Private Schools- hear me out before you judge!

She makes a good point. I’ve also been thinking about what a PP said about unique city areas and high rates of fee paying schools. Within walking distance/catchment of my house there are:

private HS 800 pupils
prep 500 pupils
RC prep 200 pupils

(So about 1500 children)

RC primary 433 (capacity 420)
Infant primary 165 (capacity 170)
Non-denom primary 479 (capacity 480)
Comprehensive High school 1735 (capacity 1750).

In addition there is:
SEN school (3-19) 180 pupils
SEN HS 40 pupils

The private prep with 200 children will not be open next sept. I will bet my house on it. The 500 place prep will maybe survive but not for more than 3-5yrs.

This is a densely populated area of the city and most children walk to all these schools. I live right in the middle of it and there is a genuine closeness to the community. There are of course children that commute to the SEN & Fee schools up to an hr but they are the exceptions, not the norm.

Anyway, my v convoluted point is, where will the children go when the schools start to close? And who will teach them? I know about a dozen private school teachers well, and all are adamant they will not return to the state sector. I can’t see where the 200 RC children will go - certainly not the RC primary. What do other people’s pupil numbers look like?

The Telegraph has an agenda very much aligned with Guido Fawkes, so no I don’t agree that it’s ’more reputable and relevant’ - it just recycled the Guido post several hours later with some additional fluff but without actually adding anything factual.

As for the Telegraph article asserting that Pennycook has been ‘referred to the parliamentary commissioner for standards for not revealing his close relationship with Luke Sibieta’, there’s nothing on the PCS website to confirm that an allegation against Pennycook is being investigated, so I’ll take the Telegraph’s claim about that with a very large pinch of salt unless / until proved otherwise.

I watched an interview with Katherine Birbalsingh earlier this evening - Michaela had independent school students come to their 6th form open evening for the first time this term, she made the point that her school aims to provide the best education for disadvantaged children who will now have independent sector children competing for places and even if she can give everyone who applies a 6th form place she can't magically hire teachers - because VAT on school fees does nothing to solve the teacher retention crisis.

@Arran2024 the Edinburgh private school my DS goes to has 2400 pupils in it. And it's one of a number of large day schools. The city could not educate all of its children if they closed.

But it won't work like that with an even spread. It'll hit areas with a lot of private schools, especially day schools, far more than areas with few private schools. So some schools will be barely hit at all, and towns with a lot of private schools will have loads of over subscription.

Things will balance out in time, but it's shit for the kids affected.

The LA will direct children to where the places are. Some of these schools will be a long, long way away from home. They can do this- they might have to provide transport of course.

It's going to be such an unsettled time for all of these children.

It would have been much kinder for all concerned - pupils, parents and teachers in both state and private systems - if the government would have given more notice of the changes and phased them in gradually.

Clumsy and thoughtless to bring the VAT in so suddenly.

LOL as if they'd just going, "oh County X, here's an extra 1000 students to accommodate In your 500 schools, School A take these 2, School B take these 2 please" ...

100% and worse. The LA main goal is to not provide and if must, delay it as long as possible (unless the child is child of someone at council, a teacher), etc

I work in Edinburgh. We'd have huge problems if all the private schools shut. Even if you're right, averages are not how it works here. I have to go to your catchment school. Catchment schools for those in private are usually already full or very nearly full. You can't send two out to the small country school, two to the local Catholic school and two down to the one in the opposite side of the city etc
Some state schools won't be affected at all by the vat. Others will be hugely affected.

Hi all, we will be removing a few posts as they contain identifying details. While this may be a bit frustrating we have done this in order to let the thread stand.

Still waiting for some common sense. How difficult is it to understand that there are no links to specific text in a biography?

Just seen this on X. It would seem East Sussex is struggling to accommodate in year applications.
I can’t verify this, but if it is true then it’s very sad and a poor outcome for this policy.

https://x.com/lianafricker/status/1855240032954503386

where are these statistics from?

@Arran2024
LA specifically delay EHCP applications to save money. At every step of the process so they will inappropriately turn down the process, not stick to required timescales, name mainstream schools repeatedly. After all that tribunals are taking over a year. So kids are out of school or repeatedly trying inappropriate schools for years, that is all incredibly damaging and increases their needs when they develop behaviours to cope etc. our LA had not arranged any transport for the beginning of term, they’re expecting SEN kids to take public transport etc. special schools are full. Some LAs are moving kids in special schools back out of them
your assertion that anyone who is not in a special school does not have significant needs is just not the case. Education is not what it used to be!

If every child in the country left private education tomorrow that would be less than 2 extra per class.... and much less tahn half will. Some schools are being affected by falling rolls and will welcome more pupils

This isn’t quite how it works in England. Schools are funded for the number of students in roll on census days. Mid term transfers can change that significantly and the school has to carry the cost. It’s very tricky to manage.

This makes no sense. How are Starmer's actions going to make you understand the scale of his father's business?

I judge people and politicians on their actions not on their PR