To think that those private school parents banging on about their fees

[Thegreatergoodgerald]

Seriously have misjudged how little anyone else gives a stuff??? NHS, social care, state education, public transport, bloody potholes everywhere - that’s what matters to everyone I know.
Not whether or not VAT is added to a business.

YANBU - it’s hardly the end of the world if Clemmie or Charles end up going to a state school. We have bigger things to worry about in the U.K. right now

YABU - of course everyone cares private school parents might have to pay more

Well let Starmer raise the taxes on the private schools and then people will see that they will be making problems for state schools having even more problems as more pupils will need to get there 🤷🏻‍♀️ And as for getting 6000 more teachers … that’s a magic trick I can’t wait to see 😁

Honestly? Couldn’t give a stuff about the private school VAT issue on a basic level, nor does anyone else I’ve spoken to.

But. If there’s a huge uptake of state school spaces being taken up by children who would have otherwise gone to a fee paying school, while we already have a huge shortage of teachers and school staff then what happens? I plan to vote Labour and I really hope they have a legit plan going forward for education, regardless on whether they follow through with their plan for private education.

@AlexaPlaySomeHappyHardcore snd if Labour’s only policy in Education is this one will you vote for them?

Maybe the OP would like to retrain and join the army of required state school teachers and can then lecture those ex private school kids to his or her heart’s content …

Why not?

For people that use a private school it will be a big increase in expenses for them and therefore an issue which affects them which is why they will be speaking about it online.

If you don't and you don't think it will have much impact on you why are you following the conversations and complaining them..

The thing is when you might have to take your child out of a lovely school to go to the only crappy state school available it can be legitimately worrying - not for yourself but for your child*. I spent many sleepless nights worrying about it but I was also worrying about a million other things at the same time.

*meaning how it will directly affect them.

I think your voting choices are unreasonably worded.

@Wewereonnabreak do you work in Education?

The very wealthy won’t be affected. The first who will suffer are those who would have received scholarships and bursaries. Then there will be the withdrawal of the sharing of sports facilities with the state sector. Alongside this will
be the necessary provision of state school places which will probably be in the best catchment areas and the increased competition for grammar school places. I think it’s a case of be careful what you wish for.

No

Hope is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence.

The most depressing thing about this and every other thread on the topic is how labour have successfully managed to get people fighting amongst themselves over this proposal without having disclosed exactly who will benefit or how. They are no different to the current party - divide and conquer is the aim

@Wewereonnabreak thought not!

Rough sums here but

550k children in private education
lets say 10% of them drop out - 55000 children now need a school place.
32K schools in the UK.

so… 1.5 ish extra children per school?

a very blunt tool and no doubt some areas will have more than others (Home Counties, looking at you).

not really the disaster it’s being painted as.

@morechocolateneededtoday that’s the thing, there are no policies in how education is going to be improved (which there seriously need to be) so everyone is fixating on this, which might actually be to the detriment of state education

what do you mean?

I went to a terrible comprehensive school and then college. Equally bad.

My daughters go to a lovely private school. They will continue to do so.

My question to the person that said they’d not work in a state school again was genuine. I know why I Think she’d not work there again, but didn’t want to assume. Some state schools are good. Mine was at the back end of fcking awful. And there was no chance I was going to send my children to a school like that, if I could earn enough not to.

At our local secondary school, a mile away, where my eldest was refused a place due to receding boundaries, I took a walk around. All the roads next to it are lined with 4/5 bed detached houses. I know a few parents whose DC go there, and none of them live in a property worth less than a million (SE). These houses are minutes to the school. Personally I’m glad mine didn’t go there because everyone I know whose DC went there, struggled with the bullying and drugs, but it’s still “outstanding”.

All of my DC’s peers who went from private junior to state secondary, all bought houses in streets minutes from the school, and everyone took a place in the top sets in year 7, despite not even sitting SATS.

That’s without VAT. It’ll get worse with it.

Because the T & Cs and workplace culture in state schools is diabolical. My husband and I left teaching some time ago and we both have PTSD from the bullying, toxicity and expectations. Many assume it's pupil behaviour driving teachers out and yes, pupil behaviour is a big issue and no-one likes going to work to be sworn at, hit and have furniture thrown at them regularly. Parents are often awful too. However, it's was the SLT at the schools we worked at, the fact that they always took the side of the misbehaving child or the complaining parent, the fact that we were working 60-70 hour weeks and still being told we should be doing more, being spoken to like a naughty child, that really drove us out of the profession. It destroyed my mental and physical health. I wish I was exaggerating.

The most depressing thing is how much attention an issue that affects 6% of UK children is getting. We need to improve education for all kids. The standard of education in N Ireland is far higher than it is here. As a result less than 1% of parents choose private education because it’s seen as a waste of money.

Goodness. Those lucky, lucky children.
Our local private school offers state school oxbridge entrants a single afternoon of practice interviews. That's it. Not much when you consider their own oxbridge entrants get who series of wednesday afternoons in the run up to interviews in December, with specialist subject leaders shipped in at great expense. Maybe that's where they'll have to save some money if the Labour measure is introduced.

Now, come on, you know that it won't be evenly distributed like that. In practice those kids are concentrated in areas where there are an abundance of private schools and expensive housing.

The smug middle class posters who scoff at the mugs paying private school fees might begin to care when the ex private school kids start targeting the grammars and highly selective academies and sixth form colleges that their dc are at or had in mind.

Be clear that the families leaving private school are not going to send their offspring to any old state school.

Current year 10 dd private school cohort’s parents are currently scoping out the best options for state sixth form. There are going to be a lot of families taken by surprise at the sudden upswing in competition for places (from people with thousands to throw at tutoring for the entrance exams).

Anyone, for whatever reason, can apply for a bursary and currently schools give all sorts eg 10%, 40%, 100%, free music lessons etc
Those %s are expected to drop along with the number of awards as well.

So any kid that has received a reduction in fees so far may well see this reduce due to Labours policy.
That will result in, amongst others, SEN kids moving to state. Independent schools, except in special circumstances, do not receive the funding that state schools get for SEN kids.
Many Parents who move their SEN kids do so, not because they always wanted private, but because their child’s needs are not met in state. They, therefore are not necessarily the super rich but people who work very hard to pay the fees.

The additional cost to the state has not been costed by Labour

Nobody expects you to care about wealthy people.

You might want to care about the policy because it would destabilise the whole education landscape, could easily end up costing the country more than it makes, and at the very least will only serve to make independent education even more exclusive, available only to a smaller and richer subset of society.

It's daft labour policy thrown out as "red meat" to their left wing base.

I believe every word. It’s horrendous. Sorry you went through that.

My neighbour is the same. He left the local academy for the same reasons - especially like you said - ‘the T & Cs and workplace culture in state schools is diabolical’. That’s what he hated the most.

He took another totally different job, and is a different happier person.

Hope you’re doing better now.