To think parents of private education school children will be fine

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I’ve seen lots of threads on this topic recently. It would be great to have it’s own section so those who want to chat about it with fellow parents , can without an argument.

But private school parents and their children!! We will be just fine. There’s so much smugness and bitterness and hate coming from people who think it’s great the VAT will be added and force some out. In fact I don’t disagree - add VAT on ! Great, and then we can take either our state places up … win win we have more money to spend on holidays, deposits for houses for our kids, private tutors, extra cirricular activities etc and we can probably move to better areas with the outstanding state schools or OR we pay it it we can afford to keep our children there.

On some of the independent school committees they are working out how to charge the fees differently so the actual fees we will pay 20% on are low and the rest of the money is on stuff that’s exempt from VAT. They are also looking at changing the nature of the schools so the children get their state education allowance and then pay extras on top- like you would nursery extras.

The chance of labour implementing it is low. There are solicitors looking at it now and whether they can change the law to allow it.

So either way we’re not in a bad position - as most of the threads argue we are the wealthiest in The UK- some can’t afford food bills etc so we are incredibly lucky to have choice and it is true we must have money to
even contemplate spending £25k on each child in school.

Of course the vast majority will be fine, it's what makes all the dummy-spitting on here so funny!

Is this a duck you post to everyone that's expecting private school parents to pay 20% more. Feels like a ' we going to screw you back over' post. Newsflash you probably already are.

I think maybe one of the big differences is this:
figures released by the Department of Education showed €128m funding from the State last year to private schools. This funding pays teachers’ salaries and pays for special needs assistants.
Does the UK state contribute to teacher salaries? It is a massive issue here but it does mean the gulf between fee paying schools and state schools is no where near as big in Ireland as in the UK, and exam results show that. More often then not it is state schools that are topping the league tables of best schools.

Thanks for that information. Yes, I was wondering if perhaps the state even subsidises private to some extent - as education is highly valued. Also, your local state school is likely to be better because the parents want the kids to do well, so there isn't such a gap and not so much resentment over people able to afford private. The 'We don't need no education' is an English attitude that you don't find in Ireland or Scotland, or, in fact, most places in the world. But people are so insular, they don't realise how odd and self-defeating their attitudes actually are.

Presumably pupils who are funded by local authorities will have an EHCP so will be exempt. Funded places are like hen's teeth, so I can't see any LAs offering them with out diagnoses and paperwork.

@ScrollingLeaves look there's many forms of policy or tax we might not personally like. For example, we pay corporation tax on our company profits and then when we draw dividends we pay personal tax on it too.

Just because we don't use a public service (for example the NHS) it doesn't mean we are entitled to money back on it. What would you do about people who don't have children and whose taxes also go into supporting state education to make it 'fairer' for them?

If people have children they can choose:

1. to accept a state school place
2. to pay the going rate for a private education service
3. to home-school

I would just like to add that over 90% of children in this country go to state schools and many are thriving there and getting fantastic results, friendships and experiences. Of course with Government under-funding there are challenges but it's not the pit of despair that some private school parents seem to think it is!

Just adding:

4 Choose to educate your children in another country

I wasn't born in the UK and so I just don't understand why people like you seem so envious of parents who choose to educate their children through the private school system.

And it makes such parents "entitled arseholes." You sound very bitter.

It is a very UK thing, its not envy exactly but an extreme form of "fairness". We don't think anyone should have an advantage - its a form of queue jumping and everyone knows how we feel about that.
We also don't like people "getting above their station"

An old one now, but I think still true.
American sees someone driving a flash car, thinks 'How can I earn enough to buy that?'
British person sees someone driving a flash car, thinks 'What a '
There are issues with both attitudes.

And someone living near Holland Park Comprehensive, to give one extreme example, who may be a millionaire, eating chicken and avocados from Waitrose, rather than a migrant or white working class boy in the North, is not ‘queue jumping’?

Many of the children with SEN in independent schools are financed by local authorities.

We will be fine. DS is starting in August (secondary only) and we can afford his fees. If VAT is added it's highly likely we won't then send DD who is 5 years younger. She doesn't have dyslexia or issues with being bullied at the state primary they're at so it's less of an issue. We'll pay for tutors and extra curriculars for her at the state secondary and go on nicer holidays. I don't want VAT to be added and think it's like the Brexit bus all over again. It's amazing the power that politicians and media have over people's ability to think critically and rationally .

We also don't like people "getting above their station"

People are not a fan of it In Ireland either they say they "have notions" as in notions above their station 😂

Well if it's like the Brexit bus you will be fine (as that was an out and out lie and the money never materialised to pay for the NHS!)

You don't like the policy as it will personally affect you financially. Fair enough. You can surely understand other people can be in favour of it without being 'critically and rationally' impaired, you just don't want them to be...

I mean its a similar concept to queue jumping - getting an unfair advantage
Part of my job is Orientation people from overseas (often Americans) and a lot of the time they have mentioned how we don't seem to like success here (their view not mine)

Yes we will be fine too. We have enough in assets we could sell to cover school fees until uni age, for both dcs. One in prep and one yet to start. It would be fine coming out of income too, so we won't necessarily have to sell those assets. We are in London and there's a lot of money sloshing around, judging by other pupil's holidays and addresses. Not many I can think of who are scrimping.

Goodness OP. You sound like a child who's tantrum hasn't worked so now they're pretending they don't mind going to bed anyway, because their beds nicer than your bed and you can't make them go to sleep anyway....

Do you not get that some schools are actually dangerous for kids to attend? I got a dinner pass so I could go home and use the toilet (lived fairly close) as they were no go areas with bullying and smoking even back then. Poor GCSE options, only in ‘sets’ for maths, english, science and languages so all other lessons were basically crowd control.

I left high school almost 30 years ago, I dread to think what it’s like now. I’d far rather have been surrounded by ‘entitled arseholes’ than kids who would batter you for having a ‘posh’ name or getting A in an exam.

Then, I suppose you live somewhere naice (like the Starmers) where you can afford to pay ££££ to be in the catchment of a decent state school. Not everyone has that option and if my DF could have afforded it he would’ve loved to send us private. He (DF) didn't want to move areas as his DM was quite unwell and he was her only DC.

Yep, as I stated.

Has no-one looked at the Scotsnet thread?? 30% of pupils are privately educated in Edinburgh. I wonder whether that will play out in electoral polls.

Surely that example shows you why its a positive thing? More money on public schools will help children in that situation where the parents can't easily afford private school, as well as all the others who can't afford it at all and have no option but the currently underfunded public schools.

Don't know. Don't care.

This.

Second this 😆