To think if you can no longer afford school fees...

97 per cent would suggest that's the lived experience for most British children.

Ah. But state schools aren’t ’the bottom’ are they. They are normality.

I am so sorry for your situation 🌺. Eating disorders are really horrible.

it resonates with me because I had an eating disorder growing up. I was hospitalised several times, suicidal and dropped out of (state) school. The mortality from the combination of the strain on the heart and the risk of suicide is horrendous and I am grateful every day that I survived (albeit with a dodgy heart) my children are healthy - I was very lucky.

i don’t begrudge any parent trying to do whatever for their children and my heart goes out to anyone managing their children’s health. I like to think that my late dad would have tried to put me in private school had he been able to afford it.

I wish we could be supportive of each other and have a theoretical discussion around the merits of the VAT.

And with all respect, telling a desperate parent with a seriously ill child to get on with it is not kind. I hope you both have lots of support IRL. 🌺

Me too! All the people I associate with are kind and happy for a friend/family when they get something which benefits them or their child, rather than displaying a mean/jealous 'I can't afford it so you shouldn't have it either' race to the bottom attitude.

@WhySoManySocks I won't be searching for your post with longer words that I can understand?

Your current one makes no sense, I think it was meant as an insult but you worded it incorrectly and threw in an extra odd m?

Surely if you think I'm stupid, it would be longer words i can't understand?

Honestly, education these days.

The way people are talking is like private schools are being abolished. You can still go. It’s fine. There are also other schools. They are free. The teachers have the same qualifications and often better seeing as you don’t actually have to be a qualified teacher to teach in a private school. The children are happy. They go on to do all sorts of wonderful things. They get fantastic results. Their parents work very hard too. It’s just that they work very hard in jobs that pay an average wage.

It really is.
Plus a bit stupid/ignorant
DLA - care needs
SEN - educational needs

Some children have both, but these are the severe end who will likely be placed in a state pmld school.

Those for whom the state system isn't working due to milder SEN needs will not be claiming DLA.

Just like not everyone with mild SEN needs has an EHCP.

I’ve read so many of these threads. Wealthy people will still be wealthy. They won’t give a shit about a rise in fees. That’s literally the point. As for those that just scrape in? That is just bad luck. Just as it would be if they lost their job and couldn’t get another, or suddenly became very ill. There are plenty of state school places and their children will be absolutely fine.

Yep I do! Lots of experience.

I am so sorry for your daughter’s illness. Anorexia is a horrible disease, and contributing other illnesses must be awful. 🌺

I wonder if the posters who are telling you to get on with it like “everyone else” have any experience with worrying that their child’s heart will stop? And whilst dealing with own illness?

this debate really takes out the worst in people.

Because we are claiming to be a meritocracy. See my post above.m where I explain it in longer words than you can understand.

Private school is a priviledge, the rest (i.e. the majority ) of us have to use/suffer state schools.

Because we are pretending we are a meritocracy.

Because only when the elites have to send their kids to state schools will they start caring what state schools look like.

And your communism comment, which was meant to be nasty but was simply uninformed about what words mean - indeed. Why don’t we make education, healthcare, the post office, the trains public property? More socialism than communism though, pick up a dictionary.

I have no skin in this game, but posts about 'big cars and holidays' are completely out of touch.

Don't you realise that the vast majority simply do not have the money? Not 'have the money but choose to spend it on something else' but do not have it in the first place.

Average private (day) fees in the UK are about £7k a term; that's 21k a year. Average salary BEFORE TAX is £34k a year - average meaning an awful lot of people are earning less than that. If your net income is around £32k, you do not have £21k 'spare' after paying for the necessities - and if you have two children, the cost of privately educating them would be MORE than your GROSS income.

Whilst not everyone can afford it, more than 6% of the population could. Every one who has a stay at home parent (assuming they are able to work) could afford private school if that parent went to work. Lots of people in private aren’t in the top 6% of wealth. Not everyone in the top 6% uses private. There are multi millionaires using the state system. A quarter of children at private school are from families with income below the third decile (source: IFS). The average gross household income at that level is around £62k a year. Only half of the top 1% use private schools.

What are you talking about?

I wouldn’t want any individual child’s education disrupted, so I hope they bring the tax in gradually and schools help existing pupils with bursaries etc. However, I don’t think the tax is unfair.

I do think a lot of high earners (I mean people families on £200k plus around) who exist in a little bubble of private schools, gyms, cleaners, at least one meal out per week don’t seem to understand any issues others may have with their ‘success’.

They don’t realise that they are disciples or Ayn Rand, Alan Greenspan and Thatcher, whose ideas have been somewhat discredited over the last 40 years or so. Our GINI coefficient is one of the highest in the world and we live in close-to crony capitalism where who you are born to, the school you went to and who you know is far more important than genuine talent (look at the idiot consultants and financiers on 7 figure salaries).

Private schools (with honourable exceptions like Westminster, who do a lot of community work) have really embraced the separation of society into the haves (have a world class theatre, have professional musicians supplementing school concerts, have a climbing wall etc) and have nots.

Societies always flip flop from more individualistic to more egalitarian. We seem to have reached peak individualistic. Those who are lucky enough to have benefited should at least do some reading and be cognisant that, if they live purely for self actualisation (including their children), resentment comes with the territory.

Tough.

This. It's pathetic.

I'd hazard a guess yours will be the better day....

Whilst others are just unhappy with their lot!

@ChocolateFinger222 a good education brings great opportunities, I'd have done it had I been able to afford it.

But I'm happy and not eaten up with spite about what I have.

They'll never be equality, because some will have better jobs than others. I wouldn't work as a surgeon if it was minimum wage, would you? So why expect people that pay for education and achieve more to do that?

🤣🤣🤣 A bit of comic relief before I go to have my delicious breakfast and my pampering at the spa. I have contacted our private school to raise donations for the pupils who would be struggling to pay the fees. I think that is where my charity would go these days.

I hope you enjoy your day too tired mum!

Nothing I have posted has been spiteful. It’s just reality which privately educating parents won’t like.🤷‍♀️

And this will bring in a profit. Any little counts and hopefully it will be the start of many measures brought in to tackle inequality in all sorts of areas.

sometimes mums net is is so far removed from my experience and social groups that it’s like an alien race.

@ChocolateFinger222 but how is the fact that people are coming out of private education going to help all that?

What about people no longer able to take their children abroad on holiday because of interest rate hikes and COL issues, are you equally spiteful to them?