To think good school places will be even harder to find next year because of the VAT on school fees

[Nesca1]

We are are looking at secondary schools for DS. We have our eye on a decent school bang in the middle of a solid middle class area . The school is always over subscribed; this year we would have gotten a place but last year we would have missed out because of how far we are from the school.
Usually, the school offers places to children living 1600m away, last year it was 1400m due to a large number of sibling applications.

Due to the whole VAT issue, i think more parents from the local area are going to be sending their kids to this school, rather than sending them to private schools.

Is this a reasonable assumption? I don't think parents will wait for the policy to be enacted, but they will move their year 6 children into this school.

Exactly. Where have these social justice warriors been all these years? Why are they suddenly so concerned now about state school kids whose parents can't afford to live in a catchment area for good schools? Where are all the threads that they have started previously about educational inequalities for the poorest in our society?

It's pure self interest from people who simply don't want to pay tax on their own kids' privilege, dressed up as fake concern for children in the state sector. I don't buy it for a minute.

Surely it’s not a huge surprise that the offspring of two parents who enjoyed academics are themselves academic. I do not earn enough to fund my local private school’s £15k/yr tuition for multiple children.

Yes really! Three sets of fees were never viable. We pay one set of fees for child A. One of our children (child B) has a scholarship and bursary for a performing arts school and grandparents pay the remainder. Our youngest (child C) wouldn't have entered the independent sector until our eldest had left. We won't pull them out until they reach natural exit points. One set of fees is a stretch for us!

Yes, that might be true. But in some areas the impact will be significant enough to make be question the policy (and I’m a labour voter who would rather no independent school sector).

Those mentioned above include London, Edinburgh, Bristol, Gloucestershire, Kent

I'm in a grammar area - Trafford. My son goes to what people in other parts of Trafford think is the 'worst' grammar. We're in the poorest part of the borough. Only 2 from his primary class got a place at the grammar that is 20 minutes walk from our door.
Lots of very affluent kids sit the entrance exam for our grammar consortium. Already, kids from our area can't compete with the kids from private prep where they are tutored for years to pass the exam. Kids in my son's class come from all over greater Manchester to his school.
My daughter is in year 5. Our local comp is genuinely awful. Under subscribed. I don't mean 'awful because it's not good enough for my angel'. I mean fights, racism, bullying, very low attainment scores.
I'm pretty sure that parents who would have sent their kids to some of the Manchester privates without the price hikes will send their kids to a Trafford grammar if they pass the 11+ instead, making my daughter's chances of attending grammar even smaller. The scores are aggregated so the more tutored kids take it, the higher the pass mark is. The system is not fair.

I don’t think there are many benefits, apart from voting ones

I already am in an area where state school is contested over massively, I can see it will get worse

Absolutely agree and if we d known the state of our state schools we wouldn’t have even moved here.

You’ll need to be a bit more specific than that. Where in these areas and why?

It’s not really concern for state school dc, as generally those switching to state will be ok and will use ability to get in the best schools

It’s still the effect though

Yes that point was made in the original post

@Chatonette "Surely it’s not a huge surprise that the offspring of two parents who enjoyed academics are themselves academic"

That's fine-so long as we finally abandon the myth that the grammar system does anything to lift disadvantaged children out of disadvantage.

I was vague as saying local state schools are crap is very disheartening for those who have no choice but to use them.
Lets just say if you can’t get into the grammar the rest are crap.
Lets also just say there is masses and I mean thousands of new houses being built within the catchments to crap schools!

So you’re saying all the state schools in these areas are crap!

I'm a Labour voter but I think this is being badly mishandled- it's a worry both in terms of the effect on kids and how much time and goodwill Labour are going to waste by bungling their headline policy
100% this!
Private school parents are not the issue, so many bad Conservative policies that Labour could focus on tackling instead.

They weren't all mentioned by me.

However, taking Edinburgh as an example, this link says 25% of kids are in private there:

Why do one in four Edinburgh students attend private school? | The National

I also think people saying that pushing kids into state schools will drive up house prices in good state areas are perhaps not aware how that will actually work (or not work) in practice. Because this is happening to my area right now and has been for a few years. However rich people are, they can’t ‘buy’ a place at this oversubscribed secondary, because it can’t even take all kids in catchment. House prices are also not being driven up faster in the area because mortgage lenders will not over value the properties because of the school.

That totally misses the point. The fact is PS parents are doing the state system a favour. Of course that isn’t their motivation but what difference does that make?

Well, time will tell whether there is actually much of an impact. I very much doubt that it will be significant.

As for using "ability" to get into the best schools...if you're talking about financial ability, yes, some will be able to buy their way into better catchments. If you're talking about academic ability...well, that's more questionable. Not all areas have selective systems and not all privately educated children are particularly able.

Either way, I do appreciate your honesty in acknowledging that nobody is really raising these "concerns" out of any real care for children in the state system. They are just trying to find some extra justifications as to why they shouldn't have to pay more tax because they have realised that there isn't actually that much public sympathy for the fact that wealthy parents need to pay a bit extra to sustain the level of privilege that their children currently enjoy.

I would argue that having highly motivated parents enter the state system would be beneficial.

I don’t claim that grammars lift children out of poverty. I do, however, believe that my DC, who dreams of going to Cambridge, has just as much of a chance as a private school pupil, and is working at an accelerated pace at school toward that goal.

I do recognise that I needed to have the capacity to seek out 11+ applications, to help my child to prepare for the exams, including giving them a quiet place to work, and to take them to the exam location out of school hours. Not all parents do this, but surely this shouldn’t be a reason to shut down grammars.

Exactly the same happens here.
We have a local private primary grammar Cramer. Kids quite literally are taught to the 11+ test from age 4.

100% success rate.
That’s not giving entry to the brightest and the best.

The states here are like yours, I’ve seen loads of them queuing up with the police and teachers in A&E after their fights.

A friend, a maths teacher, lasted one year at one of them and is now moving to teacher at the grammar next year. He couldn’t stand it. No one to take his place as yet.

Interesting how private school parents are currently so invested in what happens in education outside the private sector. Can't remember this level of concern on here before they were worried about being hit with VAT.

My dc are in state school in a highly competitive area, I’m raising it for me. And others who will see even more stress and competition.

Yes.
In my very populated area.