When applying to the school, there is a registration fee of £400, plus an acceptance fee of £3,200. Of this, £500 will be refunded when the boy leaves the school, after his final bill is settled. School accounts must be paid on the first day of the half or in three equal instalments during the half, but there is an additional administration charge on top of this.
There are a range of extra-curricular activities that your son can participate in at Eton, but they may come at an additional cost. Music lessons for 30 minutes per week cost £340 per half, for example.
You can apply to receive financial support towards your fees – there are around 1,350 students and a fifth received fee support in the 2021-22 academic year, and 100 boys paid no fees at all.
Now read: Inside the six-figure salary battle to afford private school
How investing can help
Rob Burgeman, from the wealth manager RBC Brewin Dolphin, said there were two basic strategies to build a portfolio to help pave the way for Eton: grow your pot steadily over time so that it is ready to fund your son’s education by the time he turns 13, or gradually build a pot and spend it as you go.
“You would require a pot of £1,157,400 to generate, at a 4pc real return, the required annual sum of £46,29,” he said. “This assumes that school fees go up in line with inflation, which might be rash but at least that gives you a starting point,” he said.
“So, if you start investing early as soon as your son is born, a lump sum of around £700,000 has a fighting chance of growing to the required sum by the start of Year 13.”
