unless it's eating, heating, wearing or school, we don't get it.

Fiddledee · 08/11/2010 12:55

mamatomy - some of us don't want to stay at home and want to go to work. I did have that choice stay at home, state educate and have 3/4 children instead of 2 and it would drive me completely mad to stay at home for much longer. I have several degrees and making food/clearing house and spending my time taking the kids to after school clubs/music/sport to make up what the state doesn't provide makes me feel very depressed which I don't think leads to a stress free household.

darleneconnor · 08/11/2010 13:24

mamatomay- lol if only my DS's school bothered to give out homework!

Some state schools are dire and no amount of 'home nurturing' will make up for that. there are schools near me which dont even let pupils take ebough exams to get into the top courses even if they got straight As.

mamatomany · 08/11/2010 17:01

Fiddledee - Well that's your prerogative isn't it, I too have qualifications coming out of my ears and have used state and am currently putting three through private education because I had the fee's saved in advance, if I was working every day just to pay those bills I would argue that it wouldn't be the best use of my time to earn, pay tax on money that then is immediately handed over when I could do at least as good if not better job of topping up the children on the basis that my after school, run out of the kitchen has a ratio of 3 to 1.
darleneconnor - you don't have to sit back and wait for the school to dish out homework, go and find it on the net.

darleneconnor · 08/11/2010 19:46

at writing "I too have qualifications coming out of my ears" then putting an apostrophe in fees on the next line!

That says more about our education system than all the education threads put together.

PS I do, but it would be not be unreasonable for me to expect some input from the school.

mamatomany · 08/11/2010 19:53

I missed 4 years of school due to living in hostels fleeing violent parents an still managed to achieve BBC at A Level and a 2.1 in the 90's when degrees meant something rather than handed out free with cereal so it's not all bad.
However my three are in the private system so I've seen both and voted with my feet.

Acanthus · 08/11/2010 19:53

We have enough saved to pay the school fees for the two of them. Not a position we'd like to be in of course.

littleredsquirrel · 08/11/2010 21:01

We have one at a good private infant school and one due to start in september. For the two of them it will cost £16k plus uniform (about £400 for two), compulsory dinners (about £600 for two), breakfast club (£3 a day for two), after school club (£10 a day for two). Music lessons are more (£20 per lesson) and there's a school trip or two every term costing generally about a tenner each.

Its not cheap but its not massively more than nursery fees. However there are the annual fee increases to take into account.

For outside of London we have a good joint salary but its still enough that it makes a big difference to the amount of money we have free to spend on "luxuries".

ForMashGetSmash · 08/11/2010 21:11

We decided to struggle a bit and it ha been worth every penny. Fees in the NOrth West are nowhere near what they are in London though...so it's not that hideous. I decided that with our local schools being so awful thaat I would never be happy or relaxed with DD there.
She has been doing so well and we are very happy with the choice.

As for secondary there is some chance we coud pay for that if things keep going well for us...but we won't be pressuring DD to pass exams...if she turns out academic then great...but if ot then the local high school is very good and we would be fine with it.

I do feel the early years are important...develpoing confidence and giving a bright child the opportunity to soar...however if DD decides she wants to go and work in a shop after high school then that is totally fine...we are not paying for education in order to make her into a doctor...but for her school experience to be a great one.

elphabadefiesgravity · 08/11/2010 21:14

What is disposable income? We don't have one!!!!!

Our joint gross income is around £75,000 so I guess around £52-53k nett. School fees for two children are £16,500 per year. dd dances and has piano lessons )£1,200 per year and our mortgage/bills are around £25,000.

That leaves just under £10,000 per year

for holidays, Christmas, clothes and going out.

I have no idea how to work out what percentage that is.

darleneconnor · 09/11/2010 00:29

so that's how the other half live?

Litchick · 09/11/2010 09:18

Our school fees are about 36k a year.

DH and I both earn silly money so this is a small proportion of our income.

However, that's not the point. What we earn has no bearing on you, op, and nor should it.

Each family must make up its own mind about what anything is worth to them. If you feel that the money is well spent, a good investment etc then it is absolutely the right thing to do.

I know families who pay school fees out of the small change down the back of their sofas. I know families who use the monthly payment service and both parents work full time and extended family help out to meet the committment.

Acanthus · 09/11/2010 09:39

But 90% of disposable income sounds a bit precarious, tbh

Original poster

magbags · 09/11/2010 11:56

Sorry took so long to come back. We've all had winter vomiting virus here - not pretty.

elphabadefiedgravity thats a really useful way of looking at it. I keep getting bogged down in the detail of how much each bill comes to and trying to reduce it. The bigger picture, I like it .

Litchick what field do you work in, I want to get me some of that silly money .

mamatomany to me it's a really personal choice whether to stay at home or not. The balance of me working part time works well for us at the moment.

OP posts:

pugsandseals · 09/11/2010 12:28

No idea what percentage of our disposable income we pay on school fees. But we did look very carefully at what we were prepared to give up & also at state school 'fees'.

By this I mean extra-curricular and childcare. For us, most of the activities DD does at prep are free. If you are a mum who thinks she will spend time and money running a state school pupil to and from ballet/gym/football etc. Then you may need to look at the costs involved. We worked out that if DD had stayed at state school we would have spent 5-6k on activities and childcare (presuming I was working part-time as I am now). The jump to 9k for indie wasn't actually that great and also allows for me to work longer hours as I am not totally knackered from running DD around from club to club! Given that I love my job this was a win win for us. And DD is incredibly happy and challenged at her wonderful prep.

Hope this helps!

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