To skint us all by sending DC to private school?

[Stilish]

One DC is at private school. This is because they have SEN and was really struggling at local comp. This was before the VAT issue. That DC is absolutely flourishing.

Next DC has no SEN and started at the local comp last year. Is not having a great time at all, it’s a really poor school in many ways and this DC has gone from happy and high achieving, to unhappy and failing academically in 12 months.

I want to send this DC to the private school too, where I know they will thrive like their sibling. But with the VAT it will be an incredible stretch for our family and I don’t know what to do. I have one happy child in a good school doing well, and one unhappy child in a crap school not doing well.

I hate Kier Starmer and I hate Rachel Reeves. Their spiteful tax hasn’t punished any of the rich families. But I’ve been homeless and my husband and I have grafted since our teenage years, and it’s bloody punishing us.

What on earth do I do?

YANBU - find a way and send them
YABU - keep one child in the local comp and let them keep failing

That's £2,800 a month – on top of all over living expenses. That is a huge amount to be able to spare a month, even with strict budgeting. That is more than the average monthly take home of someone in the UK. That is almost double the national average for mortgage repayment a month. It's almost triple the average childcare bill per month for a family in the UK.

Give your head a wobble.

@Stilish I feel for you OP. And agree that VAT doesn’t hurt rich families at all. It’s one of the reasons (not the only reason but definitely a reason) why we relocated our family abroad.
But back to you I would probably struggle to send one and not the other especially as they are struggling. And I dont find your post tone deaf. This is a forum for people to give their opinions on other people’s problems and experiences - all walks of life. It’s gut wrenching when your kid isn’t settling at school.

This is such an important point. Definitely worth your time to claim for what you can which will pay towards some of this.

Where did you get 33,000 from please? Google tells me that number of students attending private schools is down by 33,000 but doesn’t say that this is because of VAT.

Round here pupil numbers are falling in general as birth rates have been down for years. We’ve had state schools close as a result.

I’ll continue to be angry and the wealthy who evade tax. It’s my right as a citizen to want equality and fairness.

Im struggling to see what state school costs will increase with the odd extra ex-private school pupil. The teachers are there anyway. As you alluded to, many primaries are experiencing reduced pupil rolls due to low birth rates so they’re actively losing money and the children are suffering with lower school funding and associated lower opportunities. A few more kids who can fill the empty seats is positive financially, not negative.

Truthfully though, lots of parents can pay the increases as they’re rich already and prioritise private education.

Parents have to make hard choices everyday, OP will either afford the schooling or not. That’s life.

I would go and have a chat with the school. Your income can be means tested and other children move on all the time, a bursary may become available. Schools will advertise a sibling discount but private schools are also feeling the pinch and they may be able to improve upon it with a small bursary.

I'm not following how you both run a small business but live in a house tied to your husband's job but it's non of my business.
I take it there are no other schools within commuting distance or perhaps near to a grandparent/aunt/uncle he/she could live with during school terms? Not ideal but in extremis?

This 100pc
Thank you

January 2025. 18 months.

Why do you think you and your family deserve special treatment? What about those who can't afford private school fees at all, what should they do?

Sorry, I'm confused, if the fees are £21k per year, and you get 10% discount for the second child, how can the total fees be £42k a year. Surely they would be £39,900???

20% of £39,900 is £7,980. While this is not an inconsiderable sum, it's not the amount you state.

Charitable status was removed because private schools don't operate like charities. Nothing to do with being vindictive, everything to do with us having laws around what is and isn't a charity. Perhaps if more private schools operated like charities rather than businesses, it wouldn't be a problem.

Change doesn't happen immediately.

Apply for all scholarship/bursary opportunities, speak to the school about an alternative payment schedule that may be over a longer timescale and end up the same but over more time, see about a private tutor/other professionals that could help write a supporting statement to prove that this child could / will academically be absolutely fantastic in the right conditions which would make the child a more appealing candidate to the school even with current not perfect sounding performance. Where there’s a will, there’s a way! Ask about helping out at the school or helping to do fundraisers for school events. Showing that you are really on their team is something schools usually love- plus the money raised talks! Positive exposure & publicity is always a win for a PS.

