Paying for private school fees

[boygirlmom]

Curious to know how many on here pay for fees themselves out of salary , or have financial support from schools and grandparents?

We applied for bursary assistance and were told according to our income at the time that full fees were affordable! No bursary offered. We were on a combined of 130k and had two kids we wanted to put through a Surrey school with fees of approx 4K each per term.

That's not affordable of full fees. Don't understand the logic but hey ho! I guess a LOT of sacrifices would need to be made to send them on our salaries!

Is there a reason why you want to pick private over state?

It’s not just the fees. There are many other things to consider such as the extensive uniform, games kit, pe kit, cricket kit, Astro boots, indoor trainers, outdoor trainers, cricket kit, hockey sticks. Then you have trips which of course aren’t compulsory but one of the benefits of private school is all the other ‘stuff’ that it can offer children. Access to many clubs and experiences which state schools can’t offer.

We pay our fees without support and it does become grating. If our DC didn’t have SEN or health issues they would be in our local state school and I’d invest in a good tutor for them once a week to support their learning.

OP - brutally, you have no idea what 'sacrifices' means.

On combined salary of £130k, even after tax, £20k mortgage and £24k a year school fees your household is still extremely well off with loads and loads of 'spare' cash each month. Loads.

Sacrifices might mean fewer holidays to you. But are you in the situation of choosing heating over eating? Your dc have more to learn than any private school can teach.

"Oh yeah! Haha! My kids obviously didn't get their private school brains from me"

What is a "private school" brain? 🙄

sacrificing on travelling is a no no

And you have a combined income of £130k?

I have a health condition and have gone from £58k per year to Universal Credit of £334 per month.

Suck it up and stop whinging about a nothing problem.

I'm really surprised you can't manage on that level of income. I'm a single parent paying just less than half fees, so circa 8k a year in London. I had no income when I applied but now have a contract role making circa net 50K. This could end at any time and the school knows it. We have no car, no holidays, uniform all 2nd hand. I'm genuinely surprised how you can't manage full fees on your incomes.

We put our kids through private school on an income of 90k at first!
We had a v strict budget, no fancy holidays, only camping, one car, no meals out, meat only at weekends etc
It was a stretch but the alternative was really awful.
It was hard but if you really want it, you can make it work.

Agree. Ridiculous to think a bursary would be given on the basis of that salary.

Also, £4k per term is very reasonable for a private school. In London it costs double that.

That salary is gross, 130k is roughly 78k net of tax.
fees in London are 7/8k a term, so 21-24k.
So I think doesn’t leave a lot if there are 2 kids on those fees.

Your income is £130,000.
Your fees would be £24,000 per year.

so the question is, do you think there is anyone at all living in Surrey with a household income of £106,000 or less? I rather suspect that there are, and indeed a household income of £106,000 is perfectly comfortable. Obviously not quite as nice homes, holidays and cars as those on £130k manage, but nowhere near poverty. the sacrifices you would need to make would only be luxuries, not essentials.

The people with a household income of less than £70kish whose income would be taken below £40k are appropriate recipients of bursary funding, on a sliding scale obviously. I donate to my DCs bursary fund and I would be shocked and appalled if someone with a household income of £130k was seeing a penny of those donations.

We have a household income of between £80k-£90k and receive no bursary. My parents pay 20%, we pay 80% from salary, and we live according to our means - holidays are modest and only when we can afford them, meals out and theatre trips are rare treats, we don't have expensive gym memberships, phone contracts or streaming platform subscriptions and we get along fine.

their Gross income is 130k, probably if it’s 2 earning…then net will be 85k.
so subtract fees and they have 60k left to live on which is 5k a month.
that’s quite doable.

we are on that, but just one income in London, fees are similar and we are ok.
and our net is 72k.

We put our DS through private school on an income between £60,000 ( when he was in reception) to £150,000 when he left last year. His boys boarding school fees ended at £46,000 pa. We never had a bursary even during COVID when our income fell dramatically. We were clearly insane as no school is ever worth that level of sacrifice.

Yes, but they’re not in London.