AIBU to feel that the ‘Labour against Private Schools’ campaign is a scapegoat for a lack of vision for educational reform?

[BusyMum1978]

2500 UK independent schools with 615K children attending which is 7% of the population of children in FT education up to the age of 16. A number of articles published this week have highlighted the campaign supported by Labour MP’s, who are calling for a number of measures impacting Independent Schools including their complete abolishment, and for these schools to become part of the state school system. A real hatred seems to be forming, and it feels to me like an easy smoke screen to put up rather than the Labour Party providing very specific policies to show how state funded education will be reformed.

I completely understand the feeling behind the imminent appointment of our 20th Etonian PM - there is urgent reform required in politics to have equal representation which I wholeheartedly agree with. I also understand the recently published stats showing accelerated social mobility for those attending top independent schools. I am not saying that there aren’t areas for improvement- but is the objective to bring more children up, or to bring the independently educated 7% down to make it ‘fair’?

My children both attend a prep school, and they are the first generation in both mine and my husband’s family to do so. We aren’t rich, neither of us have a degree, we own one property. We have -and continue to- work hard and made a choice to invest in our children’s education. We know we are privileged to be able to do so. To hear that MP’s want to wage a ‘class war’ with a family like mine feels inflammatory and yet more decisiveness in an already fractured country.

My children started their education in a state primary school but quite honestly it wasn’t good enough, and our heads were turned by what the private sector had to offer.

It equally broke my heart and inspired me to read The Times article on The Willow in Broadwater Farm school. Schools like this desperately need funding and further support, as do a range of children’s services which were cut during austerity. However will abolishing independent schools help a school like this? Parents who have money will still gravitate to the best areas / schools, and get tutors etc. There are a large number of selective state secondary schools that require heavy tutoring to access.

We need to nurture brilliant young minds in this country, to plug the UK skills gap, and compete in a global market. The independent sector has a valuable role to play.

Progress and globalisation is happening at such a rate that it’s becoming a bit uncomfortable. Many jobs our children will do haven’t even been invented yet.

The independent schools could work more closely with the state sector, but it concerns me that this campaign is chasing an ideal, and if successful would just shift the problem elsewhere.

those children who have zero skills, are not limited to not being able to read or write, according to my friend who is a teacher in Plymouth, this means they are not toilet trained, do not understand basic speech, have behavioral issues, such as not understanding it is wrong to hurt other children. These are children who have been poorly parented not children with specific literacy dificulties. Successive governments have got rid of special schools and specialist provision in the name of inclusion. This has been disastrous for everyone.
David Blunkett brought in the inclusion policy when he was Education Secretary in l997. He said at the time that it was inspired by his experience of feeling "separated out" from society at a boarding school for the blind where he was denied the opportunity to gain national qualifications.

IF Labour want to ban private education, then there will be no private schools for them to send their kids too!

True. Could it be that they know it's not a realistic goal and neither their hearts nor their heads are in it, and they're just playing to the crowd?

And how does Parliament legislate against private education? Precisely what's the mechanism? Are educational concerns no longer permitted to operate? Does the state seize Eton etc? Are people permitted to home school their children with tutors? Who enforces it? Could I hire a tutor and organise a chemistry class with the parents from my kids' prep, or would the state come and remove the children?

This isn't Labour policy.

Its as improbable as the hard right tories who want to bring back the death penalty and privatise all public services.

I know what I'm talking about, so yes it is an absolute fact. I know enough families that are in this situation to know it is an absolute fact.

Its as improbable as the hard right tories who want to bring back the death penalty and privatise all public services

Give it 10 years, maybe less.

I know what I'm talking about, so yes it is an absolute fact. I know enough families that are in this situation to know it is an absolute fact

You just cannot take your limited situation or experience and extrapolate across the UK.
The fact is the ONS say in 2018 the average household disposable income was 28k, not 50 not 45 not even 35 but 28k.

You dont know what you are talking about. As pointed out you don't know the ins and outs of others finances.

As a poster above used evidence to prove, private school is not affordable for those on average (even joint) incomes.

