How are you affording it - private school.

[DonkeyKon]

Fee paying (but relatively cheap) london prep school and then step up to Latymer Upper for one an (we hope) second child in the future.

we have a good income between the two of us but by god the fees are eye watering.

outside of those in banking / faang, how do you go about affording 2 x £35K/year post tax?

My category (b) might include a decent number of households that made a lot of money in the 00s and 2010s property/ buy to let boom

There is a huge difference if you managed to get on the housing ladder in the early 00s. Lots of my friends have older siblings that did & they are the ones in the 1m plus homes with tiny or no mortgages. It’s crazy how much property changed in such a short time frame.

Honestly, anyone who is sending their child to a private primary is wasting their money. I tutor and honestly, the children who are the worst educated and have the most misconceptions are the ones whose parents are spending £18000+ on their education. The parents just see a fancy school uniform, a beautiful old building, parents all driving nice cars and think, I want my child to be a part of that. You're kidding yourself if you honestly think the education is better. 9/10 it simply isn't.

Four 'decent' privates around here and I you'd have to pay me to send my children to any of them.

If you absolutely must, don't bother with primary, save for those 7 years and send them for years 7-11. Absolutely no point for college either.

@MintDog interesting about college I’ve heard mixed views on that. Why would you say it’s not worth it?

Well I’m not sure I recommend it, but I separated from Dc dad so he pays half, and we also get scholarship and bursary.

I save constantly and try and have a years fees stashed away. Any extra bonus or money from family goes into the pot. I also rent now, which again I don’t recommend but if it means I can see through until dc leaves then I don’t mind.

Single parent on 90k and can't afford it anymore. Could just about manage it before the VAT.

This is a good point - and for those who got on the ladder the decade before, the gap is even more in their favour. We have friends who bought property in the mid-late 90s for what seems like a laughable amount now. So yes, there will definitely be some people releasing property equity to cover school fees.

I have 2 friends that applied for bursaries last year. The ones with the higher income (over 100k) couldn’t take the offer because the fee reduction was fairly small and their mortgage costs are high as they got on the ladder late The other friends are mortgage free due to inheritance but much lower income and received a 70% reduction. Different schools, but I was surprised at the discrepancies.

Yeah agree with this.

Dh and I went on scholarships and pre kids I always took it as a complete given any children would go private for secondary (and maybe do prep) but driving an 8yr Honda and taking a weeks holiday in Wales isnt going to pay for private school...

Swathes are closing now which is very sad alderly edge girls school is closing end of academic year... and i hate that we are in a race to the bottom with people hand rubbing in delight. Private schools offer a wider breadth and arts subjects will suffer. They are also a life line for SEN kids being failed by state.
I don't get the hate...

Because the issues that put parents off sending their children to state (bullying, vaping in toilets, abusive pupils, wasting time in lessons etc) simply doesn't happen in college. By that point, the useless have weeded themselves out and colleges aren't chasing students who haven't bothered to come in.

It’s eye wateringly expensive. We’d need to earn about £500k before tax to afford one of the decent ones near here for two DC and still have a nice house, decent cars and occasionally go on holiday. Luckily they both got into excellent grammar schools.

Not very helpful but moved we overseas and kids now go to an International School. Despite us both having high earnings jobs if we'd have stayed in the UK I actually think we'd have had to have looked at moving kids to the state with tutoring etc and then saved for secondary fees

As others have said it has gone up exponentially (way before VAT, which was nail in the coffin) so many people I know aren't considering prep now but tutoring and then grammar or private for secondary.

For us the private prep school was worth it as both dc discovered their talents there and both got 25% performing arts scholarships which makes the £60k pa day school fees for the two of them slightly more palatable. And we are using inheritances from our parents as well.

And @RandomUsernameHere i agree that £500k is the point where fees/house/holidays/car become comfortable not the £250k figure quoted earlier. We’re somewhere between those points and can only do it because our parents died somewhat prematurely so inheritance has been passed on.

I'd love to know where "around here" is.b Aged 5, 6, 7, 8, DS was top of his primary class and very unstretched. The final straw was a teacher labelling the vertical axis x and the horizontal axis y.

He transferred to the junior section of a top London Indy. It had nothing to do with a fancy uniform, beautiful building or nice cars but everything to do with specialist subject teaching: Maths, English, History, Ancient History, French, Geography, Science. DS went from top to having to catch up with the pre prep lads.

44IB points, first from Oxford, PhD (funded) from Cambridge. Now an academic overseas. It was worth every single penny.

We’ve got two in private prep but have already made the decision to move them to state for secondary. They’ve had a great start, and the generous wraparound has made it possible for both of us to work full time in well paid jobs. However, the fees have doubled since my year 5 child started school, and the offering from the school becomes leaner year on year, as they try to cut costs. It’s just not value for money any more. We could just about afford to do it but I’d rather work less, go on more
holidays and retire earlier.

@MintDog thats true. Is there any academic benefit? extracurricular, uni support?

@RosesAndHellebores presumably state primary schools have changed a fair bit since your dc went or do you think they won’t have changed much in all those years?

I'm not persuaded they have improved. The DC went to the leading state primary in the Borough. Queues to get in.

Nobody mentioned educational bursaries but these are extremely common, especially with international organisations. I imagine they're also standard with any relocation package for private global companies.

I would be shocked if more than 50% of private school families are paying entirely out of their own pocket. The reason fees are so high is that many schools know they will be paid by employers anyway. It's like business and first class on airlines, very few people are paying for that themselves. In private schools that offer the IB curriculum (aimed at international mobility), up to 80% of families are not paying the fees themselves.

Private schools will survive because they're not dependant on private people earning X amount per year. There are enough giant corporations and international organisations worldwide that will guarantee a constant influx of students.

It's the like-minded parent body that people seek when going this route too - parents that value education. This reflects in the pupils' attitude towards hard work and wanting for a sense of achievement. And in return shapes the school culture, and the day to day experience our youngsters spend so much time in.
I see many here don't though.. but that's your child and your money 😂To each their own!

True enough, but there are only a few tens of thousands of households in the UK who pull in that mind of money. Nearly all of the 600k current private school pupils are from households who earn far less.

We had help from grandparents but every penny I earned, plus CB, went into school fees. Our car was very old, and holidays either didn't happen or we stayed in hostels in the UK.

With 2 going in to secondary at the same time, we'll be moving to home education. They'll have online specialist subject tutoring supported by a full time academic coordinator. It brings the cost back to the equivalent of one in a good school with much more flexibility in terms of extra curriculars and child care.

Mine are only at primary (state), but I think I've given up on private secondary, though it was always my plan.

I earn very well, but even so would be a squeeze (with a big mortgage also!) and I'm increasingly convinced they'd be better off with the money - I no longer feel qualified to give life/career advice in this world!!

This too

In addition, I was fairly old by the time I got pregnant, so we were both quite senior and the mortgage had been paid off before she was born.

Also not really bothered about material things, so our lives otherwise are pretty cheap.

These two things together meant that we’ve built up a good amount of savings. That was going to fund early retirement, but we’re happy to work a few more years as needed.