Private school fees (merged)

emsywoo123

So is this debate turning into "should you spend your money on private school or save for uni?"

pianeet

benood wrote: »

One really big way to save fees is for one of the parents to be a teacher (or train up) and get a job at the school - this can get you upto 100% discounts on fees and only a relatively small extra tax liability for the benefit in kind. Bit high risk but I know a couple of people who've tried it - one was a vet previously and she did a PGCE to save fees, it more than compensated for lost vet income.

It is not just teachers that get discount non teaching staff at my sons school get a discount too,(66%)in my case.
It costs me less to send my son to one of the more well known boarding schools than it used to cost me for an hour before and after school in the after schools club in his state primary.

Lunar_Eclipse

meester wrote: »

Guildford High School (girls school, top 50 in the country as a high school at least) charges £2,200/term pre-prep and £3k/term in prep.
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GHS is probably the best value for money available in the private sector that I am aware of. I know the school well as it's on my doorstep and my sister went there. (It's in the top 10, often in the top 5 performing schools btw.)

Personally, I think the fees reflect the fact that because the school is located in a town centre in the SE where land is very expensive, the land area covered by the school is not as large as at many private schools. The sports field for instance is a short walk away (along a busy road.)

If you look at other schools people in this area could choose, they vary to the £3.5-5k/term we're facing.

looby-loo_2

I was given a good tip before my four started down this road. The fee you pay in Yr 7 will have doubled by the time they are in Yr 13. This has been true for all four. Youngest has one year to go. We trusted our local primary. Two started public school in Yr 6 and two in Yr 7. So we had to pay for 30 years.

Another thing is that we budgeted the whole outlay over 24 years:- We worked out how much we would need based on the fees doubling, times this by four then divided this by the number of years we had a child in school. In the first few years we saved more as there were only one or two to pay for. There were two hairy years when all four were there and we missed out on a holiday for one of them but then it became less. All the child allowance from birth went into the fund pot as well as driving old (but quirky, so as to have a little 'street cred' cars).

The intension was that as they went to uni our savings would built up again, but hey, the goal posts changed and that is costing more than we thought.

benood

emsywoo123 wrote: »

So is this debate turning into "should you spend your money on private school or save for uni?"

I think that after school fees probably university costs are a drop in the ocean.

ChasingButterflies

borntobefree wrote: »

Is there are private system in Scotland?

http://www.independentschools.com/scotland/browse.php

That saves me naming them all

borntobefree

meester wrote: »

Yes I do, but I'm glad that I'm in the position to not have any trouble paying, because the outcomes we are getting are much better than before at the state school.

One of my colleagues spent all his money on a £850k house and doesn't send his children to private school. I looked up his local school on Ofsted and it did not get a very good report. I wasn't impressed with his sense of priorities.

Hi

When our kids were small we lived in a close with several families with kids around the same age. The parents of one family chose the private route for their kids education. Just over a decade on they are still living in that close and everyone else has moved on to bigger houses and different lives. The families with kids in the state sector still have happy kids who are getting ready to sit GCSEs just the same as their counter parts in the private sector, they just have a better lifestyle IMHO. Paying for school fees does IMHO seriously damage your wealth.:D Maybe your colleague feels the same since in the end you are only comparing one imperfect system with another, its just that one is free.;)

borntobefree

Spendless wrote: »

Not to me it isn't. As \I mentioned earlier on this thread, something that is extremely important to me is that my children have local friends. I know of someone who's child is at a private school and the pupils come from all over the town. I wish mine to be able to call for friends themselves when they are a bit older. If their schoolmates were scattered about the town, this wouldn't be possible.

Totally agree with you. Having local friends was important to me too.

borntobefree

usa1 wrote: »

I would rather my private educated children come out with `some GCSE`s and 3/4 A levels, than an NVQ in Eastenders or a Certificate in X-factor, if they had gone to the local rough comp.

I doubt your kids would come out of the state sector with NVQs - though I must admit I hadn't realised there was one in Eastenders:p.
Whilst all Comps/state High Schools are local not all are rough:D

borntobefree

usa1 wrote: »

I wish all socialists would stick to their principles and not send thier children to private schools and send them to their local comp. Then standards would rise

Totally agree wth you on this one. All labour party members should vote with their feet and pick their local school. Diane Abbott's decision to send her child to the school she chose was wrong IMHO. (don't want to be accused of slander here;))