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.

@Didimum the private school near us has already put their fees up by 15% and reduced pension contributions for staff. They don't have the finances to absorb VAT on school fees

So good and outstanding schools
are crap?

State school parents are invested too, due to impact in some areas

Then they need a better financial strategy or makes changes to the way they operate.

The only good and outstanding schools are grammars.
Thats the point!

And that’s why grammars also do harm to education for all. They should not exist either. No grammar free counties have schools in special measures.

They won’t randomly join poor performing schools.

If the fee money is suddenly spare it would easily fund a like for like house move to the best local state catchment area.

To suggest that parents who previously were happy to pay fees would send their children to an underperforming school and save the money they’ve already earmarked for education is a mile off.

I’m arguing against the VAT.
My ds is off to uni.

@Kandalama I'm sorry if you feel that your local state schools are "really crap"

But, you can't generalise for the whole country. My children have had an excellent experience in state school. We had the option of a private school at 25% of the standard fees and it wouldn't have been good value for money

Nobody knows what the impact, if any, will be. There seems to be a lot of hyperbole around it, possibly because it suits certain agendas. It could be a storm in a teacup with minimal displacement. Remember that the private sector only accounts for approximately 7% of children below sixth form.

Update.
Ive just been told there’s a special school and a small free school which both have a good rating.

On other threads like this, people usually talk about SEN children and how they will cope in the state sector. This is a real concern as state provision for SEN is patchy at best but those priced out of the private schools who have SEN children will often be looking for a different school, not a grammar, not a selective sixth form etc. The outstanding state school near me has a poor record with SEN, luckily there is a good school nearby with a better record.
Not everyone in private school is going to be smarter and have more engaged parents than state schools.
For those who have to leave private school, they will still need to compete with parents who've been doing it for years - moving catchments, tutoring, helping their kids at home. There are plenty of capable parents and children in the state sector so adding a few more in most areas won't make a lot of difference.

Northamptonshire

Well I know how school allocation works and how competitive it is already here

We tried them.
They are what they are and have been since we moved here.
Despite support from the grammar heads.

I was asked what area I was talking about. That’s why I’m talking about our area, I have no idea how other areas are. My comments weren’t related to the whole country obviously.

Did I mention poorly performing schools? I suggested they would be welcome in the state sector.

… I take you had a state education 😉

Labour might not win the election. 🤷‍♀️

It's laughable to think - as has been indicated by many on this thread - that parents who want private school for their kids but will no longer be able to afford it - are just going to send their kids to the local state school.
If they are spending £10-25k per child per year that is quite a commitment to buying an advantage. If that money will no longer stretch further to private school it will be channelled in other ways.

• Moving house, either to grammar school areas or to areas with outstanding secondary schools
• More targeting of grammar school places
• Paying for additional tutoring and extra curricular activities

This will not have an immediate impact but will happen over time. The house moves likely pre 4+ and 11+. Most kids in private schools aren't parliamentary Etonian types. They are bright kids with fiercely ambitious parents whose elbows will only become sharper as they ensure the best for their kids in the state sector instead.

I think the first measurable change will be an increase in numbers choosing state 6th form - an expansion of the 'trick' to try to improve Oxbridge/Uni applications by attending state for that period.

We live in an area where the state schools are entirely comprehensive. The schools local to us are brilliant. My kids perform well at school, which is streamed by ability from the outset, and I don't think either their experience or results have been compromised by being exposed to kids who are less academic.

I'm not convinced that grammar schools don't cause more problems than is necessary but it seems to keep tutors in business.

Fee inflation has been running at roughly inflation plus up to about 5%

That's nowhere close to an extra 20%

The only time I can recall a large and petty much across-the-board additional fee increase wan in the early 00s, following NI increases. That was steep, but nowhere near 20%

Agree👏👏👏
selection by ability in this area is so demoralising for kids.
A real kick in the teeth.
I know adults who still feel let down by this grammar area because some of their siblings got in and they didn’t.
Grown adults still feeling mentally lacking.

I'm presuming that you live in an area with selective schools? Getting rid of them as well would be a good start.

@Proudtobeanortherner they do have feeder primary schools in Scotland, but applications for high school are still based on address, not which primary you went to

Oxford and Cambridge et all look back to where you took your GCSEs. Not just Alevels.

Yes tutoring.
Another private form of education 🤨