All staff meeting end of day - handhold

[Backtoreality1]

Pretty sure that we are going to be shutting down - but whether with immediate effect not sure. Its been a horrible day as we were informed about the meeting first thing this morning, so you can imagine how much work is getting done! Only one topic of conversation and its all going round in circles which is driving me crazy.

Is this Rendcomb OP?
I teach in Cheltenham
it’s terrible I’ve been thinking of you all xx

Doesn’t make Labour’s policies acceptable…..

You can't blame them for the past, but they are clearly making things far worse.

The attack on private schools was just a policy of envy, and has had a real detrimental impact on children.

The people posting stats trying to pretend the policy is not having impact is just not true. Schools are merging, girls schools accepting boys to try to balance the books, and the real impact is yet to come, parents with children with couple years remaining or in middle exams are having to suck up the additional cost as not to disrupt their childrens education, but is preventing new children joining schools, and other leaving after primary age.

This will just put pressure on state schools, and put prices up in catchment areas of the better schools.

I think it is sad when a school closes - it is the ending of a community, a formative place for many, which will have developed its own traditions and to which current and past students / staff will have a level of loyalty and affection. Equally, it is very difficult for those losing their livelihood and for those in mid-course for exams.

It is not necessarily ‘terrible’ that a school that has been in difficulty for years, with falling numbers and therefore a falling budget to pay for excellent teachers and other provision, has to close.

Ultimately, what is desirable is a strong ‘ecosystem’ of thriving schools - state and private - that are full, well-funded and sought after for the specific things that they provide. The overall size of that ecosystem will change with demography, and new niches may emerge (eg the Maths schools; more SEN schools) while others will decline.

It is in nobody’s interests for struggling schools to stagger on with falling rolls.

Sorry but I can completely blame them for the VAT policy of envy which is destroying the private sector for no benefit to anyone. Up until yesterday my tax paid into the school system while I relieved the burden on the system by using a private school. Well not any more how does this help exactly

As an example, when I was at school, there were 6 private secondary boarding schools - 1 all boys, 5 for girls - in the town, which was meant to be a healthy unpolluted place within easy reach of Birmingham and the Black Country. Each of the girls’ schools had their own niche - from highly academic; and selective to small, nurturing and domestic.

Today, there are 2 schools in total (1 mixed, 1 all girls), one of which is struggling and seems unlikely to survive much longer. There isn’t the need or call for boarding schools in the ‘healthier air’ so the size of the ‘ecosystem’ has shrunk. It’s not a political issue directly, just a change in demand as well as a reflection of the fact that private school fee inflation has so greatly exceeded wage inflation in the intervening period.

I would say that ‘destroying the private sector’ is an overstatement. Struggling private schools with falling rolls are closing faster than they otherwise might have done - as a PP put it, VAT being a catalyst for final closure not the cause of the long term failure to thrive.

Whether the closure of those struggling schools and the consolidation of the private sector into a smaller number of thriving, fully subscribed schools is a genuine loss to the education system as a whole is a moot point, though I agree that the transitions are very painful at the time. Whether the pupils at the OP’s school suffer long term ill effects in their education, or whether in fact they thrive in the surviving schools that they transfer to, is yet to be seen. It would be interesting to track ex-pupils of closed schools to see their longer term progress.

Boarding schools also now seem to cost £50-60k a year, which is astronomical for 99.9% of people.

Even a ‘1%’ earner would struggle to fund a place.

Exactly. Whereas back then, the potential market was much larger (though the facilities MUCH less glossy!)

Other factors are definitely available; increased NI costs, increased minimum wage costs, removal of business rates relief, increased TPS contributions. Because I am a reasonable person, I will point out that the last one was under the Tories.

Sorry to hear this op. It's happening everywhere. I am being made redundant soon. Fixed term contract but was hoping it might be renewed but no ! Redundancies announced this week at dh's work , just hoping he can hang onto a job.

For the school I am aware of, long term decline in student numbers leading to low current and projected student numbers are cited as the main reason for closure, with the school having made a financial loss for years (ie before the current Government was in power).

The OP says her school had been in trouble for years and VAT was not the main factor.

PG girls school North London. Hard for the pupils and staff but when you look
at the stats they are nearly all small undersubscribed schools.

The increase in fees outstripping wages is surely such a huge factor. I went to a private day school, none of my friends from school are privately educating our kids because we can’t afford it, despite being in similar jobs to our parents.

And how many of those that opened were mainstream private schools (largely funded by the parents) and how many were specialist SEND schools (largely funded by the taxpayer)?

In today’s ‘education ecosystem’, which one of these options is the most needed? I would argue that more SEN schools are exactly what is required.

There are loads of spaces in the state school system so your tax was going on an empty space. Better to fill it up and give the tax payer vfm!

Op I’m sorry to hear this. I’m a consultant working on a similar project for a university and the sector is similar. It doesn’t help but there are too many schools/ unis and not enough people to take them at the price they cost to provide. A reset is well overdue

Lots of private schools have been advertising SEn provison and taking local authority funding as an income stream. It’s not altruistic, it’s revenge to keep their business going.

our Ladies Abingdon eeeked out a few more years operating by trying to sweeep up experience Sen places

It’s not about what schools are required. If we are blaming VAT and other government policies for the closure of schools but saying that actually more have opened than closed, it’s important to understand who is paying for the schools that have opened.

@Itsmetheflamingo there are no spaces in state round here. How does more children equal more money in the state system then? Oh yes it's coming from tax that's right, which I'm now not only paying but using as well

What are your maths telling you that me using the local school gives anyone vfm? I do not follow, would love to

Check gov. Uk for spaces in state schools, last time I looked there were c300,000 spaces. There were only c600,000 in private schooling.

also doubt you’d have an up to date view on whether the all schools round you have spaces, they're just oversubscribed at entry (reception, year 7) as is fairly standard.

my children’s (oversubscribed school) classes has 30 places. There are only 26 children enrolled currently. The funding- the teacher, the support, the school running size and costs, support 30 children. Therefore only educating 26 is not value for money.

They are acceptable to me. Plus they obviously aren’t causing the crisis and closures you seem to want to attribute to them.

Revenue! Not revenge

It isn’t envy. It isn’t destroying the sector. No more schools are closing than before and more are opening up.

In your eyes…