How oversubscribed are your local schools? Will they be able to take on students who are currently privately-educated?

The only thing that makes me want to vote tory is reading idiotic comments like this.

@MinervaMcGonagallsCat I think that’s a pretty unfeeling comment and makes you sound like you’ve got a huge chip on your shoulder.

It’s not even about state v private - it’s about taking these kids away from their friends and their learning communities and laughing about it.

Two independent schools have closed down in our area in recent years. It was very stressful for the children, parents and staff of course but they all got school places as far as I am aware. Some moved to other private schools elsewhere but the majority entered the state system. I know they didn't all get the schools they wanted initially - the DD of a friend of mine had to go to a school she really didn't want - but things settled over time and from what I hear most of the pupils stayed in the state sector and the chaos that was predicted in the local press and all over social media just didn't happen.
I would expect the same will happen nationally if this policy is implemented. Yes, some parents will be forced to withdraw their children from private schools and some, probably smaller schools will close as a result. But lots won't, and the impact on individual areas is unlikely to be huge, especially when you factor in the falling birth rate.

Spaces in local schools rated good in Oxfordshire.

Some schools are full others have loads of spaces in the schools in my county. Private school parents would absolutely get a state school space, it just wouldn’t necessarily be in the nearest or highest rated school. Might be in a sink school half an hours drive away.

It is in Edinburgh where 25% of children are privately educated

It's ok they can get pooped in a bus to schools in West, East and Midlothian or over the water to Fife.

We won't let the wee darlings go without.

It's such a relief that this can finally get done airtime.

There will be no problem where I live.

Looking forward to you all joining the PTA. 😜

OP, if you are going to struggle have you checked with your local state primary? If you’re lucky your kids might get a place.

JFC. I'm sick and tired of private school parents complaining that things aren't fair.

Yes! They're not! Join the rest of the world. What a shame that you are no longer going to be able to afford to buy privilege.

Most private school educated kids would not last 5 minutes in the state schools that are undersubscribed and will have places, so I think they will all find the money one way or another! None of them will want to be the talk of the tennis club with Tarquin going to the local comp.
I know I’ve used massive stereotypes and I don’t care. Private education is unachievable for most, the ones that can afford it WILL find away, even if they have to downgrade from Waitrose to Lidl.

Every single secondary school in my city is full. The only spaces are 10+ miles away and, of course, in inadequate schools.

Good job there are plenty of other schools not too far away from Edinburgh that gave space then. All that money saved on fees, they can afford a bit of a commute.

"Kids with aspiring parents"

Never said it was.

Why is it the job of parents to improve schools?

People are saying there’s loads of spare school places which there are
but unless there in the right location there useless 20 places in Scotland are no good to 20 pupils in London
also if the school has space in year 10 and the pupils are year 11 again it’s useless

I don't think so. Class size could always be smaller of course. I don't believe it will have much of an impact around here anyway.

Absolutely looking forward to welcoming a more mixed intake into our low performing school and hoping some kids with aspiring parents it will be good role models and help improve behaviours.

Plenty of room and Welcome all!

The influx of motivated students with their engaged and supportive parents will make a massive difference to those struggling, undersubscribed, requires improvement schools! Parents make such a difference to schools. I wouldn’t be surprised if they outperform the oversubscribed local schools when this happens, which will be excellent for equality.

Locally our system secondary schools would welcome a few extra pupils as it would secure their numbers. Those pupils are more likely to have pushy parents, so it may actually help raise standards. Sounds like a great idea to me.

The other thing is that if local schools are genuinely so oversubscribed they can't accommodate another child (rare), then the school will not be forced to accommodate additional children, they'll be sent to undersubscribed schools further away. That's inconvenient for the parents and the children but not for the schools.

Many undersubscribed primary schools are desperate for additional children, so it would actually be a positive for some schools!

Quite a few assumptions there.

We live in a poor inner city area and our local school is undersubscribed as it's terrible.

Our daughter goes to private school but is on a bursary+scholarship and we make up the difference. So it really is a problem for us.

At primary and secondary level, local schools could probably absorb all the local privately educated children, and they won't all move to state. Some of the primary schools (nice village schools) are undersubscribed for demographic reasons and would actively welcome extra children.

At sixth form level there is already a shortage of places, but that is a seperate issue.

I've seen estimates that this would price about 10% of parents out of private schools which is about 2 additional children per school in the UK. This genuinely wouldn't even be noticed in any school I've worked in.

The fearmongering doesn't make sense when you look at the actual numbers involved.

School is 13 years. A 20% increase in fees may mean some have to go 20% less (ie miss a few years at the beginning or end). It will be fine.