school fees

stashmycash

A neighbour of mine wants to put her child into private school, because her daughter failed the 11 plus and she can't get her into a good school. She is worried that she won't be able to afford the fees in the future.

My first question is apart from the school fees what else will she have to pay for ?

I'm sure I've read that there are charities to help people to pay school fees.

Has anyone any advice that I can pass on?

hayleyjg

My daughter is at private school and the deal is that my ex (her father) pays the fees and I pay for everything else. Your neighbour should be aware that the uniform for private school tends to be much more expensive than most state schools . My daughters can only be bought a John Lewis and for example a school skirt is £45 , a jumper £30 and a new blazer is £70!! However most schools have second hand uniform shops and sales which is where i buy things like school summer dresses and blazers.

Also school trips can be expensive. At my daughters school they recently had a school trip to Jordan and other ancient sites that cost over £1000!! However I think only one of my daughter's friends went and my diaghters certianly didn't.

Many private schools do offer scholarships and burseries towards the fees so it may be worth your neighbour making enquiries about those with the school's she is interested in.

inkie

It is a huge financial commitment - we have gone down this route for our DD at a selective school, but have found the costs too prohibitive, even though she secured a 50% bursary, due to getting one of the top marks in the competative entrance examination. I expect that as your neighbours child has failed the 11 plus then she will be looking at non-selective schools. Best thing to do is to contact them directly, although most have their assessments for the new starters for next year well completed by now.

themaccas

Hi, I'm afraid the fees are only the beginning. We have 2 at private boarding schools and these are average costs each:

Complete set of uniform - £600 (should last 1-2 school years if you are careful as usually they are very good quality)
Music lessons - £110 per term
Horse riding - £145 per term
Trips - e.g Local museum - £10, Ski trip £400, Overseas expedition (Senior school) £2000-£2500
Book fair - £10
Science fair (usually free to LEA) £10

Sometimes they add on dictionaries and calculators, we've been charged for trips to the doctors, snacks, all sorts. Our bills have never been 'just school fees' that they quote at you. Every term we budget in an extra £400 to pay for extras and mine don't have everything I have listed above.

We're lucky in that we receive 90% burseries for them and IMO the standard of education they recieve is worth every penny of the 10% we have to pay.

ckerrd

Some schools charge a higher up front fee but these include all the trips.
Talking to a couple of friends who have kids at different private schools (or public schools as I believe they are known in England - ???) one pays for everything, books, trips etc, the other does not. Obviously the fees vary greatly. As others have said the uniforms are expensive - and they do grow out of them, no matter how good the quality.
Bursaries are a good thing to look at.

pink_phantom

How do you know who is entitled to a bursary and who isn't?

cheepskate_2

If your friend cannot afford the independent school fees , another way to get good education is to go for private tuitoring.

I had this for my eldest in English, and boy WHAT a DIFFERENCE.

My son is very bright but has a auditory processing disorder, he was top at all in primary school , but seemed to go down hill in secondary school.

When we got the private English tutor he was in the beggining of 4th year and he was sitting at a 5 ( gcse's) which is the 2nd lowest mark and would have been foundation level.

Within a month my sons marks went to a 2 (credit level) and he was just 1% off a A in his exam,

He was kept in the foundation class all through the 4th year even though he was then sitting at credit level ( its hopless arguing with this school) and did not do credit level work within the school

The only credit level work my son did was with his tutor for 2 hours per week, and this got the results needed.

In my opinion a one to one tutor can with the right attitude from the child work wonders

Private one to one comes in about £25.00 / £30.00 for the hour

Hope she finds something suitable

cheepskate_2

pink_phantom wrote:

How do you know who is entitled to a bursary and who isn't?

If it is an income based bursary then the school has it's own criteria for what is low income, bear in mind what you or i class as high income may be classed as low income by the school,

nothins ventured nothing gained

ruthyjo

pink_phantom wrote:

How do you know who is entitled to a bursary and who isn't?

Generally you enter your child for the entrance examination for a school (these usually take place in January/February of the year you want to enter in September of) indicating on your application form that you want to be considered for the bursary/scholarship/financial assistance. Children are then ranked on the basis of entrance examination (and possibly interview). If you are amongst the top performers you get one.

For the senior school my son will be starting in September he has a bursary (means assessed) and an academic scholarship (open to all boys). We are left with a balance of approximately forty percent of the fees (£4K) to pay ourselves after these awards. If we earned less the means tested bursary would be more.

He sat the entrance examination for another independent school and actually came top in their exam and was offered a 100% scholarship. We would have had to pay for school dinners only. This scholarship was not means tested and so was open to children with parents in all income brackets. We chose not to take it because it was not the right school for him.

Basically there are as many arrangements for awarding assistance as there are schools as each school can do pretty much what they like. However I know from when I originally moved my sons at junior school level that assistance is not generally offered outside of the normal admissions round as schools use it all up every year during the admissions process. I approached a school mid year and had to wait until the following September for any assistance to kick in. I do think your neighbour might have missed out for a child needing to start in Spetember but it is worth approaching every school she is interested in to clarify their arrangements.

ruthyjo

I also think as far as other costs go you will pay for the same things as in a state school - trips, uniform, bus travel etc. The kids don't do anything different other than be educated. However you might find that there is less emphasis on keeping costs down than there would be in an LEA school so each expense will be more.

Our school uniform includes a lot more items (loads of different pe kit for different circumstances etc) and each item has to be bought from a particular place and is unique to the school and quite pricey.

The bus fare we pay is £4 per day per child.

The trips in the UK are actually pretty reasonable (e.g. 3 days outward bounds approx £150) but there are trips that we can't afford - skiing etc. However not every child goes on these by any means.

Another poster quoted £110 a term for music lessons - that's a bargain - my kids still have LEA music lessons that are considerably more expensive than that.

I think my message would be prepare for essential extras to be slightly inflated. For optional extras they may be expensive but you can use your discretion about what you actually want for your child.

However don't do it unless you are prepared to be broke for years. I sometimes get a bit low that whilst earning a reasonable salary I am still driving an S reg car and can't afford to holiday further afield than France. Obviously I think it's worth it for my kids though!

inkie

Just to add to the OP - that for the bursaries, be prepared for your financial situation to be gone over with a fine tooth comb by the bursar - we even had to have the house valued - some may find it intrusive - but at the end of the day if you are wanting the school to contribute to the cost of your childs education, then you have no choice.