Saving for school fees from birth, Wesleyan?

Malthusian

fred246 wrote: »

I assume you mean Lifestrategy 80. Sounds good to me. Are you planning to let your child suffer state education between 4 and 14 and 18 to 22ish and just pay for 4 years in the middle?

That was pretty much what happened to me and I don't see any contradiction. 14-18 is when children are most able to appreciate the "wider opportunities beyond the classroom" that the OP is targeting, but have relatively little ability to source opportunities for themselves.

After 18 they're adults, the OP isn't going to let them do anything. It's entirely up to them whether they have more years of state education or go travelling or train outside the UK university system or get a job or do absolutely nothing or some or all of the above.

If you're focused on exam grades (which the OP isn't) then 14-18 is again the crucial period.

Old_Lifer

The reason a 'with-profits' fund is regarded as 'low-risk' is because less than half of a typical with-profits fund nowadays is invested in the stock market. It is therefore seen as less volatile than a fund invested wholly in shares.

Geography_rox

Hi Fred,

Thanks for confirming the lifestrategy 80 seems a decent plan.

I believe the terrible phrase thrown around these days is “state till eight”. To be honest, I will definitely send them to state primary till year 6, the question of year 7 and 8 is one that I am currently delaying making a decision on. Teachers at my place get a good discount on most local prep schools, but it would still obviously be very expensive. I just worry they might not cope here without the extra push early doors. We will see. Hopefully by then I’ll finally own a house that rents out and I can use the money I’m currently saving each month towards that to help with the fees for 2 years.

As for university, who knows! He is lucky enough to have a european passport so can always go somewhere free there! Alternatively my school has a good success rate placing students into scholarships at american colleges. But I’ll focus on getting through the baby years first!

AlanP_2

Our 3 went through the state system, and all ended up doing well so no criticism implied or intended.

Friends of ours used the same approach as the OP, state until starting secondary school and then private (at one of the most expensive in London).

They turned out OK as well and from what I could see the major difference was the amount of non-educational "support" provided.

For example, they got all their Uni applications completed well ahead of when ours managed to get theirs completed. They were encouraged to visit Uni's well ahead of applying and the School Statement part of the application was completed ASAP.

Ours were "discourgaged" and told you don't need to so any visits until next term (we went anyway) and getting the Statements completed required them to do a lot of chasing up of teachers.

Why did we want to get this sorted out early and why do we think that is the best approach?

Well, one of them wanted to study Chem and York was their first choice. At the Open Day they were told "apply early, once we have enough applicants of a suitable quality we don't look at any more as we don't need to".

No idea whether other Unis / Courses use a similar approach but it makes sense when you think about it.

Additionally, on A-Level results day the private school teachers and students were in school from 7am, looking at results and ringing around / using clearing system to get their students placed in "good Unis".

At our state school results were handed out at about 10am so if the same approach was being used by a number of private schools a good number of the "spare" places had already been taken before the students at our State school had a look in. Fortunately our 3 all got in to their first choices so didn't impact us.

That, in my mind, is a big part of what you are paying for.

MallyGirl

We went for a mixed approach with out daughter. The local primary schools were all pretty dire so she went to a selective indie - no idea how they select at 3 or 4 but it certainly wasn't a done deal that she would get a place. We were used to paying for nursery and school fees weren't wildly different - plus we only had 1 child.
For years 7-11 she went to a grammar and did really well.
For 6th form she switched back to the indie and that has been brilliant - smaller class sizes suit her and they are very geared up for uni applications.