P

rivate school does not come cheap. The average fee for a day school is £7,382 a term — including VAT — or about £22,000 a year, according to the Independent Schools Council (ISC), which represents 1,423 schools. Boarding school fees are likely to be around £50,000 a year, if not higher.

Most parents with children at private school will have to pay the fees themselves, or with the help of grandparents, but there are ways to lower the cost. And you could even get the fees covered in full.

According to the ISC some 183,487 pupils get help with fees, accounting for about a third of the 545,640 pupils at the schools in its network. Here’s how they do it.

Bursaries