Council spends £8000pa on a taxi due to VAT on private schools

[Iwishicouldflyhigh]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14403627/Labours-VAT-raid-teenage-girl-private-school-council-fund-8-000-taxi-bill.html

So now a place is being taken up in an overscribed school, a 15 year old has had her eduction severely disrupted and the local council has 8k less in the pot.

Well done Labour!!! One of many stories, i'm sure and so predictable.

How do you know she actually rang? And if she did who knows what she asked.

Thank you Will Lambert for your 23 years of military service.

Agreed

You said she applied to the only school With a space for her dd? Yet the article posted states clearly that they told her they had no spaces and advised her their waiting list was long but to apply to at least be in the system ?

Because the council provided the transport when they could have simply said “no. It’s not her nearest school with a space”

It’s Rob

For some reason they are using his middle name ?

Exactly @CurlewKate !

They were the ONLY school to say to even bother applying!

She didn’t need an invitation to be allowed to apply. She had a right to apply to any school. She made a choice not to and has dressed it is if it was by invitation only !

She gave up her job… she didn’t give up working. She started working night shifts instead.

And again @TENSsion 😆

Again though, all we know is what she's told the media. It's a half story. She can say what she likes since the LA can't weigh in. It's a rage bait story full of holes.

So she says...

Even if they were it’s irrelevant as it was her right to apply to all the schools she wanted. I don’t think it was ever really about transport more the fact she wanted a particular school
to begin with and then when she was told about transport costs she wanted to prove a point and get her sad face out there

thats the issue isn’t it we only have half a story . I find it ridiculous the LA can’t give their side

Uh, not convinced about that. You can't tell prospective applicants that you have no spaces or that they can only go onto a waiting list - it breaches the Admissions Code.

Yet every single school - including the one that offered her a place - broke this statutory requirement?

I'm glad they can't really. This will follow the kid for life already. She doesn't need more personal info plastered over the internet.
Mum needs to park the faux victim act pronto.

I feel extremely sorry for her. 13 years old and told to choose between her home and her school? She says in one article she was worried about money ? How could they put that worry onto her . It’s extremely sad. She quoted saying how going to a state school makes her feel bad as well? Why put that out there as what will her peers think ? It’s hugely unfair on her

Could you share the page number this is on please? Thank you ☺️

Edited:

Found it!

It doesn’t say anything about not being allowed to say if the school has spaces, only that schools can’t refuse an application. It perfectly possible that the schools said they didn’t have spaces and no mention of applying anyway, but the last school said that they don’t have spaces but she’s welcome to apply

Mostly LAs allocate school places when parents apply not at standard transfer time. Some schools are their own admission authority and bypass the LA. The other schools could have had long waiting lists so the parents applied for the one their dd might actually get into first. That’s perfectly reasonable. You don’t have to apply to loads at non standard entry time. Most LAs tell parents where there’s hope!

If you feel sorry about her then stop attacking her and her family.

It's not hard to do.

Yep.
When I was relocating to a new area, I contacted the LA to ask which side of town I would be better focusing my house search on so the kids could get a space in a nearby school.
They replied within the hour with the school with the most amount of spaces.

You’ve not missed anything - that figure is around what I’d expect.

They’ve put themselves out there for scrutiny . That was their choice

I'm familiar with the area and schools. It's true that the closest schools are all full, however the mother could have appealed for any of them, and would have had a good chance of being successful as all schools were full.
I suspect when she contacted the schools within a 20 mile radius of her house, she only actually spoke to the schools she preferred and not actually ALL schools.
She could also have used the fair access protocol to be given a place as again all schools close by are full.
She chose to apply to a school a ridiculous distance away as it is allined with her aspiration lifestyle, she chose to accept that place and then drove the child for a period of time before applying for transport, it's quite likely she did this to try and establish the child in that school to then use that as leverage to gain transport.
There are places available at other schools closer to her home, but they are not "good" schools so she doesn't want her child to go to them.
It's not true that this particular, high performing, school was her ONLY option, if she wants her child to go there and the school are willing to admit the child than that's fair game. However given that it's a parental choice she should either drive the child herself or use the money she's saving by not paying school fees to fund the taxi herself. If neither of those options are acceptable to her then she should have accepted that her preferred school isn't a viable option and done what everyone else has to do and accepted a less preferred school that is serviced by the (must cheaper) school bus service.