To really dislike Bridget Phillipson?

[Sensiblyplease]

I just absolutely can’t stand the woman.

The lady seems to be making decisions based on personal prejudices and causing intentional division in our education system.
She’s not listening to anyone, and the consequences her decisions are having is far too impactful to ignore. As someone in her power she should model balanced politics, based on evidence, instead of in-sighting hate and division.

My children are in state school- we’ve had 3
more children come into their year group with SEN but no EHCPs as their previous independent schools could cope without one. The parents inform me it’ll take a few years and that’s if they get one- and then they can either go back to their previous independent school (as apparently they won’t have to pay VAT with an ECHP?) or have the help they need according to the results of the ECHP.

Im just so angry. I have nothing against these children and can understand they can’t afford the VAT increase and needed to move back into state schools, but it’s now really disrupted the class. The TA is apparently out the class all the time now and the class teacher has 32 children on her own. It appears that Bridget’s insistence and personal hate against the private sector is damaging to state school children. It’s really pissing me off - our children’s education is important and not to be messed around with.

I feel like the woman likes a good headline but is prepared to throw our children’s education away in order to meet her personal objectives / vendettas.

What is she actually doing for state schools? Her headline grabbing titles is deflecting from her actually trying to improve state education in any meaningful and impactful way. 6500 teachers - so my kids get 1/3 of a teacher for their school? That’s shocking. More children entering the state system now puts pressure on their school, and their teachers. What is she actually doing to address this. Where is she magic-ing these trained and qualified teachers from? What is she doing to retain teachers and help with their current work load?

I’m fed up with her agenda effecting normal people. We need someone with a level head to sort schools out. End of rant!

Yeah, I hear you. She perceives highly-resourced education as a luxury education. Her comments were very either/or: indie schools can have astroturf pitches OR mainstream schools can have mental health support for children. It's a very reductive way of reasoning and does not stand up to scrutiny, but it sounds good.

They can raid all they like, but they also have to be honest that the increased finances from VAT are not being ring-fenced to prop up education for the masses let alone for our amazing (and traumatised) kids with SEND.

This is the problem of ministers with zero understand of education fannying around in school finances, curriculums, attendance, inclusion, etc, and choosing specialist educational advisers with agendas that have little to do with what's best for children.

I was waiting with hopeful anticipation after the election, that education would be prioritised once more, like with (old) New Labour. The promises sounded really good - extra funding for more teachers, mental health prioritised, curriculum reviews, breakfast clubs - these all sound like the start of great support for the sector.

But as time goes by, it all sounds very very hollow, not least because her only idea is to get private school parents to pay for everything. And now with a cynics eye, I feel like these are messages that were focus group tested and "played well" to campaign teams. But absolutely no planning or costings behind any of it, even though they bleated on and on that everything was fully costed. No it isn't! Why are they lying to us, and this woman in particular. The amount expected from tax won't even be made, and they have no other good ideas. We need so much more than that. I voted hoping for so much more than this :(

Yes sorry I didn’t mean to highlight the SEN children separately- they are wonderful. They are lovely children and their parents are.

I think I’m just upset that she’s using her power to disrupt an already over burdened system and it’s my children who will suffer. (And of course the children who are moving across - I’m not minimising their impact).

I wondered if other state school parents would sign a petition I am doing to hold her accountable and actually list what meaningful changes she is doing in the short term and to ask her how she will offset the amount of children who will be coming into the state education system.

I’m wary I don’t want this post to be about VAT on independent schools- as I’m not on that side of the fence and I’m state educated , as are my children. But I also feel lucky they can be as we have a good school near us and grammar schools for high school and I don’t require wrap around so could choose a state school that doesn’t have this.

I just question if the woman can go full steam ahead with a headline grabbing agenda that doesn’t appear to have any financial benefits (due to the costs offset for those leaving independent schools) or any benefits for my children and the 93% of children in state schools. Other than making class sizes larger and taking resources away (sorry private school parents - im not having ago here at you but more kids in the system means less for the ones already there).

If she can’t listen to unions, teachers from both state and private schools then she really shouldn’t be in her position.

State school parents - can you please help me and write what you would like changing.

Hit me with everything. We need class sizes, TAs ect as I am going to try and write to her and go to one of her meetings and discuss what actually needs doing for children.

At some point my cup of tears of people who are whining about paying VAT on luxuries will be full, but in the mean time - keep going.

I think she's great. She's passionate and advocates for disadvantaged children. What's not to like? I have children in both state and private school and I'm happy to pay the small increase (11%) and I'm also happy if a couple of extra children join our local state primary. There will be at least 6500 new teachers paid for by this which will hugely benefit the state schools that need them (not all are understaffed so they won't be split into thirds 😂). I think the country is long overdue this injection of cash into state schools. I think this moaning from some, not all private school parents needs to stop. Some are becoming obsessed and I'm fed up of hearing how hard done by they are. They have absolutely no idea how lucky they are to be in the situation to be able to afford private school in the first place and can easily afford the top up but are too tight fisted.

The challenge (financial and in many cases existential) for schools is FALLING pupil numbers - not too many! https://epi.org.uk/publications-and-research/school-funding-model-effect-of-falling-rolls/
https://www.cypnow.co.uk/content/analysis/tackling-decline-in-london-pupil-numbers/#:~:text=Boroughs%20in%20central%20London%20are,seven%20per%20cent%20in%20Camden.
https://schoolsweek.co.uk/falling-rolls-the-true-cost-of-declining-school-populations/#:~:text=Education%20Policy%20Institute%20analysis%20suggests,cent%20or%20more%20unfilled%20places.
www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/test-newsroom/2024/managing-falling-school-rolls-london

Both parties seem hell bent on using the education sector as ideological football. I would be first in line to sign a petition to keep the sector out of ministerial reach in some way. Maybe civil servants run it, and it doesn't keep changing according to the rotating cast of characters that want to make their mark. Gove, Phillipson et al, so many destructive changes to how children learn and achieve at school and in life.