I think people in private schools would just go elsewhere, they wouldn't necessarily join state schools.
We would H.ed again as state schools can't provide the education one of my children wants. They would also be considered naughty and have to stand in the corridor. This would be replaced by further punishment in secondary, as it would be impossible to gain a diagnosis.
How do i know, well, before going private this is what our children had to cope with.
There's absolutely no way we would use a state school.

We would H.ed again as state schools can't provide the education one of my children wants.

Well this the issue. It’s likely that any legislation would need to be phrased as ‘all children aged x to y must be educated in a government school’ as it’s basically impossible to write one saying ‘ it’s now illegal to pay for educational services’. Therefore any legislation would cover both private and home Ed because they’re effectively the same thing.

I think people in private schools would just go elsewhere, they wouldn't necessarily join state schools.

Well, yes. There's one local school that I would definitely send my children to if necessary, but they probably wouldn't get it because it's oversubscribed.

If the only option were that they'd go to the undesirable local comprehensive, I'd just home school them and they'd still have an 'unfair advantage'. It's not really possible for Labour to force my hand.

Of course the more likely scenario is that we'd send our children to board in Switzerland, and the UK would lose all the economic benefit of the private school industry.

Well this the issue. It’s likely that any legislation would need to be phrased as ‘all children aged x to y must be educated in a government school’ as it’s basically impossible to write one saying ‘ it’s now illegal to pay for educational services’. Therefore any legislation would cover both private and home Ed because they’re effectively the same thing.

This is straightforwardly fascist.

soulrunner

It's scary, all this government meddling with our kids. I worry for my grand kids.
I hope we manage to complete our last dc education before any changes, hoping for the next 3 years, then they can do what they want, jack
No seriously, I'm worried about the government owning our kids and their future. All a bit 1984.

The idiotic hyperbole is a bit much here.

This. Isn't. Policy.

Really amused at the prospect of Labour sending goons out to forcibly remove children from their homes where they're learning advanced maths so that they can be installed in failing local comprehensives. Sounds like a winning proposition.

Any ban would have to be phased, over decade or more, the Govt would need to ensure that the state sector was properly funded, parents from the private sector would demand it.

The super rich would send their kids abroad.

But as i said earlier, any Labour administration will have bigger fish to fry.

I think if that happens, people would just buy a house near the best state schools, driving prices sky high, then they would employ a private tutor. 🤷🏻‍♀️

It won't happen, as said, it will never be policy.

Just like the death penalty coming back will never be policy or corporal.punishment, or national service. All popular with Tory groups.

sionnachbeag

It is a Labour movement called "Labour Against Private Schools". They are hoping to make it policy at the next labour party conference. Stop saying it will never happen. They want it to happen.

I'd love to see evidence of a funded Tory group lobbying to bring back the death penalty. Do you have any?

A group want it to happen, it isn't party policy. There are Tory groups who eant all sorts. It won't happen.

Tory voters would back a the return of the death penalty!

So yes, I know loads of families that send their kids to private schools who have household income of around £50k

do you mean take home salary? How the feck do you know how much money loads of people take home?

50k take home salary after tax? That's over 4k a month. If you have a mortgage of 1k a month and fees are 1.5k a month then it is doable. Those people are not middle income - 50k take home means they must actually earn about 70k a year - if both parents working then they will also need childcare during the long holidays. Maybe a cheap prep?

Tory voters would back a the return of the death penalty!

ah, ok, you are stupid. Sorry I didn't realise.

I am stupid? Nothing like claiming a group who don't have any influence over policy are going to get something in a manifesto.

There are Tory MPs who back the return of the death penalty too.

Does that mean its policy?

Have you read Britannia unchained by several current cabinet members?That policy too?

Thing is, it doesn't need to be adopted as policy; abolishing tuition fees wasn't adopted either and wasn't even in the manifesto, but it didn't stop endless people insisting that's what Labour were going to do

All the parties really need is a few massive headlines and the hope that enough folk will fail to read the detail ...

Backed by former leader Ed Miliband, frontbencher Clive Lewis and Laura Pidcock, the Labour Against Private Schools campaign – which uses the handle @AbolishEton on Twitter – is urging for a manifesto pledge to integrate all private schools into the state sector. The group – who want charitable status and tax privileges withdrawn from private schools – will try to pass a motion at Labour Party conference in September.

Where is the Tory activist group trying to pass a motion to have the death penalty reinstated?