Private school on a £85k

[Rebmolellmar]

Hi I am looking at sending my daughter to a private secondary school as I feel this would best suit her needs etc to her to blossom and hopefully enjoy her time at school,
We don’t earn massive amounts the school we are looking at is £8000 a term,we rent and it’s £1750,I am looking at any ways to reduce our other bills,
hopefully I can do a business in the evenings to get extra money.

We are in a similar position - specialist SEND school for our son (private)
so worth it. And most parents at the school are in a similar position - no exotic holidays anywhere (unless you count visiting family)
Most children in the school would just about survive mainstream (hence not council supported), but a flourishing in specialist provision

(don’t expect parents of neurotypical children to understand - there is so much more to a school than gcse results, and for some kids with SENDs , these things are the important ones.
And many private schools focus on these kids - no fancy uniforms (my son’s uniform is much cheaper than local state options), no fancy trips etc

It will be very tight on those salaries. It will give you very little for "extras" whilst putting your DD in an environment where the other students will have more than the average.

A child does not do well if their parents are stressed by increasing rents and cost of living and working several jobs to afford everything.

I think you need to look long and hard at exactly what benefits your DD will get from the private school, what you will have to cut back on and if there are different choices you could make.

Then it sounds highly likely that there is going to be a big hike soon.

You say fees haven’t gone up that much in the last 3 years however 20% VAT is applicable now so you need to check if (or when) that’s going to be put onto the fees. I think £8k per term is a lot on the salary that you have currently.

I would say that in the current economic climate and with our crazy government in charge, it's a very bad idea to go down the private route if your income is £85K. You might be comfortably afford prep at £15-£18K per yer but fees are rising on average 8% each year. And what happened if one of you lose a job? It's a huge stress, you won't sleep at nights etc.

At senior school you will be looking at £8-10K per term PLUS the lovely 20% VAT that gov introduced. It is added to EVERYTHING in private school incl. private lessons or supervised sea swimming. VAT adds a huge amount to the overall high fees, and hence in the next 2 years there will be a lot more kids moving out of private schools ( a lot just staying put due to crucial exam years when you can't really move!). Our child has been in the private system since the age of 3, and we were always very comfortable with fees and could afford 2-3 long-haul hols a year. But then the change in the economy happened - very high mortgage rates ( have a few properties), VAT added to school fees, I lost a job and BOOM - we were really struggling for a year on an income of £125K after tax. Now our school fees are £30K for a day place plus an other £4K for trips, uniform, clubs. We work all the hours and most money just go on fees and bills...We are considering moving our DC to the state for the A-levels, can't wait to get the normal life back!

some london schools offer bursaries on a sliding scale up to £150k household income. So that should give you an idea of how tricky it will be on your income.

Seriously look at sports scholarships - ask! Does she play the school’s main sports? Is she county level or above? My DC scholarships are 25% (again in London). Not all scholarships are tiny - though we know we are very lucky

She plays football,trampoline and a high level in gymnastics,I have asked for a assessment for sports scholarship

At DC school (obviously every school is different!) if your DD was competing at national level in one of those sports she would get 10% discount as the bigger scholarships are for hockey / netball / cricket for girls.

Our school discounts the trips for children on bursaries.

DS is very good at sport. However not exceptional. In a very big London private school he’s in the top 10% and plays top level school sport. He got a sports exhibition which sounds lovely. But it’s £500 and annual fees are now just over £30,000. Don’t expect too much on the bursary front.

Hi just a update we got offered a 40% bursary

Wonderful news for your daughter !!

To be honest I think you’re mad to even consider it. We earn £135K and our mortgage is £950 a month and there’s no way we’d afford £24K a year on school fees plus all the extras that go along with private schooling. I think you need to be earning big money to afford private school nowadays with the cost of living.

When we started in Year 5 4 years ago fees were £12,500 a year now we are in year 9 fees including VAT at 22,500 a year!!! Just fyi what you need to think about,

Congratulations 🥳 thrilled for you!

Yay! In that case, go for it

Sorry I think this is madness on your income. What about family holidays and trips? Unexpected bills? Car break down?

Sorry I just saw your update re bursary - certainly more manageable on that!

It’s not just the fees you need to consider either, any extra curricular will be very expensive / clubs / uniform etc it’s going to add up very fast.

That's brilliant, I hope she flourishes

You will struggle. And your daughter will be surrounded by wealthy pupils, in large private homes, many with second homes abroad. How will you afford all the extras at school? Then of course you run the risk of the school closing and being forced to go to a state school. It’s just happened where I live, a beautiful school with 350 pupils is closing. Our school is getting lots of frantic phone calls from parents trying to get a school place for their child. Imagine being in the exam years.

I think that is still tight, even with the bursary. And yes, double check the schools finances. I think I’m in the school mentioned above and it’s devastating. It’s a huge of amount of money - you have to really think about what else you could with that (eg save and substantial deposit for a house). It is very late in the day to be offering bursaries too, so I wonder why they’ve done it now?

You can’t afford it on £85k. After your rent and £2000 for school fees you’ve got £1250 for everything else: food, bills, clothes (school uniform isn’t cheap), more importantly: your pension. Plus all the school trips, not all of which are optional like ski trips - there are plenty of educational trips billed as extras on your bill at end of term.

Don’t start this because it will end with you having no to remove your child to a state school, and changing school at a non-standard entry point is disruptive for friendships and education.

Why is it late in the day? DD is due to start secondary in Sep 2026