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.

There’s been plenty of time and warning to prepare for VAT, most schools haven’t passed on the full 20% and they’ve been putting fees up beyond inflation for years. Bad planning really on the parents part.

Oh that's strange... worked fine for me when I posted it.

Try here

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FFS Mumsnet I want to post the actual URL 😡

Those councils clearly have more common sense than Starmer, Reeves and Raynor. Common sense and practicality should always trump sixth form debating standard and political dogma.

So you mean they don't accept Out of Catchment children in case more move into Catchment?

Yup. I tried to get an out of catchment and there were spaces available but they weren’t able to release it to my child as they needed to keep some back in case of people moving into catchment.

As long as I had a catchment space that’s where their obligation ended.

Ava, meanwhile, has had to drop Russian and Latin as her new school doesn’t offer them (she fears this will hamper her efforts to become a vet)
Being at state school makes her “feel bad”, she says.

😂😂😂

They are not all prvitised some are but there are four special schools, and several autism hubs in my LA that are LA schools
Obviously the overall cost of these schools are higher because of the significant needs of the children that attend them.

Slightly worrying that a privately educated till recently child feels they need Latin and Russian to be a vet ?

I feel really sorry for this child. Face plastered all over the place now and comments about how she feels bad at a state school? That’s going to cause resentment and the fact her parents told her to choose move house or school ??? Poor girl

I agree its just poor planning on the parents part. They knew increases were likely but chose to send DC there anyway. Parents that would rather gamble their child's education for image. And now the poor child has to travel miles for school. I'm failing to understand why they can't afford to pay for a taxi themselves though when they could seemingly afford private education. I'd imagine it's because then they couldn't earn a couple of quid from the daily mail.

Academies are able to join a local authority in year admission scheme and have them handle applications in their entirety.

Looks like all the academies in that LA have chosen to do so.

Which would mean she's lying about a lot of things.

Well up be fair she is entitled to a free school place. Not everyone at private school is rolling in it but they wanted the choice to give their child a good education. Since that has been ripped away from them it now proves what a dumb move the VAT addition is, as before everyone in private school was saving the state money. Now they are accessing what they are entitled to you get upset. I actually hate how jealous and narrow minded everyone is in the UK.

This proves the point really doesn't. This is the politics of spite. Lets not pretend private school parents are doing some social good. It is all about advantage for a our children. If people don't make the cut when the drawbridge is raised a bit they get nasty.

I think that's much better than the 1m my council spends on councillor expenses - which include councillors' personal taxis to get their weekly food shop from the supermarket no less. And no they aren't elderly or disabled.

You should apply.

But the sticking point with school transport is that it only covers the core school hours not breakfast or after school clubs.

They also don't pick up from home if there are other pupils close by so you have to drive them to the pick up point at set times twice a day. It's very rigid.

Parents are entitled to free school transport (dependent on distance from allocated school) in the same way they are entitled to free education for their child, no matter what their wealth is

Not everyone at private school is rolling in it

Not everyone, but almost everyone.

They could afford it, but they don't have to - those are the rules.

Perhaps the government should have planned better to make sure that every child in a private school had the option of a state place within 3 miles? Very short sighted of them.

Surely every VET you've been to can speak Russian? How would they treat the Siberian Huskys if they didn't?

If they hadn't applied mid year, they likely would have a place much closer. Or at the start of the child's education, given they couldn't afford private.

If people have such a problem with Free School Transport then campaign against it rather than slating people that use it. Councils do all they can to get out of paying it (like X school is technically 100m closer to your front door even though by road it is 2 miles further away (that was the reason my younger child's was refused when my elder DDs was accepted incidentally!)

Exactly this

And the little grey hamsters, let's not forget them and their need to hear their mother tongue.

Quite disappointed that she isn't learning ancient Egyptian for communicating with cats or proto indo european for horses, though. Just Latin for pigs, I guess.

This would be a waste of public funds. The LA know most parents don't do this to thier children.