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!

Sunak, for his faults, persistently called out Starmer during campaigning.

You will not see 14 years of a Labour Govt., especially if they alienate their core with a fresh bout of austerity.

Much of what you assert is valid.

There is a material distinction however.

Labour were evasive during campaigning and disingenuous since. They are clearly content to
pander to the unions and will be unable to fund commitments without tax raids or increasing debt.

Playing a difficult hand badly springs to
mind.

I hope that Kemi gets the nod just to see her take Starmer apart.

I’m not sure if you realise, but any tax rises affect all of us, not just those who didn’t vote Labour.

I think you are focussing on the wrong thing. To me it’s more a question of why these parents of three Sen children felt they had no choice but to send their children to private school for the last however many years.

the way schools are funded for Sen, overall funding to schools and the way schools are graded has given an incentive to schools to get rid of or not accept in the first place children with Sen over the last 10 plus years.

in very simple terms children aren’t supported in mainstream, their needs worsen they end in specialist, there’s been an explosion in indepdent specialists as the state specialist sector can’t meet demand. fees in indepdent Specialists are £50k-£100k per child which are paid by the council plus transport which often doubles the cost. these are the costs that are bankrupting councils. For many of these children if funds had been used earlier on to support in mainstream they may still be in mainstream. There’s also the issue of the focus on academia over anything else over last 10-15 years which has made the issue worse.

we are where we are now, this issue has build up over 10-15 years with cuts of support at the lower end, there is no quick fix for older children damage has been done.

i don’t particularly agree with vat on school fees but what is really riling me at the minute is people using Sen as it’s suits their cause when they haven’t given a shit about Sen children or Sen funding for the last 15 years as it didn’t effect them. I do sympathise with parents with children with Sen who are having to pull their children out of independents but where were the people supporting them when they had to make the decision to send them there in first place. I’ve seen more threads on Mumsnet over the last six months about Sen in relation to school fees than I have about Sen funding in total over the last 10 years.

also not sure if it’s been mentioned as not got time to read full thread but the ehcp won’t mean they save vat as vat is still charged for children with ehcps.

Exactly. These private school parents don’t seem to be able to seem past the end of their own noses!!

Ugh surely that could be more damaging in terms of knock on effects? Lower wages, reluctance to hire...my company has only in the last few years stopped citing the last financial crash as a reason why they can't offer meaningful pay rises...

I think that’s true of those who evidence playground spite as a basis for their views.

Phillipson and the repeaters of that rhetoric

It’s not considering actual impact, in Labour’s case with a vote not to do so.

Idk it was a really quick line, it might not be

But Reeves has pledged no higher taxes on working people and to not use borrowing for daily expenses

Prejudice eventually finds its way to the surface…

Why does tax need to be paid on education? Do you believe all tuition needs to pay tax? Music, art, sport's, private turors, tech courses, nurseries conferences? Because if you believe education in principle should be taxed so must all of these. Education worldwide is tax exempt. We are the only country in the world doing this (bar New Zealand who tax everything and even then, if a school is registered tax isn't payable). There are no tax breaks for private schools just questionable language from BP and labour.

To answer the question from OP, yes, she is loathsome.

The Budget will affect all of us. Labour decisions have already negatively impacted pensioners on £12k a year.

People seem to have very short memories about the state the Conservatives inherited it in 2010 (although of course none of that could possibly have been Labour’s fault).

I didn’t hear many people complaining when Sunak was dishing out cash left right and centre during the pandemic. How did people think it was going to be paid? The Conservatives weren’t great; no one is defending them. Please let’s not pretend that that they inherited a booming, high growth economy from Labour though.

'I didn’t hear many people complaining when Sunak was dishing out cash left right and centre during the pandemic. How did people think it was going to be paid? '

I complained. And when they bailed out banks. And when they gave lucrative contracts to their mates. And when they had the lock down parties or travelled where they liked. And when they put that numpty into 10 Down Street for a few weekend- that little move that tanked the economy is costing me an extra £600 a month on my mortgage, BTW...

It's a bloody low bar isn't it, for Labour.

'Why does tax need to be paid on education?'

PRIVATE education. Private is the key word there. And it doesn't. if you send your child to a state school. No fees, no tax.

Private schools are businesses. BUSINESSES. They charge a fortune, they hike fees up as much as they like, when they like. Because they're businesses.

If you don't like the service or you can't afford the service or just don't think it's value for money. Don't use it.

PRIVATE nurseries? PRIVATE healthcare?

Thanks.

Following your logic, PS should no longer provide bursaries and scholarships, and nor should they permit state school children to use their facilities, correct?

Because the schools are PRIVATE and outsiders can either not afford them, or choose not to.

Please advise.

If thst is the case then they will need to give up charitable status as well. Schools don’t have to be run as charities so they can do easily but if they want they benefits of charitable status they are the things that need to be provided to prove public benefit

Businesses make a profit for their owners. The majority of private schools don’t make a profit for their owners (because they don’t have owners). Any surplus that they do make is re-invested for the benefit of the school.

And as I’ve said many times on here, my DC’s school fees (at a large, successful independent) have been increased gradually in line with inflation apart from this year due to the additional contributions to the TPS.

I really don’t understand why the word PRIVATE winds you up so much. Private schools save the tax payer £4 billion a year and generate another £4 billion in tax.

Yes, that occurred to me, and I agree.

Let’s bring it on (edited to add so we can defang Labour)

I am otherwise still waiting for an answer to my PP.

Private schools save the tax payer £4 billion a year and generate another £4 billion in tax.

Exactly. Phillipson seems to be coming from the same place. Attack and contempt. No scrutiny of impact.

Plenty of schools offer bursaries without being charities. So, they can ditch bursaries with no impact whatsoever, if they’re looking to cut costs.

It’s a myth that private schools are really doing anything for genuinely less well off parents.
All the stats - independent AND from the ISC show that much of the ‘financial’ support isn’t means tested. Money off is going to families who can afford the fees - it’s marketing, you give 5/10% off for an academic, music, sports ‘scholarship’ or bursary.
Friend whose household income is £500k+ has a 10% reduction for her child, it wasn’t means tested. Almost everyone I know at private had some money shaved off…
but saving £2k on fees of £20k isn’t getting that bright WC kid who’s household income is £30k into that school.
GENUINE scholarships are few and far between.

Another myth is the ‘shared’ facilities with local communities… they charge at market rate. Which is fine. Just don’t make it sound like some charitable endeavour when the local state school is paying quite a lot to use that pool…

Fine, I would be happy if we all dropped the pretence that this is anything other than politics, populism and spite, and has nothing to do with improving equality or the state school sector.

Lines have been drawn.

It will ultimately prove to be a net cost to the exchequer, whilst those PS that do remain will be hugely out of reach for the majority, with a disproportionate number of overseas children.

Would that make you happy?

My DC, and other posters children, will meanwhile remain in PS.

Neither party is really completely at fault for the state of the developing world - we have a problem that has been building up for generations . Arguing between ourselves Conservative v Labour and vice versa isn’t going to help . It needs a cross party approach . Frankly I wish this Government and opposition would start acting like grown ups and deal with it . It’s not rocket science that more tax needs to be paid or that the comfy modern lives we lead are going to have to change - we need to live in a simpler less materialistic way .

Time and time again you show that have zero understanding of how private schools work. It’s all “my friend this”…. Bursaries and scholarship are two completely different things. Scholarships are not means tested and are usually a small discount off the fees. Bursaries are means tested and can be up to 100%. There are a number of 100% bursary pupils at my DCs school.

Do you really think that spouting nonsense supports your arguments?!