Private schools have garnered huge interest among parents in the UK. In this article, we answer: “is private school a good investment?”.
As a caring parent, you want the best education for your child. You want them to be well prepared for the competition that life will throw at them, and improve their odds of settling into a rewarding career. So, does this mean you should send your child to private school?
Often independent school fees become a bone of contention seeing parents having to make huge sacrifices – cutting down on holidays, luxuries, moving to smaller homes and possibly saving less for retirement.
All these sacrifices are made in a bid to offer quality education to your children and to be able to afford the steep private school fees. That said, there are many advantages in opting for your child to have a private school education:
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Modern Teaching Methods:
Private schools have adopted value based modern teaching methods that have proven to help students develop interests in their chosen subject areas. Also, the low teacher-to-student ratio ensures more attention for your child.
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Better Grades:
Studies have shown that students from private schools, like LVS Ascot a private school in Berkshire, achieve more A-Grades that those attending state-run schools. Also two-thirds of students in the UK’s leading universities come from private schools.
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Extracurricular Activities:
Private schools place a lot of importance on extracurricular activities. This helps in the development of your child’s soft skills, aiding them in their careers in later life.
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Social Upbringing:
Social upbringing is an important part of modern education. In a private school, your child would be in the company of socially like-minded peers, they will build close relationships that will carry them to their adult life. An early start to social and business networking.
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Special Education Schools:
If your child has a learning difficulty, special needs boarding schools offer bespoke and tailored learning environments.. Residential schools for children with autism, dyslexia and/or ADHD, for instance, not only provide second-to-none teaching but also provide students with the confidence and skills to live independently. Private school autism education can help your child to thrive.
How Can You Manage It?
The above incentives of sending your child to private school are definitely tempting. But the big question remains, how would you manage it financially? How would you bear the burden of the expense of private school for a number of years?
Here are some of the ways in which you can manage private school fee funding:
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Plan Early:
Start saving for your child’s education as soon as he/she is born or even before that. It would create sufficient money to fund the first few years of education. And by the time these funds exhaust you would have saved enough for the next few years of fees.
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Opt For Easy Payment Plans:
There are several easy-to-manage independent school fee payment plans that allow you to pay fees on a monthly basis. These are easier to manage than making annual payments at the start of the winter term.
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Student Assistance:
The Independent School Fees Assistance and Bursaries program are helping parents send their kids to private which they wouldn’t have been otherwise able to afford. You would have to sign a declaration and your child would need to meet certain criteria for such assistance programmes.
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Loans:
There are several financial institutions that offer you attractive private school fees loans. You can draw benefits from such programs that allow you affordable payment options over a long time period.
Are you considering sending your child to private school? What is driving your decision? Smaller class sizes or a more modern approach to teaching? Let us know in the comments.