Is the private school full, or are they losing numbers? Don't necessarily take the bursaries/scholarships as being set in stone.

Speak to admissions and explain your situation, and maybe tell them that if you really can't have both kids in private, then you're probably going to have to remove existing child....(if you weren't paying any school fees at all then you could afford more extra curricular, music lessons, riding lessons (!) you could afford tutoring and you could afford lovely holidays and activities, which would benefit both children equally)

I'm in same position. I'm not going to bother RTFT as it'll be full of people talking about how VAT on education is somehow "closing a loophole" , "removing a subsidy" or some other bollocks that completely ignores the fact that I'm paying another tax on my post tax income to save the taxpayer 7k in costs I'm not using for the state school place.

Look on the bright side - this Labour government have been busy recruiting the promised new 6,500 state school teachers with the private school VAT revenue.

How’s that going btw?

OP, I had a similar dilemma, but I just thought it would be so unfair for the second child to have different treatment, so we just send them both to the same school. It’s difficult but it’s worth it and there isn’t the guilt and the thought of what would they say when they grow up and understand that we treated them unequally. Also, when you think about it they spend more time in school than home or holidays or anywhere else, and to me this is money well spent and if it means we can’t so home improvements and holidays because of the fees it’s worth it to us.

So, I would say talk to the school, they may have a way to offer bigger discount on the second fee and send your child there so they can be happy and you can be happy too (albeit poor lol)

Gfi. Life’s too short for a shit education. Scour the net for bursaries. Have you considered Christ’s Hospital - means tested, or Cranbrook - state boarding school - you just pay the boarding fees.

That's exactly what I was thinking

and the billions that they have raised from vat that they have promised to reinvest in state schools, that’s going really well eh?

They have the audacity to take credit by saying that they are increasing teachers’ pay- only to find out that’s being funded through existing school budgets, so schools have to find savings via sacking TAs …. When you think that things can’t sink to new lows.
I mean wow…

Keep clapping and cheering for this vindictive government.

That Vat levy was on the cards for years before they got elected. You have not been following what was about to happen. The schools should never had charitable status. It was ridiculous. Sorry but fees go up every year regardless of vat. You should have had a plan B

This is such a bad faith comment. The reason people send their kids is because the states school are failing. When you find a good state school its over subscribed and the house prices are out of this world. Look at St Albans and Harpenden house prices!. Labour adding VAT to private schools was just politics of envy, not every parent sending their child to private school is loaded. People for go holidays, luxuries, make sacrifices for their kids,etc. Make the state schools good and people will not need private schools. I actually think the government to give tax breaks to parents that send their kids to private schools. That is one less child in the crowded state school. Adding VAT is taxing the parents twice for education since education is already included with our taxes whether you have kids on not which is why I say give a tax break and not add to the burden. And no my kids are not in private education

What’s with the jealousy?? Hand wringing won’t help you in this situation. I find it extraordinary that you have made no contingency plans for your second child and quite happily palmed him off to a crap school.

As their parents you owe them equal opportunities. Downsize, they can possibly room together. I would move heaven and earth to ensure both my children were equally well educated. If you fail at this then I can envision lots of strife and bitterness for decades to come.

If education in this country was so amazing, private schools would not exist as there would be no demand.

And for the ones suggesting moving house to get into a better catchment area, wow great, so it’s okay for the wealthy to take up good state school places via buying into a good postcode and take someone else’s place, but it’s not okay to buy into the private system where they won’t take anyone’s place? I know lots of people who have done this, they rock up in their 4x4 to school and have 2/3 holidays a year, private tutors and all- but that’s all fine according to you because they are in a state school like everyone else.

Levelling down everyone is not the answer. Children in state school classrooms are not all equal. You could easily tell which child comes from a well off home, had enrichment activities outside the school, supportive family who has high expectations of them and who will make time to read and do the homework with them compared to the families who are don’t for various reasons which I’m not going into. In order to close these gaps, state should look into how the private sector runs their day and copy the model. I worked in both sectors and I tell you now, private schools are not those pompous places that some papers want you to believe in.

I think I’d move to be closer to a decent state school and send both boys there.

Only you can decide this - I suspect I know the answer you want anyway, and will ignore anyone who offers a rational, reasoned argument why you shouldn’t.