Election - how soon for VAT on school fees?

One thing that scares me slightly is that on Jeremy Vine today they had the Labour shadow chancellor and she mentioned Vat and business rates. I can understand the former but the latter would surely just crucify the sector?

I’ve a lot of family who work in different private schools across the country - all of them are apparently planning on making cuts where possible and passing on as little as they can. Most of the smaller independents will go bust if they pass the full 20% on to parents because many won’t be able to afford it and will leave.

Local state schools don’t always offer the same GCSE options. Our private school offers around 10 GCSE subjects which our catchment school doesn’t offer at all.

Apologies if you misunderstood my post..."They" referred to the Labour Party.

Maths, Science and MFLs may well be the same, but the schools choose the exam boards/set texts for English/Periods of History etc. It's not standard across the board even from one state school to another. To move at the beginning of year 11 or year 13 could be disastrous

They haven't even published their manifesto yet. It was only part of one of their steps. There are still a lot of unknowns.

Completely agree! And to me I don't feel that you can judge a school or child purely on academic results.

Governments quite often don’t implement the policies in their manifesto at all…

Labour have said they’ll implement it as soon as possible. In reality, no one knows the timescale, but it could conceivably affect those approaching exam years. I don’t think they care about disruption to children or they wouldn’t be proposing this ridiculous policy which will raise barely any money.

@twistyizzy the reason I mentioned the high percentage of bursaries is because the private schools I know of that did this eventually closed. And the ‘richest’ school in my area doesn’t offer much in the way of bursaries. Although, I should imagine that maybe schools like Eton can and do do this.

Lots of bursaries are fairly modest. In most schools they are funded primarily by the full fee paying parents which is why in many cases the option of new ones will disappear overnight if the policy is enacted.

I didn’t say they didn’t. I pointed out that funding disparity isn’t solely down to how a school is performing.

https://www.thenhsa.co.uk/2023/09/schools-funding-imbalance-risks-widening-regional-childhood-inequalities/

Ookaaaay

Where I live, the schools that are in special measures absolutely do get a lot of money poured in. And this is evident in many of them trying to rebrand immediately with a new uniform and name.

Education is about so much more than academics and the piece of paper a child comes out with after 14 years of education. Not all parents pay school fees solely in the hope of getting a string of 9s at GCSE. It’s about funding a school which suits your own child, academic or otherwise. It’s a choice which should also be available in the state sector.

It is actually. There is ££ available to support schools who are in need of improving.

Who’s the ‘they’ that you are referring to? The school? You’d have to ask the school.
State schools teach GCSE too, by then way. So for anyone leaving in year 10 or 11 and moving to a normal school, they will still be able to do GCSE or the BACC, A Levels too.

But not all private schools are even particularly academic. Not all of them get the results they should for the money that parents pay. Some of them might be brilliant at sport but not have loads ending up at Oxbridge. There was a parent moaning on here that after all the money they paid, their child ‘only’ got 6s and 7s.

There is a disparity in funding depending on where a pupil lives. Some areas get greater funding. It’s not all down to whether a school is underperforming. The point is that there would uproar if anyone suggested moving a happy child to a worse school within the state sector.

The made up policy that you just made up? No, of course not.
But as they are a BUSINESS it is entirely up to them what they charge. And if they can survive with less students - which is what you’re saying will happen? As new pupils won’t be able to afford it?
Then that’s up to them. Really doesn’t affect anyone else.

Do you think that they will give sufficient time for current Year 10s and Year 12s to complete their GCSEs/A Levels? It would be highly disruptive if such pupils had to move at this point.

It was just an observation - why are you being so defensive?

Well that makes no sense at all, as underperforming schools get more money, so it wouldn’t save money to send kids from an okay one to one where they were being more resourced.

Because obviously bursaries range from 5-100% of fees. They come out of full fee paying parents which is why they are now ending new awards.
I don't have to justify the school's policy to you.

I think every child in state or private should be entitled to an excellent education, where they can learn without disruption, where classes are of a size where teachers can give them enough attention, and where they have enough opportunities to explore their strengths. This is precisely what many private schools offer and why parents choose those schools. They don’t all have amazing, state of the art facilities. I think that all children should have access to excellent state schools, like some of the country do.