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

@TiredMumE That's becoming an increasing issue. Awful for both the displaced people and locals affected by the added pressure on housing.
There's a real need for more social housing. Everywhere it's needed, across the country.

Sorry for going a bit off topic (although I think housing is relevant to school inequality issues).

Why would you presume pupils with 'slight special needs' as you put it will never get the help they need at a state school?

Dc with SEN are at a comp and are absolutely thriving due to the excellent teaching and support. There are outstanding state schools out there and I don't understand this need to paint such a bleak picture.

It's interesting isn't it? What will happen to all the Specialist Independent schools that LAs put children in who can't cope with mainstream? Will they have VAT? That just means that the SEN budget will be even more stretched.

Yet you begrudge displaced families coming to the UK?

Which poster are you answering?

I can't speak for other areas but all the schools (outstanding) in my area have spare places.

Which poster are you answering here?

My dsis has only ever taught in private schools and has bemoaned state education for the best part of 2 decades. Currently having to relocate due to divorce and her DC will no longer be in private school - the utter disdain she is giving out about the grim-ness of her situation is palpable - God help her DC who will now be going to the same state secondary as mine. It's sickening.

This is blithely ableist. Plenty of us with children who have SEN are scraping by because our children would not have their needs met in mainstream.

‘Children are resilient. Life changes’- are you really that ignorant about SEN? To not be aware that minor changes are an a huge issue for some children?

Some parents only need private schools for a few years as their child has anxiety issues, Sen issues, whatever.

As has been said, it is these most needed places that will suffer the most as will the kids in them whilst nasty bitches like you smile at their misfortune.

You truly are hateful.

There is no carve out for EHCP agreed and it would be difficult to implement one as you can't have a service that you charge vat on for some people and not others. That is discriminatory and will no doubt be challenged. It's really not straightforward.

My DC's best friend is a very bright girl with very high functioning autism. Her needs are, apparently, not extreme enough to get an EHCP. She cannot function or cope in a mainstream school, her anxiety is too great. She started mainstream but she had school refusal and the only way they could manage to get her back in the education system was to send her to a small independent as this is the only environment she can cope in.

Should it be this way with state schools? No. Should they have better funding and provision for SEN? Absolutely. Is it going to change anytime soon? No.

It's looking likely with the VAT added to fees she will need to be pulled out of her current school. So it means she's likely to miss out on an education as she will not cope in mainstream.

Why should she be penalised?

That seems an incredibly knee jerk reaction on something that isn't yet known how it is going to be implemented.

This has been mooted for years, an election was always going to happen this year, so this should have come as no surprise to them and they should have perhaps made the decision to pull him out for A'levels. It is one year, for 20%, surely after paying for all the other previous years you'd do anything to keep him there.

This either isn't true or this is not the reason they are thinking of pulling him out.

If a 20% increase means it's completely unaffordable, it was probably unwise to commit to it.

There have been numerous threads re PE and we are confidently assured that due to the falling birth rate that there are plenty of places available.
Have state parents considered the longterm implication of falling birth rates. Eventually school rolls will reach a critical level where it is no longer financially viable to keep every school open. Maybe you should consider how the closure of your local school due to lack of numbers will impact your children.
For LEAs the numbers will not be as low as you assume. School funding is per pupil not based on the size of the school so trying to run a school at 3/4 full with a budget of 3/4 will not be very attractive and is not effective use of the education budget.

If there are 4 schools in a town all working at 3/4 capacity then it makes sen e to close one school and distribute the pupils and teaching staff amongst the remaining schools.

We have already seen four small primary schools close in our small town and pupils moved to the remaining two schools. Much cheaper for the LEA to maintain two sites than 6.
I suspect that this is probably the long term plan throughout the state system.
Regardless of whether you agree with PE the future of many schools is on the line with falling birth rate.

If we had a state system with the resources & variety to support kids with SEN or those that would benefit from a different setting, then I'd agree. In fact I'd Nationalise them. But we don't.

Personally I'd prefer a wealth tax to fund education, health and public services and actually start to level up.

Good point about examine boards.
I have never understood why England doesn't have one exam board.
Having taught several boards over the years it doesn't make sense .
Lacks standardisation. In the past we have swapped boards depending on the cohort.usually pretty obvious by year 8.
Nothing to do with this thread, just a pet peeve of mine.

"Some parents only need private schools for a few years as their child has anxiety issues, Sen issues, whatever."

Then they'll pay significantly less than most and can prepare for it?

"You are truly hateful"

I've said nothing that was hateful, I asked a genuine question.

It appears that every PE parent here lives far from a good school and the local ones are cesspits with regular murders. Yet they can afford upwards of 18k per child each year for high school.

Nothing hateful about the question.

Maybe you know you are not defending your cause well and have to play the victim?

Now see, that was mean.

:)

They are exempt with an EHCP as someone pointed out earlier.