Private primary worth it?

[Happytimes83]

We live in a very affluent but rural area, our local catchment is a tiny COFE school of about 100 kids with each year combined with two year groups, I haven’t heard anything bad about it but as you’d expect the resources of a small school are very limited. We stupidly visited a really nice selective private school in the very affluent city we live on the outskirts to (literally a few miles from nearly all the private schools along a safe bike path). I was blown away by it, it wasn’t just the spaces it was the breadth of the curriculum, the neat workbooks, the technology & things they had access to and the school had a good happy feeling of both sporty & academic with well behaved kids. Fees are therefore starting at 16k up to about 20k a year as you move through the ages at pretty much all the private ones. We are not wealthy but comfortable and only have 1 child so we could do this and still have some leftover money as long as we reign in our current very high annual holiday budget. And we have about 6 years worth of fees saved but still have a reasonable mortgage to pay down which we had been saving towards overpaying the mortgage when our fix ends in 2026 (which would then go on fees instead). Obviously this all assumes we maintain work to the same degree for the much longer term, I wouldn’t say we are in your usual guaranteed salary professions. Would you do this and just play your circumstances by ear if in the medium term things change or look for other ways to enhance your childs experience at the basic small school?

Are we crazy to even be considering this, it is very hard when you just want the best for your child. I had an awful state school time when young which probably neither option will be like.

"Even sending him in that bit later would save 100k and if that makes our future pension bigger I’m not complaining." @Happytimes83 oh gosh that is such a good point, and one I hadn't really thought about if I'm honest.

Even if it means putting the equivalent into savings for 2 years and building a bit of interest, at least we know the money would be there should we choose to go down the private route later.

Our feeling atm is that if he is at state school at least in the early years, we can supplement with extra curriculars and any other interests he might have without thinking we're already paying through the nose for other activities.

There have been so much debate on private vs state. As someone that experienced both (ofsted outstanding state primary in a fairly affluent area vs an academically outstanding prep), I would say it dependa on what you want for your child's education, your child's personality and ability, your financial situation and what you value in life.

Private school is not just about smaller class size and amazing facilities. They offer a much enriched curriculum and even when the state school offered something similar, they just do it at higher standard in private school. DS's state school had a great extra curriculum program and a bespoke music room, yet he was taught by better, more specialist teachers in his private school. There are more specificalist teachers in private school so classroom teachers have more time to focus on core subjects. Private schools are often academically more stretching because they are not restricted by ofsted. We are impressed by the seamless communication, the wide range of teaching methods/apps, the broad and enriched co-curriculum, the discipline and the independent thinking/reasoning they teach.

Financially, sounds like you can afford it fairly easily (less holiday fund but nothing major). Personality I would go for private. Just make sure you choose the right one for your child.