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.

I don’t think that’s the way to fund SEND. It’s a nonsense. I suspect not that many private SEND schools are opening though, because LAs don't have the funds to pay private fees for very many children. I worked in a mainstream independent with an excellent reputation for certain types of SEND. We had very, very few LA funded pupils when I worked there over 5 years.

With respect to, I don’t think that’s the strongest argument. I think the point is that the best, most successful, fully-subscribed, expertly run schools are staying open. Accelerating the inevitable demise of weaker, undersubscribed private schools is not ‘destroying the sector’ - in fact it could be argued that it is strengthening it, as it is entirely possible that these weaker school are not providing the excellence in education (and therefore value for parental money) that their more successful counterparts are doing.

Edit: I’ve seen your update so withdraw

We aren’t disagreeing.

Was that my unfortunate autocorrect? 🤣 both completely out of place and offensive all at once

The majority of new private schools that are opening are specialist SEND schools funded by the taxpayer. I agree that these schools should not exist as they cost the taxpayer huge sums of money and many are run to make a profit. We need more state specialist SEND schools. However, it’s wrong to argue that VAT and other policies is having no impact on private schools because more are opening. The majority of the ones that are opening are 100% funded by the taxpayer.

What did a school closure in 2020 have to do with Labour?
We had a Conservative gvt in 2020!

It makes me laugh how everyone is frothing at the mouth about VAT when OP said 2 pages ago that her school closing has nothing to do with VAT, but do crack on MNers.

Didn’t read the thread of other examples given which strongly show a very different picture. ( or head in the sand).

Do you have a source for this? Genuinely. I’m a retired teacher and am interested.

Well exactly. Some people want everything to be because of their pet peeve. I’m only responding to that because there’s a fair bit of misinformation involved - including the immediate link of the OP’s school with VAT when it’s not the reason for most (if not all) closures. It may be the last straw, but it’s hastening rather than causing closure in those cases.

It suits people to blame the current Govt not the market forces so beloved of the previous Govts. yes the VAT thing has added to the burdens but prob speeded up the demise of the less successful schools. oddly the most popular ones are winners acc to this article

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/oct/12/eton-among-elite-private-schools-set-to-cash-in-on-windfall-from-new-vat-rules#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThey%20will%20also%20be%20able,be%20handed%20on%20to%20parents.

I think that poster was being sarcastic. The default on MN is to blame everything on Labour

The current Government have been very cagey about this. I wonder why?! The link below refers to the number opened in 2024 ; 90 new schools.

https://www.laingbuisson.com/press-releases/independent-sector-special-education-market-valued-at-2-41-billion-in-england-as-continued-growth-in-identified-special-education-needs-drives-pupil-numbers-in-special-schools-to-record-levels/

With regards to the claims made by the BBC 4 Radio More or Less program that were referred to earlier on this thread, they were challenged on this very point (i.e. that their data included new special independent schools) and, as far as I am aware, have so far failed to respond.

There have been a lot of private schools round here close over the last 15 years--all struggling with money.

Sorry to hear your news. What do you plan to do now-would you go into mainstream?

yes - and there's less kids. More room in good state schools as a result of declining birthrate. Market sorts out low demand.

Ten years ago I looked around four local private schools for my ds. I was shocked at how bad most of them were. I’m not surprised one has now closed and others are struggling. I hope you get another job soon OP.

So sorry to hear this op. Both Rendcomb and Royal High prep announced closures on thursday, my heart goes out to all the children and staff who are now faced with uncertainty. Xxx