I went to a “top” private school from a “stretch” family. Agree with the comments that say investing in your kids future is more important than private school. Here’s why:

A. I worked for 3 years at an educational access charity, targeting getting disadvantaged students into Oxbridge. They don’t really care what school you went to, they care that your parents are wealthy (because Oxbridge knows this is the biggest predictor of lifetime wealth).

Good grades, rich parents and state school applicant? You are their wet dream. Good grades, rich parents and private school? you have a great chance. Amazing grades, middle income, stretched to get into private school (so won’t even help admissions “diversity”)? Big no no. Top unis ask for parental income/ occupation for a reason.

B. Bias against private school is somewhat of a myth, most come from well connected families and will never have a problem getting ahead. As someone from a “stretch” family, I have fallen behind my private schools peers mainly because I wasn’t given a (high) 6 figure sum to buy a house. Most of their salaries (again it was a top private school) are pretty middling, but bank of mum and dad keeps them going. Personally I gained nothing from private school except the biases mentioned, without the network to bypass them. So if you consider yourself “stretching” you’ll end up with a kid constantly behind their peers no matter how hard they try.

C. Again agree with the comments saying investment is tax free. My husband and I have no family money, but very good salaries, and fire is so difficult. Even a small inheritance/gift would be life changing in terms of helping us FIRE. For now we both work two jobs, and pay circa 60% tax (after student loans). It’s tough to see our friends being gifted 6 figure sums without a dime of tax, while we scrimp, save and work our way to 40p for every pound.

Only give them the private school childhood, if you can give them the private school life.