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

You are rich and as such you have choices that are not available to most families. Lucky, lucky you. If you think it is ok for children to be segregated on the basis of wealth then choose to send both to a private school, but please do not complain about paying tax. You are rich.

What happened there !!! It all went into the benefits system and the expanded child allowance. Its why so many illegals want to come to the UK for all the freebies they get.

Have you tried supplementing with tuition before writing them off as failing?

Have you spoken to the school to see what support they can offer?

Relatively, you are a rich family. £33,600 is more than many people earn in a year.

I feel sorry for your child that is struggling. It's horrible for her that you sent her sibling without ensuring that you could afford to send both (and if it was already a stretch, you didn't ensure this. One change in circumstance, like redundancy with a gap before work or pay cut, would have meant she couldn't go).

I don't believe private schools should have charitable status. They are businesses and the people who use them are paying for an optional service.

I would have darling son tutored each evening for key subjects Maths English Science and see how that goes.

100%

You do realise my post was dripping with sarcasm, I hope?

I despise this government with every fibre of my being.

Labour used the VAT from private schools to pay for 30,000 more teashers for the state sector. Why isn't that enough resources for you?

Yep I’m with you x

It's a difficult situation and l don't envy you OP, this government is not helping hard working people only scroungers.

If you can afford £33,000 in school fees then you are one of the rich people you talk about. I work full time as a nurse and don’t earn £33,000 a year so sorry no sympathy from me and private schools are not charities so no they don’t need charitable status. Perhaps move to an area with better schools!

Primary Ed has seen £0 of this. There is no shortage of teachers in primary, but what we have is TAs being made redundant right left and centre. And with the rise of SEND needs, teachers are finding it ridiculously harder to meet everyone’s needs in the classroom. This is going to get worse with the white paper. Teachers do not have a magic wand to fix everything. Did I mention the rise of unmet pastoral needs?!

oh but we have free breakfast clubs 🤣🤣🤣🤣 so you lot can go and slave away at work from the crack of dawn.

You mean buy herself a place into a good catchment postcode. Isn’t that well off people do?
You do realise you contradict yourself?

YABU about your comments re the tax. It’s not a “spiteful tax” it’s the removal of an unfair tax break that was harming the education system as a whole.

That said, YANBU to “skint” the family by sending them both. Sounds like it’s what you gotta do.

Can you find the money elsewhere like extending your mortgage term?

It's not glue sticks that make a great educator, it's the ability to adapt your teaching style for multiple personalities. That is pretty much non existent in state schools but encouraged and implemented in almost all private school classrooms. It is also the reason I removed my own child from state school. He was failed by two schools, but he is now advanced in all areas after 8 months of homeschooling. Only a bad worker blames his tools

i have never earned anywhere near this. You have many more options re life than most families, for whom private education is not an option for even one child. Your problem is a 1st world one.

Yeah you really are. Neither DH nor I earn £50k and we are comfortable because we don't live beyond our means. Feel free to compare yourself to the rich families at the private school but remember they are already the top 7% (www.93percent.club/). Being bottom of the 7% still makes you in the top 8% at worst.

Try this calculator to see how people really live

https://ifs.org.uk/tools_and_resources/where_do_you_fit_in

Sorry, come again?

How much has Labour raised to date from the VAT please?

reads like slam poetry 😂🙈

So you don't even have housing costs 🤯

Yeah you're definitely in a more privileged position than most.

Are the only options current crap school or siblings private one?

Sorry - I hadn’t read that the OP didn’t have mortgage in my previous post.

Private schools were never exempt from VAT because of their charitable status. Not sure where people get that from. They were exempt because of the EU VAT Directive. Google or ask any of the AI chatbots if you think I’m wrong. If the U.K. had remained in the EU, it wouldn’t have been able to charge VAT on school fees. It’s only thanks to Brexit that Labour was able to do it at all, as post Brexit the UK was no longer bound by the EU’s rules.

I was lucky enough to benefit from the Assisted Places scheme which was abolished as soon as Blair got in. My younger siblings were not so lucky. It came as no surprise to me that this Labour government’s first priority was to do whatever they could to make private schooling more expensive. I’m sure they would ban them altogether if they could.

I really feel for you, OP and I hope you can find a solution. I think you said you’d missed the deadline for bursaries for 2026-27 but are you likely to qualify in future if you can just scrape by this coming school year?

It’s crazy that parents are complaining about the tax and now not being able to afford it.

How is it unfair that they now cannot afford it, or it’s unfair because they have to cut back to afford it, but it’s perfectly fine that others have never been able to afford it and that’s just life, apparently. It makes no sense to me.

If you can’t afford it OP, then you can’t afford it. But I would consider removing one child and maybe moving the other child to a different school, because if you keep on as you are then you will have one very resentful kid.

I sent all three of mine. We were nearly bankrupt by the end but it was worth every penny. I would do it again.

I know of a couple of people who sent heir children to private schools and it cost them a fortune which they scrimped and saved for years for.

Their cousins who attended the local Comprehensive High School actually got better A level results in the same subjects.

I will probably get flamed for this.

AI is going to take out millions of so called professional jobs in the next 10 years. Including those with fancy, expensive, private educations.
So what sort of education do we need to give our children to really cope with the future?