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.

My boys all went private and all got offers from their excellent uni choices.
As did others. Lots is students though whether state or private will be rejected for reasons other than grades, maybe their statement was a bit crap.

Certainly some unis have more contextualised places than others, but that’s not your average state student either.

If a business is deliberately discriminating against a pupil applying for work experience you should report them for discrimination.

My sons did and have struggled to get a pt job whilst at Uni. Different cities. so my sons that are still at Uni, twins, decided to change the school they went to on their application. Hey presto !
No idea if their real school was swinging things against them. Luckily I doubt it will affect them once they’ve finished Uni though.

Are you saying that your sons lied on their applications for jobs?

Yep, your argument is indeed exhausting.

Absolutely.
They weren’t getting anywhere securing a part time job putting their Indi school down so they both decided they’d give it a go.

If employers are discriminating against Indi kids they thought …why not.

One of them realised the kids on his halls that weren’t getting jobs were all Indi kids.

The number of children on roll is declining in most London boroughs - lots of schools are closing or cutting to 1 form entry, even the outstanding ones. DS only has 22 children in his class. An influx of children would be a good thing round here.

Won’t happen though, our local super-selectives have a long waiting list of parents keen to hand over their cash. If a couple of the less wealthy ones leave, a richer child who did less well in the entrance exam will take their place.

I couldn't be more sure that he didn't say this. Are you sure he wasn't talking about contextual offers?

He was asked a question about how many private school students versus state they took the year before and he responded by saying year on year the % was changing, and they actively prioritised state over private. He said moving forward they were focusing on increasing the no. of state students. For the first time in the history of our school, not one child got an offer at this Uni.

The other admissions heads were asked if they had a similar policy and only one said No, we are not going to do that.

I’m not saying this is right or wrong, just that if I was going into the education system now, I wouldn’t go private.

Someone said it sounds like I’d jump anyway. No. If VAT is not introduced my DC will stay. If it is, we’ll move. The antipathy towards private is in my mind, but it’s not enough to move us. The VAT on top of my other doubts, is the push factor.

And you think this is okay? 😯

It isn’t just a 20% increase.

Our prep school fees went up 14.8% last year and we’ve already been told that they will go up another 5% from September… then presumably the 20% when Labour enact their headline winning policy.

I’d say about quarter of families at our school (not for profit) already stretch themselves to pay the current fees. I think it will have an impact on the applications to the local comprehensive.

We can cover the additional fee increases, but question if we should.

DH and I are discussing a house move in the not too distance future. It makes sense to move to a different county with good private secondary schools, as well as several highly rated grammar schools to broaden our options. It’s £100k+ on stamp duty, but for 2 DC with senior school fees at around £30k each per year, it’s covered in a short time if we get a place at grammar.

I said this above - this morning about Edinburgh.

Our kids are at state but a lot of my friends with kids at state are finding the same thing.

I'm a pushy state parent and I checked onwards destinations from our local state and private schools. State had a much higher proportion of Oxbridge candidates, together with better RG unis like Imperial, Bristol and Kings. Private school had no Oxbridge candidates in last 3 years.

Obviously that's a small sample of our local school but telling.

Uni’s are starting to try and redress the advantage that private schooling gives students. This is not a bad thing, obviously it is easier to get top grades in smaller classes etc. There is a long way to go but it has started to happen.

It would also be good to see the 11 plus changed into something that cannot be tutored for eg CATS or some other system.

Are people really worried about the effect on the state sector or is there an element of worry that these parents may not be able to afford to buy their own children privilege?

I do not believe this at all. Universities would talk about making contextual judgements and that impacting on the number of private school places. It's called levelling the playing field. That is a very, very different thing from discrimination against private school students. If you are so sure you are correct, name the universities. I know quite a lot about this area.

Which Unis are these.?
Which Uni said they don’t do this.?

Unis cannot discriminate but they can and do have contextual offers for looked after, parents not uni educated, carers, etc. I believe you need to fulfil 3 of these and will be offered a reduced entry requirement by a grade but not for all A levels just maybe one and sometimes 2 depending on the Uni.

Are people really worried about the effect on the state sector or is there an element of worry that these parents may not be able to afford to buy their own children privilege?

What do you think?!

I find it so distasteful that it is the latter dressed up as the former.

No
They shouldn't have to resort to lying but employers shouldn’t discriminate either…..

I agree with this.

I assume they were applying for weekend jobs in pubs and Tesco, not ones requiring DBS clearance. I’d have no issue at all with changing their secondary school name from “Eton” to “Windsor Comprehensive” if it helps them get a summer job.

I think OP is concerned about the affect on the state sector because she is looking at a particularly good school in her area.
Hence this thread.

Unless they were at Eton, Westminster or Harrow I'm guessing that the average employer looking for part-time student staff wouldn't recognise the school or care too much. Seems a bit far-fetched that there are local campaigns in different cities against employing private school DC.

I find this distasteful too. Buy the privilege and then lie about having it when it suits you. What kind of value system is that?

I know that’s what I thought. Disgraceful really.

I suspect that she is rather more worried about whether she'll be able to get her dc into the desired state school, rather than worrying about the impact on the state sector as a whole.

And yes, it is distasteful when people dress up their annoyance at being taxed on their own privileged choices as concern for those less fortunate.

No not disgraceful. Unbelievable.

It is not that difficult to get your DC into a desired state school if you are a switched on parent. Have seen plenty of people be successful, even on grammar appeals.

Pick a school that suits your DC’s needs, for example the only one that has a Latin course or does Japanese. Get them into the subject, voila then prove no other local school meets that need specifically. Job done if you have some basic legal skills and a supportive head teacher re character as well. Plenty of state schools will be happy to have motivated DC coming from the private sector who will be displaced.

And yet you have no idea what school my kids went to.
Or indeed what cities I am referring to.
Like I said I don’t know if it made a difference but several kids ( they weren’t alone in this ) all getting nowhere finding a pt job suddenly get offers when they either remove or change their school name. Coincidence?