How do you finance private school?

Lunar_Eclipse

lex wrote: »

Hmmm....sounds like the rather popular school in West End...

lex

Correct! After posting that, I had a look at their website and see that they no longer offer flexi boarding. Not that I want my children to board, but I thought it was better to have the option of boarding 1 night a week than not be offered a place at the school. Now it's either day, weekly or full boarding. Which probably means it is no longer an option for us.

k1mmie

Lunar_Eclipse wrote: »

His peer group is probably his world at the moment and it's great that he's happy where he is. But that doesn't mean he couldn't be even happier. This opportunity may not be for him; or it could literally change his life.

I would encourage him to visit the other school, just to see what is on offer. He may choose to stay at his current school, or he might decide to seize the opportunity. I would never turn down an opportunity without taking a good look at what I'm turning down.

Just my thoughts.

Thanks Lunar Eclipse, I agree with you totally. I will be doing so. However I dont think the facilities alone will be enough to persuade him (even as fantastic as they are). He is in the top set of every subject in his current school, and helping to mentor other pupils in the sports arena where possible. This gives him a great sense of achievement. His current school being Catholic has very high moral standards. The children are encouraged to support each other and respect each other and some things just cannot be bought. This seems to work for him. However, it will be interesting.

Lunar_Eclipse

k1mmie wrote: »

This gives him a great sense of achievement.

Which will build his self confidence and help him enormously out in the real world. I can see the case for sticking with the status quo. What if he wasn't in the top sets at this other school? Or the best in his sporting field? For some people this would be fine, for others it really knocks their self-esteem. Tough one. Good luck.

SarahFx

My 16 year old brother is being privately schooled in the North East. The fees are 12k a year which is covered by my mother's wage, she purely works to pay for his school. My stepdad earns about 70k and they have a mortgage of less than 40k. They easily afford it.

My brother and I went to a private school abroad as my stepdad got the fees paid as part of his employment package. They couldn't have afforded 3 of us in private schools in this country.

Milky_Mocha

Marcheline wrote: »

Hi Lunar, I really do feel for you and I totally appreciate what you are saying. It sounds as though (if you really don't want to send your children to state school and if you really think a scholarship to go private is unlikely) then you might have to change your lifestyle to manage with the costs of private education.

For instance, have you thought about (and is it feasible!) to move to a cheaper house in a worse location? Or shopping in cheaper stores? Having no holidays, or cheaper ones? Driving cheaper cars or not driving at all? If you did all these things, do you think you could afford the fees then? If so, then are you willing to sacrifice your current standard of living to send them to school privately?

Interesting post. I've often wrestled with the option of private vs state and tried to be candid with myself as to whether I can afford it or not. The state schools I hope to send my kids to are brilliant (Brentwood) but not within catchment so chances are slim and I'd hope to fall on private education as a last resort. The more I think about it the more I feel I can't afford it but looking at some of the incomes mentioned in this thread one would think it should be a doddle.

Joint net income is approx £7k per month (excluding bonuses which are not guaranteed, particularly in the current economic climate) with me contributing about £2.5k of this. However our mortgage is £2k (due to fall to about £1650 next month when our fixed rate ends). Still, with remaining income of c. £5k per month it sounds v. doable. Problem is, once kids start school I probably won't be able to work full time due to time of school drop offs and pick-ups. This could bring remaining income down to c. £3k to cover other expenses such as bills, food, entertainment, car maintenance, etc. and I don't think we could afford to take £2k out of that to cover monthly school fees for both kids. I strongly believe that if one child goes private, siblings should too, otherwise it could promote a feeling of favouritism.

So for me, we should go private for them only if £1k per month will cover food, insurance, car maintenance, fuel, at least one holiday per 2 years (thought of forgoing holidays altogether makes me sick!), uniforms, school trips, clothing, gas, electric, water, tv licence, home maintenance (as I don't want us to live in a house that's falling apart!), basic sky, etc.

So basically, we currently have a household income of approx £130k gross pa and I don't believe we can fund private education!! Am I missing something???

pianeet

i have one son at private school and another starting in september,only reason we can afford it is that i get a pro-rata staff discount 66% in my case, this applies to both teaching and non teaching staff and i believe it is a fantastic perk which i know a lot of other private schools do,
In some case's it may be worth taking a part time cleaning job on £6 an hour ,and just by working 15hrs a week you could also save another 20% off your fees

Mudd14

My partner works at a private school, most of them are forces children and they get cheaper rates. I would send my kid to the school my other half works at as she gets 2/3's off the fees and its a very good high achieving school

Lunar_Eclipse

Milky_Mocha wrote: »

Interesting post. I've often wrestled with the option of private vs state and tried to be candid with myself as to whether I can afford it or not. The state schools I hope to send my kids to are brilliant (Brentwood) but not within catchment so chances are slim and I'd hope to fall on private education as a last resort. The more I think about it the more I feel I can't afford it but looking at some of the incomes mentioned in this thread one would think it should be a doddle.

Joint net income is approx £7k per month (excluding bonuses which are not guaranteed, particularly in the current economic climate) with me contributing about £2.5k of this. However our mortgage is £2k (due to fall to about £1650 next month when our fixed rate ends). Still, with remaining income of c. £5k per month it sounds v. doable. Problem is, once kids start school I probably won't be able to work full time due to time of school drop offs and pick-ups. This could bring remaining income down to c. £3k to cover other expenses such as bills, food, entertainment, car maintenance, etc. and I don't think we could afford to take £2k out of that to cover monthly school fees for both kids. I strongly believe that if one child goes private, siblings should too, otherwise it could promote a feeling of favouritism.

So for me, we should go private for them only if £1k per month will cover food, insurance, car maintenance, fuel, at least one holiday per 2 years (thought of forgoing holidays altogether makes me sick!), uniforms, school trips, clothing, gas, electric, water, tv licence, home maintenance (as I don't want us to live in a house that's falling apart!), basic sky, etc.

So basically, we currently have a household income of approx £130k gross pa and I don't believe we can fund private education!! Am I missing something???

Well, are you sure you have your Maths right? Current income £7.5k/month, would become £5k if you stopped working completely. I think you might have deducted your income twice since you then also mentioned income dropping to £3k, which I didn't understand. Additionally you could always work part time to boost the family income.

If we had an income of 130k, we could easily afford to finance private education for our two children. But people have differing financial circumstances and priorities.

silvercar

I sent mine to a good state primary, good but not amazing. When it was time to choose a secondary I was determined to look at all the options with an open mind. Having looked around I was pleasantly surprised at the variety available.

Luckily my eldest got a place at the most suitable school for him which was a (free) state grammer school, meaning that we could afford to send the younger one to his most suitable school which was private.

In terms of having the money for extras. Schools in rich catchment areas can and do have many extras and there are many children and private schools whose parents can't afford any extras.

onlyroz

We have a joint household income of about £65K gross and we afford £1100 a month mortgage and around £1000 a month nursery fees. However we'll be sending the kids to state school because we'd prefer to spend the nursery fee money on a mortgage on a bigger property rather than tying ourselves to this house until the kids turn 18...