Private Schools- hear me out before you judge!

[Silverbook]

I'm a state school teacher in Scotland. Class sizes are - 25 for P1, 30 for P2-3 and 33 for P4-7. I currently have a class size of 25, most classes in the school are 25-28. Relatively small town- 2 primaries, 1 independent and 1 secondary. The next nearest independent is 45 mins away.

The local independent school is closing due to VAT, the pupils are largely coming here. This is pushing all our class sizes up. No extra funding or staff, obviously. My issue with independent schools closing is that is directly impacting the state sector and no extra funding, resources or infrastructure is in place to support it.

Yes, our classes are still within legal limits but it will always be the most disadvantaged children/those with greater need of support who are impacted most by larger class sizes as there is just less time to spend with them.

I really feel this has been a poorly thought through and knee jerk policy. Surely you invest and create capacity in existing resources before increasing pupil numbers?

You should really stop reading Guido.

Most likely yes. My parents are in Australia and have a very good private school near them. We are meeting with that school in January to discuss. It may of course not work out, but we are considering. Another option will be home schooling. I have a couple of university degrees and was a teacher before retraining. My father was a head teacher. It's not ideal tbh. But is possible.

Maybe you should start reading Guido 😂 @SabrinaThwaite
(joking!)

Nope I’m happy with where it sits now.

Thought as much!

Well I guess well done for guessing right on that one.

odd

Best of luck

I understand it's your choice, but why not send him to your local mld school? I have another daughter who has a mld and epilepsy (both my 2 are adopted and both have sen). She went to the mld school for secondary. All the other children were like her so she had a peer group.

And for post 16 your options expand enormously with an ehc. My daughter did Project Search www.dfnprojectsearch.org/at a local hospital for example and you need an ehc to access schemes like this.

You can apply for an ehc even if you don't want to move. From what you say I can't see how they could turn you down (I used to work as an ehc parent supporter and I worked with lots of parents with kids in private school). It can fund anything on top. Year 9 is when planning for transition to post 16 starts with an ehc so might be worth looking at

You’re like the education tax version of a NIMBY. It’s a great idea until it starts to affect you. It’s not odd, just an observation.
Sadly, it may still affect you or your children if you have any at school but you won’t even realise.

I do.

Here is why:

I have a child in a fee paying school. Fees went up 7% this year and we have 12% added in Jan.

DC will leave in Sept 2025, as their private bursary is ending. It is from private Trust who have emailed to say sorry, the increase in fees and VAT means they cannot support DC to the level they did last year and the fund is closing. In 23-24 they paid 75% of the fees. This year they have not offered a % but £2k a term. Very kind of them, but it’s not enough so we will go.

The bonus from this is I will no longer need to work in my particular job. The state will educate my child, thank you, I appreciate it, the past few years have been hard. And the NHS will loose a midwife - it’s a horrible organisation to work for so again, I appreciate being able to leave and do something else. I’m looking forward to it.

BUT. This VAT policy has a lot of support. Education is a mess and in need of cash. So we need to produce the cash. So we need to tax it all. Every educational thing. There is no magic bullet, except apparently money. So we all need to pitch in.

I am heartbroken for my child. But I genuinely don’t expect anyone to care, as it’s not their child and they won’t believe we aren’t rich.

We don't have a mld school near us. We live very rurally. There is a special needs school but it focuses on life skills, not education. That was not our choice 11 years ago. As time has gone on though it has become clearer that this might have been better in the long term. We are in a bot of flux right now. DH was a boarding school boy (Stowe) and wanted Ds to go to boarding school which would have been a disaster. We put Ds in the indy on the understanding he would stay there for as long as it worked for him. TBh I am not 100% sure it will work for him from now going forwards. We do need to really consider it all tbh. But I just don't see our future here in the UK any more and my priority is keeping him safe and well. I want DS to be safe and happy and to get through school in some sort of way.

I don;'t know., I feel confused and helpless a bit

Guido is hardly a reliable source for anything.

If it's Kilgraston school you're referring to OP, it's been in financial trouble for a few years. It's not just the VAT

Ok, I get your point.

Here’s a Telegraph article for you instead, which basically reads the same as the Guido one.

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/10/07/report-used-laboursupport-private-school-vat-close-friend/

Spot on post OP. The private sector was in essence propping up the state sector. Get a feeling this is going to be disastrous for state and private schools.

Hint: NOT from Guido
"Labour minister faces an investigation by the sleaze watchdog over claims he failed to declare his 20-year friendship with the author of the report used to justify the Government’s private school tax raid.
Matthew Pennycook has been referred to the parliamentary commissioner for standards for not revealing his close relationship with Luke Sibieta, who wrote the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) paper on Labour’s plans"

But don't let that stop you belittling me

"Labour minister faces an investigation by the sleaze watchdog over claims he failed to declare his 20-year friendship with the author of the report used to justify the Government’s private school tax raid.
Matthew Pennycook has been referred to the parliamentary commissioner for standards for not revealing his close relationship with Luke Sibieta, who wrote the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) paper on Labour’s plans"

But let that stop you

The advantage of private upto Y11 is having pupils/parents who value education.

At 16+, most state schools have excellent 6th forms as all the kids attending want to study so lessons are just as good at private schools.

I teach A Level in a state school and the kids are amazing. So much easier than Y7 to Y11 as no behaviour issues!

@Silverbook let's hope the parents of these private school kids joining can be persuaded to join the PTA and help support the school to increase funding!

"the close personal relationship between Mr Sibieta and Mr Pennycook, whose department will be involved in implementing the tax policy. Mr Pennycook and Mr Sibieta reportedly used to live together, and Mr Pennycook served as best man at Mr Sibieta’s wedding, raising concerns over potential conflicts of interest"

NOT from Guido

Daily Mail?

Sorry to disappoint although entirely predictable accusation

Absolutely agree
If we re taxing private education we should be doing it equally and that includes
all extras
sports, music, dance, drama, languages, private academic tutors….everything!

😂😂 if only

I work in a feeder school to a local private. Children leave us each year from p4 up. This is no longer happening. Instead of having 25ish children in our p7 classes we have 33. In fact each class in our school is at its maximum or one less. Please explain how 33 children in one class, under the care of one teacher is better? This has not benefited us, it's broken us! I don't magically get more time to spend with these children so now everyone gets less of my time. There's less space, 3 to a resource instead of two etc. I could write thousands of words on what a mistake this has been.

@decisionsdecisionsdecision how can a state primary be a feeder school for an independent from P4?

Well go on then, what's the source? Is it the same one you used for your 'Starmer's dad wasn't a toolmaker' assertion? 😂