To wonder if Private School parents think we can’t read?

[Captainmycaptains]

Work/volunteer in Education so following the whole VAT debate.

SM is full of private parent groups ‘organising’ to get the proposed VAT on fees cancelled - fine you would, wouldn’t you esp.if you’re used to getting your own way.

They’re advocating hassling local schools, councils, demanding stats and figures that don’t exist, wiring to MPs - telling people to ‘claim’ their state place to ‘disrupt’ the ‘system’ while also saying ‘ Obvs we won’t be taking Charlotte and Hugo out of school, we’ll find the money’ etc strive harder, getting granny to chip in’ but this might make the council ‘panic’.

Do they think that people in support of the VAT aren’t seeing/hearing/reading all of these plans???

the funniest one yet is the poster who said ‘ well going to claim our state school places then! See how they like that! We’ll going holiday, pay the mortgage down, shop at Waitrose and save £700k in the process, ha!’
I. no you aren’t 2. Okay - go for it! Who on earth would think £700k is worth it?? Behave like a normal person then…

YANBU - yeah, they’re noisy as expected but the rest of us are as think/ concerned as they seem to think. Also - it’s too late for Sept - waiting lists only…

YABU - applying for school places you have no intention of using is daft, and of course everyone can see what they’re trying to do.

@Newbutoldfather teachers are also treated appallingly in the state sector including (increasingly) with physical violence. There is no excuse for students treating teachers badly whether it's in the private sector or state sector. Your point sounds more about shaming children for having wealthy parents than the issue of poor behaviour.

Very happy for my typos to be checked. My dc also inherited my dyslexia 🫣

@Barbadossunset ,

‘I’m sorry that some pupils treated teachers like domestic servants. Could they not be punished for this?
Also, what did they do exactly? - I mean a teacher can’t be told to carry out tasks or do a student’s bidding, surely?’

I was more meaning the parents than the pupils, who are happy to e mail teachers to do lists of how to support their child, or to really have a go at parents’ evenings about how you were failing Flossy by recommending double science (despite the fact Flossy had never scored more than 35% in a topic test) and that they were paying for her to get at least a 7.

It was water off a ducks back to me; in some ways I enjoyed a good argument, but then I was older and, ultimately, not dependent on the income, but the staff room always had at least one younger teacher reduced to tears on a given parents’ evening.

As for pupils, many told me that I had to provide revision materials (or things like that) to them as ‘I am paying’ to which my stock reply was ‘out of which of your bank accounts is that’ and I then further explained that, if their parents had a problem, they were welcome to email me. It rarely happened.

To be honest, I always did respect that the parents were clients and were paying a hell of a lot for my services. But, in return, I expected to respect my professional expertise. What parents think is good for their children is not always what will actually help them.

@TeenagersAngst ,

‘Your point sounds more about shaming children for having wealthy parents than the issue of poor behaviour.’

WTF, which of my words did you extrapolate (make up) to take that from them? I am, by most standards, pretty wealthy myself, so why would I do that? Aside from the fact I always was totally wealth-neutral towards my pupils, having taught billionaire’s children (yes, literally) and bursary pupils from the local council estate. I made zero distinction.

There have been posts locally about how private school parents should "disrupt the state schools and make them unworkable". These parents living in the private gated community (houses prices minimum of a third higher than equivalent outside the gates) and driving very high end cars are so worried about the tax on private schools so their plan is to make it worse for those at state school. They are so angry they are trying to prevent those living in local, shitty high rises get a worse education. So pathetic.

My apologies, I also thought you were talking about the children not the parents. I can see now what you meant.

And yes, that's objectionable.

What I don't understand. Is the private school parents threatening to buy up all the housing and pushing up prices near the best local state school.

Stamp duty on a small 3 bed terrace in the dodgier part of the area would be 2-3 years of private school. And I doubt they will consider moving to a 3 bed terrace. Stamp duty on a 4 bed detached would be 11 years of the local private senior school. Plus all the other fees associated with moving. More if you go to the naice area.

So, I am presuming they are not telling the truth.

This is already common practice among wealthy state school parents. It's not something new invented by private school parents.

Stamp duty on a 4 bed detached would be nowhere near 11 years of fees which would be about £180k. I think you need to check your sums.

I didn't realise I'd mentioned where I live.

Stamp duty on an £850k home is £30k.

Would love to know where you live if you're paying £180k on a 4 bed detached. The moon?

4 bed detached near the best state school are between £1.3m and £1.5m. Some above that.

My 2.5bed semi, not within catchment of that school (but some years you can get in on distance, but no the last 3 years) is worth £750k.

But WHY would you spend 11/12 years worth of private school fees on moving to a lesser house than you're in?? More than 12 years if you go to the cheaper schools, I just used the most popular private school in the area as an example.

Fine but still not the sums you cited.

And your original point suggests that hoovering up houses round good state schools is a fiction being perpetuated by disgruntled private school parents. It's just not. House price inflation in the catchment of good schools is a well known thing - it's been going on for years and continues to raise inequality in the state system.

Which Labour doesn't seem interested in.

You don't know what your talking about. We were looking at private for secondary only so that's 5 year not 11 and the stamp duty was over 100k. We're in North London and a 4 or 5 bed house in catchment equivalent to what we have now are around 1.5 million.

Average fees £15k per year. 12 years of school is £180k. That is not the stamp duty paid on most houses round the catchment of good schools. Moreover house prices go up. School fees are dead money.

I don't need to convince you that it happens. It does.

@winterrabbit well yes, but London is a bubble as far as housing goes.

Houses round the best catchments in Yorkshire will cost nothing like houses in London.

I love how you're attacking me for not knowing what I'm talking about. I'm not making this stuff up. Catchment house price inflation is an accepted phenomenon.

Of course they think you can read but it's not your fight. It's theirs, and they have every right to be angry and to try to do something about it. Scroll by if it upsets you.

https://www.bambinomio.co.uk/blogs/cost-of-raising-a-child/you-ll-pay-a-premium-for-a-house-near-a-good-school

You told me my maths was wrong. Don't get all offended when someone else uses similar language.

You're telling me to re-do my sums. I am telling you that the stamp duty for moving into an equivalent house in catchment was over 100k let alone the increase in cost of the house so you are wrong to tell me to re-do my sums and wrong to state that school fees are always more than stamp duty and dead money. They're not. For us it was a lot easy to pay for school fees for one than uproot the entire family to move 2 miles away to a worse but more expensive house just to get into catchment.

What I am saying is that parents local to me are saying they'll buy up property near the best state school.

I am saying WHY would they throw away 12 years worth of fees on moving just to prove a point? Seriously. Why???

Your maths is wrong @BoredandLost Stamp duty of £180k would be payable on a £2m+ property. This does not represent the majority of 4 bed detached houses across the UK.

@winterrabbit Where did I tell you to redo your sums? I didn't. I said London was a bubble as far as house prices go.

Because they're not throwing the equivalent of 12 years of fees away unless they're moving into a £2m+ house. It's really not that hard.