Private schools (hidden extra fees)

anntionette

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Im wondering does anyone know what the extras one might end up actually paying when looking at a private school? trips,extra curricular activities,summer camp, afterschool homework club. Im sure this all adds to alot more! I went to St Marys primary today rathmines lovely feel for the place but im wondering if im pushing myself too much financially if i think its just a bit more then yearly fee. I didnt want to embarrass myself and ask what the extras cost. Are they reasonable? anyone experience of this? and am i in for any extra surprises? I do need to budget for this. and be realistic. Thanks in advance.
 
In our experience, the extra-curricular activities cost about the same as what you would normally pay outside of school. Some of these may be included in the fees also so check with the school.

In any case definitely ask..they're asked all the time & should be able to rattle them off.

One benefit we find is that the activities are run directly after school, in the school. This means a lot less driving to things later on!
 
As the site says .... Ask about Money (always). Just because a person chooses to send their children to a private school, it doesn't mean that they don't ask about all the financial costs involved.

Sometimes, the school's website will give an indication of extra-curricular charges.
 
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I didnt want to embarrass myself and ask what the extras cost.

I believe you would not be embarrassing yourself. It is valid to seek all relevant information before committing to a decision.

For what it's worth, my son finished in secondary school this year, having spent six years in a private school. I paid one fee at the start of the year and there were few reasons to pay anything else after that. Transition Year is a different matter but much of that is optional. Also, he started after the introduction of iPADs so that cost didn't affect us.
 
To give you some idea of the extra over fees we paid......
ty was 600/700 extra for us
other extras were PTA/ insurance/ trips to theatre etc. <100 I think
other trips 400+ But optional
others like evening meal and supervised study were (also optional ) v. reasonable
other extra curricular like public speaking which we didnt avail of were I think were in line with non school based charges

No harm in asking school as suggested by another poster as schools will differ.
One thing to ask yourself is what you expect to gain by going the private route and make sure they have it/you think you will get it!
 
One point to consider is attending private school usually means your peers will have a higher lifestyle than average. There may be additional pressure (implied or otherwise) to keep up with people who have more disposable income than you.
If you're already embarrassed by asking the school about potential additional costs, you may find it difficult to say No to your child when all of their friends are getting the latest xyz.

You mention Rathmines so I assume you are based in south dublin. It shouldn't be difficult to find a good public school near you.
 
One point to consider is attending private school usually means your peers will have a higher lifestyle than average. There may be additional pressure (implied or otherwise) to keep up with people who have more disposable income than you.
If you're already embarrassed by asking the school about potential additional costs, you may find it difficult to say No to your child when all of their friends are getting the latest xyz.

You mention Rathmines so I assume you are based in south dublin. It shouldn't be difficult to find a good public school near you.
Plenty of people who send their kids to private schools have modest enough incomes.
 
Any primary or secondary school will ask for "contributions" . In non-private schools there may more discretion if a family cannot pay them. My kids go to the ordinary local school, I'd say between them for everything, from arts and crafts, school trips, tours, ad hoc activities etc it works out at €150 per head (not Dublin prices). Secondary school, especially for transition year and for international trips can be a lot more expensive
 
Plenty of people who send their kids to private schools have modest enough incomes.

I doubt it.

Median net income of a household with two adults with 1-3 children under 18 is €54k according to CSO. Take fees of €5k each for two kids. That's 18% of average household income on school fees alone.

Let's define "modest" as 60% of median or about €32k in net household income. Then two kids at fee-paying schools will be over 30% of net household income, or about 15% for one child.

I am not saying that there are no households with modest incomes paying school fees, but there are not very many.
 
Plenty of people who send their kids to private schools have modest enough incomes.

That's true, in fact i was one such kid. However, in comparison with most public schools, the majority of private school families would, on average, have higher incomes. In many cases, it is significantly higher.

For example, many of my peers were children of doctors, solicitors, successful bankers etc., that was the norm. This was not the norm in the local public schools many of my friends attended. One point of note is that some of my friends who attended public schools did very well for themselves indeed. Personally, i think the attitude/value placed on education by a child's parents is more of a determining factor on a child's success in school/3rd level/career than the schools the child attends. Alas, there are no League Tables to prove my theory.

Of the remaining private school families on modest incomes, many get into difficulties trying to keep up with the Joneses. That is an unfortunate reality.
 
I doubt it.

Median net income of a household with two adults with 1-3 children under 18 is €54k according to CSO. Take fees of €5k each for two kids. That's 18% of average household income on school fees alone.

Let's define "modest" as 60% of median or about €32k in net household income. Then two kids at fee-paying schools will be over 30% of net household income, or about 15% for one child.

I am not saying that there are no households with modest incomes paying school fees, but there are not very many.
"Modest enough"
Sorry, I took it that people would be able to understand that within the context of this discussion and not take their own version of what I didn't say to counter a point I didn't make.

I'll try again; many, if not most, of the families who send their kids to private schools make sacrifices to do so and are not buying their kids BMW's and skiing in Aspen or renting a Yacht in the Riviera each summer.
Rather than resenting such families we should thank them as they are subsidising the public school system by paying for a place for their children twice.
 
For junior schools outside of some excursions i dont think you should expect to pay too much more than the annual fee.

At second level things can be become more expensive if Mary's is anything like Michaels. After school study is the norm for all students in 5th and 6th year and school trips to foreign countries along with rugby tours should you be on the first team would be an annual occurance from 3rd year onwards.

Obviosuly teenagers also want to keep up with their peers which can become an additional expense in fee paying schools if designer clothing and top of the range sports equipment is the standard across all pupils.

When i was in school about 30% of students had their own car and drove to school by 5th year.
 
Plenty of people who send their kids to private schools have modest enough incomes.

Agree but you tend to find those are people who send their children to private secondary schools. The OP is talking about primary school.

There is a massive demand on secondary schools in South Dublin. There were 800 applicants for 120 spaces for the secondary school my son is going to next year. For the school we wanted our daughter to go to, there was over 1000 applicants for 120 spaces. We are way down the list so we are sending her to a private school instead. The Dept of Education has built plenty of primary schools but additional secondary schools are non existent.
 
Some people send their child to the final year of the private primary school in order to guarantee a place in the private secondary school.
 
I’m in no doubt that the average household income (or the the median) for people who send their kids to private primary schools is far higher than €54k.

I would guess €150k.

The fees are also higher; e.g. €8k vs €6k for the same school primary vs secondary.
 
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