How much do private schools cost per month?
August 12th, 2024
Parents looking into private schooling for their children often have many questions about the costs involved. From tuition fees to additional expenses for boarding and day schools, understanding the financial commitment is essential. This guide breaks down the various factors and ranges to help you make an informed decision.
How Much Do Private Schools Cost per month?
Before placing your child in a private school, understanding the scale of the financial commitment required is essential for parents.
The costs involved with private education vary enormously, on several factors including:
- school location
- reputation
- student age
- facilities offered by the school
This article looks to offer an introduction about the likely fees involved with placing your child in a private school in the UK.
What Are the Fees for Private Schools in the UK?
Private school fees in the UK vary enormously. Fees are typically charged per term, with three terms per year. Termly fees vary between the low thousands and now edge towards the better part of £20,000 per term for some boarding schools (at the time of writing in summer 2024). Fees typically increase at a rate above inflation, so you should expect these numbers to increase over time.
Fees will cover all core lessons, but not certain extras like music lessons. Some schools will also charge extra for lessons in English as an additional language where necessary. Day schools will typically charge extra for meals, and extra curricular activity can be charged as well. All of these fees are typically made publicly available by schools. All private schools have a dedicated admissions department, who will be able to answer specific questions about fee structure in further detail.
Understanding Private School Costs
As above, there are several factors affecting the cost of private education in the UK. The main two are location and school type (i.e. boarding or day). With a boarding school, you are also paying for your child’s accommodation and the extra infrastructure around this, so this will obviously cost more. Day schools in urban areas, specifically London, tend to charge more than those in more rural areas.
How Much Does a Boarding School Cost?
As before, expect to pay more for a boarding school than a day school: you are also paying for accommodation, food etc, as well as extra staffing to help keep your child safe. Current annual boarding school fees can go to between £17 and £18,000 per term, or over £50,000 per year.
In addition to the (considerable) fees, unless the school is near to your home do also include likely costs for travel and accommodation nearby for yourselves, as this can also easily add up over a year to a considerable amount.
You can view our list of boarding schools in London here:
How Expensive is a Day School?
UK private day schools are less expensive than boarding schools. Fees vary enormously between schools, from around £1,000 to £8,000 per term. As above, fees in London are usually significantly more.
You can view our list of day schools in London here:
How to calculate total costs for private school in the UK?
To calculate the likely total cost of private school in the UK, you can use our dedicated calculator here:
If you need boarding, have a look at state boarding schools. Excellent value and usually excellent academics.
Great comment Jon! Thanks for the input