Who can afford private schools in the UK?

[wjchoihk]

Hi. I am not sure if this is an appropriate question to ask here. But I have always wondered how rich you should be to send children to private schools in UK. Fees are anywhere from 3000 up to 10000 per term. Even allowing for wide gaps in income, thinking of 'avearge' UK wage of 26,000 pound, math simply don't add up for a normal life with such high fees. I also know only 7% of children go private though.

How much of private parents live on "inherited" wealth and how much on simply superior current earnings? I have my kids at SW London privates but I wouldn't be able to afford this without current int'l expat package. Some parents at my kids' schools LOOK and ARE very very rich but most of them LOOK quite down to earth. But I can't ask....

Disagree on that one seeker. The tutors are good at adjusting their interview style I think. Of course they couldn't teach someone who was too shy to engage whatsoever, but I'm sure they can deal up to a point.

Thank, you BS, how very sweet of you to mention it. Having come back to the thread after a busy day and caught up, the most striking feature of the unfolding conversation was the utterly bonkers and mean spirited attacks on seeker.

I do agree with someone - forgetten who, who says the the top 5% academically are socially immature. In my experience they are right! Some of the boys in my sons prep school have been taken from council estates due to their academic ability or who are being tutored to within an inch of their lives giving them no time for playdates,games etc.

And I have to say it is a culutral thing often. Asian families often band together to afford the private option should the parents not be able to afford the fees. In return they expect the utmost focus on learning.

grovel - actually i don't have a view on Oxbridge types. I've worked with a few mathematicians who were a bit 'special' but that has more to do with the subject rather than the college/uni.

You are welcome Hester.

Come on Hester. Where is your sense of humor? I mean it was like a Grandpa Simpson's moment. Grandpa suddenly wakes up says something, totally unaware that the conversation has moved on since he dropped off.

I'm happy to say that seeker has made me re-think my position on grammar schools and selection at 11+. She hasn't yet fully converted me but she has certainly made me question some of my lazy assumptions.

I actually think, if they have a child genius in front of them for interview - they will ignore the fact that sometimes they cannot hold a normal conversation with anyone. A child genius will up their results....

In my DS's prep school they had a chap who lives in a deprived area of Slough. He was picked out at 8, sent to a prep school and then onto Eton where he was awarded a Kings Scolarship all using bursaries. However the poor boy is socially immature. The other boys find him odd, he has developed anger management issues and no one really knows what is best. He is at Eton. However whether he becomes a fully developed adult or not - well we wait to see.

"Some of the boys in my sons prep school have been taken from council estates due to their academic ability"
That's interesting. How do you know? And how does it work?

Very extreme maisie and too extreme to use as a template for the top 5%. That's a lot of people with a lot of different types of intelligence. Absurd to generalise.

grovel well seeker has reinforced my view that the Kent system of 25%:75% is not one I'd like to see rolled out nationwide if ever there was the political will to re-introduce grammars, which I doubt there will be, sadly.

grovel it may not always be evident, but threads like this often make me think hard about my assumptions, if I filter out the bollocks! I may be a predictable face on such threads, but I don't care: I like them!

How do I know Seeker. Well, I met the parents at a Speech Day and they told me their son had been spotted as having huge potential academically and consequently they were offered full bursary to prep school with the plan to get him through the Eton Kings Scholarhip.

He did it as well but at what cost.....

How do you think busaries are offered? You have to do something to earn it. Normally either academically or sports wise. Otherwise anyone who fancied a private school with no hope of affording the fees would apply.

Maisie- is that an apocryphal story? And if it isn't doesn't it just reinforce the view that private schools aren't the glorious social
Melting pot they are sometimes characterised to be?

I suppose a child prodigy may well be socially awkard...but most selective schools don't have many. They're just populated by the bright, which isn't the same thing at all.

Er I didn't get until now that private schools are characterised as a glorious social melting pot seeker....

word you're a writer. I think you could do better in that context than use the word gurgle. Not good.

State schools especially around here are always on the look out for pupils who might do better in a different enviroment. How do you think that Eton, Harrow, Charterhouse and such like get to offer full busaries without tip offs from state schools........

They are constantly on the look out for very bright pupils and for the very bright child they will offer an exception from full fees. They dont expect people to necessarily apply. Of course some do but others are spotted...

Actually DDs school does have a relationship with local primaries with the aim of spotting bright pupils who would benefit from Bursaries, the sixth form also run a Saturday morning club designed to give nominated bright pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds a chance to engage in stimulating activities and get a feel for the school.

Thanks Copthall. Private schools are always on the look out for the brightest pupils - why wouldnt they be. Seeker is giving me the impression that 'shock' - surely the states wouldnt willing pass their pupils to the big bad private system.

Well surely its whatever is best for the child....

For some the grammar system suits, for others a comp, for others a private.

Is that so difficult to understand... Its not one size fits all!

Eton have a full-time outreach person (I don't think they use the word "outreach"). Her/his job is to identify bright boys who would not otherwise see Eton as an option. They put a couple a year through prep school (ie pay for it). The others are financially helped only with Eton fees.

Boschy - earlier you asked why some parents choose private/GS? How about you ask seeker that question first? And if I have anything to add I will jump in. What do you think?

So, Seeker - not made up story. Factual by someone who is using the private system and backed up by others who are also using the system.

I am sorry that it doesnt fit into your 'one size fits all' apart from your children of course....

Actually all the private schools I have experience of have social inclusivity at the heart of their ethos and traditions, many started out as direct grant grammars which charged fees according to a means tested sliding scale alongside extensive LA scholarships. They have ever since sought to raise the money for bursaries to enable them to continue to continue that tradition as far as possible. DDs school wasn't a direct grant but started out as a school for poor servant girls. I addition the teachers at the schools are often personally committed to those values as well. Certainly at DDs school there was a teacher taking Latin Clubs into primaries in her own time and plenty of teachers involved in other similar activities. They also do all they can to raise the awareness of their pupils to their privilege and responsibilities, often admittedly in the face of blinkered parenting and not always entirely hitting the mark . DD returned from a Geography field trip to Wales completely disgusted when they drove the coach through a deprived area of the valleys and the teacher got very excited and stopped the coach so the girls could observe on the left side " a pregnant teenage mother" ............

I agree about the ideals Copthall.

DD not sure what disgusted her more, the teacher pointing out a teenage pregnant mother as if she was an exotic species, or the girls looking on in amazement as if she was. Of course not being quite the right sort for private schools DD has encountered this "exotic" species amongst her own relations

I think a lot of people are put off applying for private schools as they think they wouldn't fit in etc. Looking back at my education I would walked an academic and music scholarship however going to private school was just completely outside what was our norm. My db was the first to go to uni and was the second. Thirty years later we are still the only two from our extended family to have gone to uni.

I have a good career as a result and ds is at prep on a high scholarship. He will need an equally high scholarship for senior school and I have every expectation that he will get it. That is a huge difference to the upbringing I had. My experience of private education via ds is pretty similar to my experience of state education. No one is poor and there are some very wealthy people indeed but most are just doing their best to provide what they consider to be the best education for their dcs. The only difference I have noticed is ds's expectation of his own education is very different to that of his state school friends.

I didn't know that Eton pay prep school fees for two boys a year- that's good to hear. And full bursaries too- none of the private schools round here offer any full bursaries at all. Glad that some do.