To ask if anyone is clued up on the challenge this week to VAT on school fees?

My guess is that the legal advice to the Government will be that they are likely to be ruled against in all three legal actions. They will delay implementation under some spurious excuse and ultimately drop it when independently educated children are not enemy de jour.

I’ve got to admit, they’re cutting it fine though. Maybe they think the spite they generated hasn’t subsided quite enough yet.

The invoices for the spring term will be sent to parents in December, in around 6 weeks time. The government clearly have no intention of backing down on this. I’m not sure any legal challenge could be concluded within 6 weeks.

It won’t be implemented in January, I really wouldn’t worry about it.

I see that Rachel Reeves has confirmed VAT on school fees from January
Biggest winners (as 10yrs input VAT can then be reclaimed) will be the bigger public schools & those wealthy enough to pre-pay (prior to 29th July). Windfalls for both.

Biggest losers: small independent schools, SEND kids, those kids whose parents are just about affording it, state schools, the treasury

I don't think their organisational title was trying to infer their independence, rather that they represented "independent" schools

But rather than disputing a name, do you dispute the significant sums afforded by such schools to bursaries etc?

@SpringSt3p of course I'm not saying they're good schools by default. Nothing in my posts would suggest that. To do so would be idiotic, just as your assertion that they're "mostly shite" is. I've asked for your criteria and statistics which you seem unable to provide?

Olympic standard swimming pools 🤣🤣🤣

You really are deluded!

No one can possibly argue that tutoring does not convey an advantage for entrance exams. Of course it does. It’s precisely why so many people pay for it.

‘The latest annual census from the Independent Schools Council (ISC’

there’s nothing ‘independent’ about them - they’re a business that makes money from the promotion and existence of private schools

‘You’re not suggesting private schools are good schools by default are you?🤔’

only a moron would suggest that.

Well this is my source

https://www.edsk.org/publications/private-matters/#:~:text=The%20political%20debate%20over%20the,charitable%20status%20of%20independent%20schools.

"The latest annual census from the Independent Schools Council (ISC) – an umbrella body for seven associations that cover the operations of around 1,300 independent schools in England – shows that 34 per cent of their pupils receive some kind of ‘fee assistance’ such as a bursary or scholarship, with around £1 billion a year being spent by schools on such assistance. Almost £500 million of this fee assistance is spent on means-tested bursaries, with the average bursary approaching £12,000. Nearly half of the pupils who receive a bursary have more than half of their fees remitted, with 18 per cent of bursary recipients paying no fees at all."

And respectfully The Welcome Trust is a UK headquartered global charity that does spend more than the private schools collective spend but much of this money is non-UK spending pledges with significant amounts (rightfully) spent in developing countries

You can look those up anywhere.

Well said poster introduced Ofsted terms sooo🤷‍♀️

You’re not suggesting private schools are good schools by default are you?🤔

Tutors can teach exam techniques which a lot of parents might overlook. There’s more to studying for the exams than doing practice questions.

That's barely worth a response. Ofsted ratings are basically meaningless in terms of how a school performs outside of academic results and compliance with paperwork and I'd love to know what your evidence is for "many" and your criteria for "shite".

90% of schools are rated good or above by Ofsted and many private schools are shite so not getting your idea of what equality is here.

All tutors do is use materials anybody can buy at very low cost.

The idea that £930 million of part and wholly subsidized places wd make private schools the largest charitable donors in the UK is so delusional it is laughable. Of the medical funders Wellcome alone is committed to making grants of £16billion over the next decade though that's based on its endowment (which is a close parallel to the public school business model). CRUK and McMillan generate nearly 500million pa for care and research almost entirely from donations.

The ignorance about civil society on this thread is astonishing.

@Araminta1003 I think you've hit the nail bang on the head.

Many of those supporting this are only doing so as they have been priced out and those claiming "we could afford to but don't" are likely in truth, unable to afford it very comfortably.

We can all agree fees have gone through the roof and even traditional jobs that 10 years ago could have supported paying fees now can't. That's a hard pill to swallow.

This is very naive. The vast majority of children are likely to get a higher mark if they have had intense tutoring. The 11+ exams are fairly easy to tutor for. Those children with parents who can afford tutoring are likely to do better in those exams than those whose parents haven’t paid for tutoring.

@BotanicalGreen So we should wait until children have to leave their familiar school settings that have often been found as respite from the failings of the state system and not make the slightest positive difference to state schools THEN say "oh, oops, never mind its only a small minority"? The fact that your experience is with Eton and Harrow means you have no concept of what the schools like mine or the poster from Wales was talking about. I don't need sympathy, I need someone with a brain to advise the Labour party about the economic reality of this and ideally, for them to bloody listen instead of wittering on about astro turfs and embossed stationary.

Of course I do but DH went to Eton and I have nephews at both Eton and Harrow currently. Who said it’s a good policy? I certainly didn’t although I believe Eton is coming out of it rather well. What I take exception at is all the hyperbole on here which does anything but raise public sympathy. The impact of it is yet to be clear.

@DdraigGoch - this policy is all about middle class Labour voters high up in the civil service and similar not being able to afford London private schools anymore, because those big bad boys raised the fees beyond their means. It has all along been just about that.

You realise that not everywhere is like Eton or Winchester? The private schools up here (North Wales) don't charge anything like those sort of fees. They cater to kids with SEN, kids from Forces families, kids whose parents simply don't approve of the curriculum the Welsh Government is running.

This policy won't be felt by the Sunak family. It will be felt by the families up here. Equality should involve bringing state schools up to the level of the private ones, not bringing everyone down to the level of a Special Measures comp.

I've got no stake in this, no kids of school age. I just recognise a bad policy when I see one.

Yes, Nuffield Health won in court against the Council’s attempt to charge them business rates. So what is happening with business rates on private schools constituted as charities? They cannot have one form of charity aka Nuffield Health not paying it, but another, a school paying it? What happened to legal precedent and the rule of law? I really thought Starmer as a lawyer would have some basic legal skills and respect for the courts and the rule of law, including the Human Rights Act.