Nearly £9000 more spent on private secondary pupils than state pupils

[SluggyMuggy]

Research from University College London that found £12,200 a year is the average spending on a privately educated primary pupil, compared with £4,800 on a state pupil. For secondary, it’s £15,000 compared with £6,200.

This entrenches inequality as private pupils are given far more resources towards their education.

@Desecratedcoconut myself and my (ex)H weighed up what we felt was important and giving him the best education and experience for 14 of the most formative years of his life was top of the pile.

That felt more important to us than having more children. Investing fully in the enrichment of the one child we had as opposed to having more children, where we wouldn't be able to give them the same experience. Evidently it isn't the same choice that others make but it was right for us.

It might not be a widely held view, but no different to people who might not have the means to live in a bigger property might make when choosing how many kids to have.

As it happens, if labour do bring in the vat proposal on school fees then ds will go to a sixth form college- and so be it. I accept at that stage we're priced out of the market. We saved from the day he was born to make private school happen. So not incredibly wealthy folk, but by no means hard up either.

Anyway, the article linked is well out of date, so I imagine this is yet another private school bashing goady thread. Maybe I need a therapy dog to get through it all...

How much of state school funds go towards sen/mh/behaviour students?
Care for those most in need needs addressing. Quicker access to Ed Psych assessments, special wings, or special units as part of a ms school.
Then state schools will thrive.

State schools also need to be smaller. 500-750 max students.

I think the vat proposals are incredibly mean spirited. Hopefully they'll drag their heels a little so that people aren't stuck scrambling to find a state school mid exam years. At least sixth form is a decent stepping off point and your ds will be among kids re-forming friendship groups.

We are similar. If not for school fees, my partner would retire and I would work about 10 hours. Instead, we pay a lot in taxes.

So a post about inequality has descended into rich people arguing they should not pay vat on private school fees.
It is so self centred and selfish.

BMW6 · Today 14:54
SluggyMuggy · Today 14:47

Pretty depressing to see some people effectively saying we should just accept inequality and do nothing to try and address it.
So what do YOU suggest is done about it?

op, are you going to answer this question?
So far you’ve complained about the unfairness of private schools but have come up with no suggestions as to a solution.

I quite agree. State schools need funding so they can improve - slating private schools does not achieve this aim.

There's always one. What does you do if a student had a guide dog?

Maybe it's because your post was based on a dated article, and your responses have been somewhat monosyllabic? Just a thought...

People have begun chatting amongst themselves?

@Barbadossunset There are many ways to reduce inequality. Increasing funding to state schools, ending vat for private schools, taxing other sources of income at the same rate that salaried earnings are, building social housing, charging higher inheritance tax, having rent controls, etc etc.

Agree with all of this.

@SluggyMuggy please highlight any post that has mentioned VAT.
BTW the money generated from taxation will not make any difference to student services for years possibly decades.

My kids are state educated.

Is inequality the problem or just the increasingly poor provision of education in the state system? Personally, I couldn't care less how much money is thrown at the students in private schools, the majority of which seems to be spunked on fancy buildings if our local private school is anything to go by, so long as the state teachers have the resources that they need to teach their pupils well and enough support and wages that they stop leaving in droves.

OP not all well off people think everyone can become well off through hard work. I am well off, came from a well off family as did DH. Part of the reason I am is because I am a diligent worker. It is also because I am smarter than average, had no debt coming out of uni, DH parents gifted us money, got to have a lot of experiences as a child that I wouldn’t if our family wasn’t well off and because I was able to make choices knowing that DH and I have a colossal safety net behind us in the form of 2 supportive families.

It is also about the choices we made though. We undoubtedly had better choices available to us than most other people but we also did things like: stay in our small flat much longer than our peers which meant we only incurred costs from selling once when we upgraded, we only have one child, we both have chosen safe jobs with financial security over passions. DH saved every penny he was given all through childhood and as a result had well into 6 figures to put towards a house deposit. His sibs were given at least as much money but spent it on gap years, daily living expenses etc. We didn’t own a car until we were in our late 30s, just hired when needed and took public transport and then bought it secondhand, and outright. Our mortgage is about 50% of the average someone with our income has. Etc etc.

It all adds up and yeah, it means we can pay to send our kid to private school and might decide to do that to make up for the gaps in state funded education. I would happily pay more taxes for schools and we’ll likely donate a large portion of the cost of private school fees to the state school if we don’t go private. I can’t make the government prioritize education though 🤷‍♀️

Being selfless with other people’s money is a very easy way to feel morally superior.

this - because more parents will keep their kids in the public sector.

Nice response. 🙄

Students may need access to a therapy dog because of their mental health needs. Where I teach we have a guide dog in three days a week with a visually impaired student. Why should your child's needs trump the needs of others?

Where from?

Because going blue in the face while you are gasping for air isn't a choice. "Always one" - Jesus. Somehow a physiological response is chalked up as being a mark of dramatic vulnerability but oh no, here comes a kid with hurt feelings...

Somehow a physiological response is chalked up as being a mark of dramatic vulnerability but oh no, here comes a kid with hurt feelings...

Sorry - what do you mean by this?

Also being visually impaired is not a choice and neither is having poor mental health. 🙄

This is where it all falls down. If something is seen as ‘free’ then you will get people who don’t value it. If you are paying 18k a year you bloody well do value it!

I think this is part of the problem, we've had kids who have come from countries where education isn't always easily avaible. These kids are always so grateful for receiving a free education. Sometimes I think it would be better if we expected children to earn their right to an education (only I wouldn't want that to be a academic achievement, just a willingness to work hard). They may appreciate it more if they had to earn the right to be there.

Get all those children who are motivated, and have parents interested in their education, into state schools and the quality of state education will improve. If nothing else it will at least level the playing field.

How many people send their motivated child to the "failing" state school rather than the Outstanding one in order to improve the quality of education there? I'm guessing none.

All that will happen is that people will be priced out of catchment for the Outstanding schools

I have one child in a free grammar school and one child in a private school - both went through the government primary school system which was excellent for our area.

My son's free grammar school is outstanding - provides a much better education and pastoral care in my opinion than the private high school my daughter went to from yr 8-11.

My daughter could have gone to this same grammar school for free - she passed her 11 plus. But due to her being ND she tried a grammar school in year 7 and could not cope - we actually made a conscious decision to keep her in the private school which we felt was not as good as my son's grammar...but it had the smaller class sizes she needed for her mental health.