OP
Education in the U.K. is a postcode lottery. You must realise this surely, given that you’re ‘in education’ as you claim. Some areas have fantastic state schools. Others not so much, Some have selective faith school options. Some have the grammar system. Some have excellent independent schools. Some have crap independent schools.
Its all very well talking about the situation in your area. Every area is different.
You talk about this policy as if it’s actually come as a shock to ‘private school parents.’ It hasn’t though - Labour have been on about it for years. They used to talk about a ‘mansion tax’ too, though not sure what happened to that idea. Maybe that will affect you OP, as you say you are wealthy? Perhaps an inevitable ‘mansion tax’ combined with higher stamp duty will inhibit people moving into grammar school areas, or outstanding state schools?
We all know where Kier Starmer lives and can have a good guess at the state school his kids attend. No surprise there.
Every private school is different and every school will react to thid policy differently. So talking about ‘private schools’ ad if they are a homogenous group is a nonsense really.
For instance, I’m in SW London. Within 3 miles of my house, there are private schools which charge about £6K basic per term (or at least they did a few years back) - eg. schools in the GDST group which tend to be s bit cheaper. Then there are schools like St Paul’s, Godolphin and Latymer etc where the fees are more like £9K basic. Outside London, I’m sure basic fees are cheaper. But then there are more schools in the countryside which are boarding / flexi-boarding, or which offer long days (pupils staying until 6 for prep etc) - so those fees will be even higher. I’ve no idea how much full boarding is.
I’m saying this to make the point that the way schools pass on costs to parents varies a lot anyway and this will continue to be the case. For many, it will just be the equivalent of paying for lunches or not, or paying for a trip, or paying for music lessons etc. Fees go up every year anyway. When my eldest started reception in about 2007, it was less than £3K per term. By the time he left, it was almost £10K per term all in.
For instance, another one of the day schools one of mine went to had high basic fees (it’s was about £8.5K but this was some years ago) BUT a significant proportion went to the bursary programme there and this was the core ethos of the school. About 20-25% were on full bursaries there and it rises year on year. Will they be able to continue this - who knows?
As for your snipe about Hugo and Araminta or whatever - what planet are you on? Most people in London independents are British Indian / Chinese / European. Hardly anyone has two British parents born in the U.K. Hugo indeed!
The reason people pay in London is because if your local state school achieves 20% 9-7 at GCSE, but you know you have a bright child who could possibly pass the exams for a selective independent where 98% of all grades are 9-7 and you can afford it - what are you going to do? People don’t pay for connections or to be posh and that malarkey. It’s not the 1950s. People pay for results and safety.
Then there is the fact, if your child isn’t academic they won’t get into a selective independent anyway. One of mine was is very dyslexic. Rather than A-levels, they wanted to do another type of course leading to uni (not BTEC but similar). They went to a state college to do this (the only place that offers it locally) - the place was state of the art. Millions had been invested in the facilities and environment. Far more than anything I had seen in the independent sector…
About 5 weeks in, a student was fatally stabbed in broad daylight, just outside the main entrance to the college and witnessed by local school children. The boy killed was a refugee living here more or less alone. The boy / group of boys who killed him were 16. This never made the press and to this day, I don’t understand why.
Sorry for the essay (!) but basically the way I feel is this - schools and everything in the U.K. are woefully underfunded and more tax is inevitable. This school fees tax is just one easy headline for Labour. If the money is used effectively (I really hope it is) - fair enough. But it’s going to take more than extra maths teachers to put right what is going wrong in U.K. schools. It’s a social problem. A malaise. No wonder teachers are leaving in droves - they are expected to be social workers as much as teach.
Anyway, whoever gets in, a raft of taxation will be inevitably coming to everyone - whether explicitly like with this policy, or by stealth. I just hope the money is actually used effectively and makes a difference because nobody wants to live in a society where teachers are scared, pupils are failed and society is increasingly polarised. Nobody benefits from that. Just hope for the best really.