What extra costs should we budget for with private primary school?

[Keyboardpacifist]

We're just starting to do the initial "can we afford independent school" for primary school and although I know all schools are different, I'm wondering if there were any costs that caught you out? Partially for our affordability calculations but also comparing schools. Some include things that others don't. Our list so far is:

• Fees
• Basic uniform (is everything specialist or no)
• Sports uniform
• Before school care
• After school care
• Music/drama lessons
• Lunch

What have I missed? We're not far enough away from any of the potential schools to use their bus route so no hidden costs there, just petrol.

Way more school trips than state schools! Both cheaper day trips and, as they get older, residential trips both UK and abroad.

Uniform will vary. I worked at, and my daughter went to, a prep at the cheap end. Specialist uniform and kit included: blazer, jumpers, kilt/pinafore, summer dress, shirts, PE top x2, skort for older years, hoodie. You could get away with supermarket polo shirt (younger years), PE shorts, joggers, tights, socks, shoes, trainers. They did have a good second hand shop for the branded bits to be fair.

I know of an another local school which specified a particular shade of maroon tights right up til year 11 which were not easily obtainable outside the special shop.

Wrap around at mine was actually cheaper than the local state school and included a proper tea, not just a slice of toast.

Music and drama lessons are optional and also probably no more expensive than at the local state.

School trips are likely to be more frequent, more expensive and no option to opt out of the voluntary donation if you’re having a difficult month financially- they’re just added to the invoice for next term.

Is this the kind of thing we could ask about at an open day? Typical costs etc. I imagine that varies hugely by school and area

Thank you! Yes, one school includes after school club up to 6pm in their fees but not before school care, but the others don't always specify online so another question for their open days.

Holiday clubs, if you work. As there are longer holidays.

You could ask at an open day about any - they’ll have varying names- second hand uniform store the school might host. Or it might feature on websites. When they are small, kids grow out of uniform so fast- at ours the second hand place, on school site, is heavily used and it’s very cheap. Feel free to ansk about school trips- the local ones are included in school fees at ours. School lunches? Might be very good and could be optional or not or term sign up or day-to-day option.

Enrichment activities/trips, author visits (plus book), book fair, tickets to school plays and costume, donations to charity, Christmas fair and mufti days. Our bill was regularly about 10% on top of fees.

• longer holidays (our summer hols are 9-10 weeks), so you’ll need extra childcare. The holiday clubs that are available before all the state schools break up tend to be more expensive - I think ours is £70 a day.
• more expensive school trips - our year 7s are being offered a skiing trip for £1500 next year.
• generally an assumption that parents can afford whatever they’re asked for - so eg we might get an email on a Monday saying that Wednesday is pirate day and kids can dress up - obviously doesn’t leave you enough time to hit eBay or the charity shops so everybody’s on Amazon prime to get an outfit in time.
• if other parents are wealthy then generally parties and play dates will be fancier, and birthday presents more generous (and you may feel pressure to reciprocate/keep up).

Trips abroad which can easily cost £1000+ and clubs that can cost ~£100 per half term.

Definitely uniform, primary uniform cost in the region of £350 with all specialist PE and sports kit. Unfortunately at our school the second hand sales seem to be poorly advertised/only open to PA members and friends…
We’ve also found food really expensive and not particularly good quality, we happily hopped on the bandwagon when packed lunches became cool

Birthday parties /presents and that your child will likely develop expensive taste from being around peers who are used to having expensive brands etc.

I think you get more for your money in primary school and there are no trips abroad yet. DGD in secondary school has a trip
abroad every year.

Does the school provide transport? That is an extra cost we pay but much cheaper than public transport.

Lap top care provision and care is another. DGD has damaged 2 so far.

In our experience extras are consistent in primary school, no sudden shocks or frequent requests. I know this can vary. My niece had to remove her DD from a primary because of constant extra costs. But this was one of the smaller schools that don’t have as many facilities.

We get charged £150 per term to ‘rent’ a laptop/Ipad with no option to opt out our supply our own.

Our private prep allowed parents to opt out of school trips that cost over £40. International residential trips started in year 7 and would cost up to £1000 for about 6 days. Not all children went on the various trips for all sorts of reasons.
Most people bought used uniforms. The school days are longer so you might not need to worry about after school care.

Oh and school buses! They are a life saver but it’s important to account for the cost.

Termly fees go up in the later years (not just inflation, yr 6 is more expensive than yr 1).

Do they introduce iPads/tablets at some point? If so there may be an additional cost for this.

Lunches were included - you couldn’t opt out in primary unless particular health issue, in secondary I think you could but in my DD Sixth Form it was included.
Trips - some years none some years quite hefty (my son went skiing one year), say £750. Day trips tended to be covered and even some overnight trips were too, it was more the fun extra stuff that you had to pay for, like skiing.
Music lessons are probably the same as if you go to state.
Uniform: this was the most expensive element as it had to be from one particular provider and even the sport socks had the school logo! The blazers were £95! I volunteered at the second hand uniform shop so after initial outlay I got most things from there. We had to buy the school sports bag and in primary the book bag, in secondary it just had to be the right colour.
I didn’t use wrap around care.
There seemed to be more than necessary dress up days which were an absolute pain. So factor in costumes, and trey and get your kid to wear the same outfit for Halloween (found out Roald Dahl hated cats as tried desperately to find a cat connection so I didn’t have to buy another outfit - I did manage but tenuous)!
Can’t think of anything more. I guess teacher gifts at end of year but I’m sure they do that at state (you don’t tend to do gifts in secondary).
Don’t forget fees go up 3-5% a year! Considerably more expensive for secondary than primary too.

Oh this is a really specific thing I wouldn't have accounted for, thank you. Expectations. Impossible to calculate but worth bearing in mind.

Thank you everyone else who's responded so far, I'm reading them all and make notes. Keep em coming!

Ps I've hunted down each schools School Blazer or equivalent page for uniform cost calculating. All I can say is oof

Uniform tends to change at intervals as you progress up the school. They may not need a blazer and full sports kit until year 3. It also gets updated at regular intervals so a new sports top required. And some listed may not actually be required or get worn. There are also sundry items such as mouthguard , base layers and specialist sports equipment.

A lot of schools have a second uniform shop for blazers etc where you can pick up for less

Updated my spreadsheet. Does anyone know ballpark how much music or drama lessons are nowadays? If I budget £1k for them each would that cover a year's worth?

Obviously I have no idea if DD will be interested but I figure might as well budget for it just in case.

Thank you for this reminder. Yes, those with blazers don't tend to need them until Y3 and I'm sure they don't need every item in the sports kit until later on in school. Imagining tiny reception kids on cricket whites...

And thank you @MiddleAgedDread for reminding me about the 2nd hand uniform shop too.

Not really. The most expensive things we pay for on top of fees for my eldest is his school bus and trips. But he’s going into year 10.

For my other DC, they are going into year one and there’s hardly any other expenses so far apart from smaller trips and piano lessons that they will start this September.

Eldest goes abroad on trips at least once a school year, most expensive being £3.5k.

Uniform again, just go to the second hand shop! Wish we did that from the start as nearly paid £1.5k for sons uniform when he started.