This policy has the benefit of being poorly executed as well as poorly thought through.

What destructive changes to the state sector has she wrought so far?

Realistically, there will not be any back-pedaling on this policy decision now. We will all have to live with it.

There's HUGE amounts of stuff ongoing, particularly within the parents/carers of children and young people with SEND sector, outlining what is needed to make education work better. It may be more prudent to add your energies and contributions to campaigns already running than to start yet another one.

Do you contribute to consultations? The Curriculum Review is open right now - this is a great opportunity to add your voice: a changed curriculum is nothing if it is not staffed by enough teachers/by suitably qualified teachers, resourced properly, and without adequate differentiation and support for learners with SEND embedded.

Except that in my country three new primaries were opened in September alone to
meet population demands.

I agree. Not getting into the VAT debate but I saw an interview with her before the election and definitely detected an ideological gleam in her eye.

Yanbu

It sounds like her woeful tweet got a lot of backlash so you’re not alone

…but there aren’t VAT on school fees as of yet.

So since the election these parents have taken thier children out of private school, found places at a local primary, and applied for an EHCP??

Apart from that seemingly a fairly extraordinary timescale ..are these the only private school children that have come to your class, and they all have SEN, and none of the parents can pay the (yet to be imposed) VAT? hmmm

yet ANOTHER VAT on school fees thread, only from a allegedly different angle.

3 schools opening in Essex are dwarfed by the number of school closures in London in the last few years and doesn't change the fact that the primary population is shrinking by more than 7% over the next 5 years alone. To the OP's point, more pupils in the school is good for the school and will be being celebrated by the school, because the bulk of funding is per pupil. And the school should help the parents apply for an EHCP, which will not take years to get.

Don’t want to get into the VAT debate too much but I am worried about how the influx of kids from private schools will impact applications to the best schools at year 7 and 12 . I’ve got two DDs year 10 and 11 who would both like to move for A levels as there current school has much lower results compared to the local Grammar . Feel desperately sorry for the eldest as I think her chances will be less as a result … adding 20% onto school fees is a big amount and I can fully see why lots of private school parents can’t afford it . I know it’s all relative but they have cost of living strains too - imagine there mortgages have gone up just like ours . Not sure how the Government could have been so short sighted to be honest

I can recognise populist messaging when I see it, and she's started to do this. It's what the political class does if they want to win favour and don't have any real achievements to pin it on. If she really prioritised education, there would be far more (and better secured) funding for it, from multiple sources. Even with the teachers - that sounds like a great number (6500, hooray!) until you read that over 43000 leave the sector each year, many more than are recruited. That number boggles the mind. There is such a massive retention problem, how will they even begin to meet the 6500 NEW teachers they have promised? That number is a lie as that wouldn't even cover the shortfall. Plus simple things like free breakfast clubs (hooray!) and then you hear that actually the logistics and operations weren't worked out, which means schools are under even more pressure with no actual support.

I said she and Gove were destructive, but I suppose I meant disingenuous. I don't feel like I can trust she is in post to do the right thing, and in that way, it's very destructive to how things will pan out.

But how do spare places in London help in Essex? Also, the primary population overall is not decreasing as much as first thought. The figures were adjusted earlier this year.

Classes of over 30 are shit. In fact classes of 30 are shit. Labour should be using any decrease in school population as an opportunity to reduce class sizes. But that would be far too positive a move for them.

To those who have said population is shrinking - I understand this. So what happens in my area? There’s no schools being built and the classroom is full. There’s 32 per class and we have 4 class groups per year. The 3 who came in took them above the classsize as the parents said they had to accept them up to a certain number.

So everyone can’t move locations to where there are places in the country so again I want to ask Bridget - where do they go? Will they just build another school near us or add an outdoor classroom and get another teacher in? What meaningful thing will she do to solve this in our area?

This is my question. I feel we need to stop arguing over the VAT and actually question what is she doing practically on the ground? What will she do when more kids move to my kids school as they live and work in the area.

Where will these 6500 teachers come from? Having the money for them is one thing, finding them is totally another. We have teachers in this country, they just have been driven out of teaching.

there won’t be a mass influx of teachers from independent schools by the way. Many schools will not close, and of those that do lose their job they won’t necessarily move to state sector teaching. My SIL teaches in an independent school. If it closes, she won’t be teaching in the state sector, she will do something else entirely.

I agree with OP about Bridget Phillipson. I don’t agree with this policy but I’ve had conversations with friends who support it in which they have expressed their views reasonably. She expresses her views in an ignorant and aggressive manner and I’ve no respect for her at all.

I like her a lot she is certainly a lot better than the last few education secretaries we have had. Michael Gove caused more damage than any other education secretary I can think of and . Gavin Williamson was clueless.

To BP's credit (and I have mixed views on VAT for schools) she specifically asked to spend yesterday at a Jewish school for an October 7 commemoration. She's not Jewish, and there's absolutely no electoral benefit for her, so it can only be a matter of principle.

There was a thread on here the other day with a chart showing the number of new PGCE applicants in different subject areas . There were woefully inadequate new numbers of most subject teachers coming through the system - especially subjects like Physics and Computer Science - I think it was something g like 25/100 ! The 6500 new teachers won’t materialise