AIBU to discuss A level success without private school spending?

[Absorbthecost]

Parents/carers who have not spent a penny on Educating their children and they have just received great A level results.

The sacrifices made all the struggle,

I’m interested to discuss families where the child has succeeded without need for private school

https://www.gbnews.com/money/private-school-fees-soar-vat

https://www.ft.com/content/091b214d-231b-414a-8f3e-9ef9fc021926?syn-25a6b1a6=1

Those who did pay,

presumably to secure great results at A level

The same kids off to Uni, placements easier to secure as less international competition. Uni the playing field evens.

And now time to pay for Uni,

https://inews.co.uk/news/education/university-tuition-fees-11000-2030-4705197?srsltid=AfmBOorss52PSHD6xJzisWMdeNxcXDen3IrCGS49nnGH1ZyDnmvTOh_k

A child who did outstanding (without spending a penny) the same result as a family who spent £250k + The above article is a low estimation for a selective U.K. day/ boarding.

The kids holding the same result off to the same Uni, How are families feeling!?…. Did you save to help towards the Uni Fees/accomodation.

Yes x

Perhaps she comes from a happy, secure, supportive home filled with wonderful enrichment opportunities to flourish. The number one being time.

With 1 in 3 independent school families in financial difficulty (unable to pay their fees) one can only imagine the stress the home is under. To gain financial assistance you must prove hardship, the schools monitor the car you drive, holidays, what you do with disposable funds. Highly intrusive.

To be offering the highest ever 1 in 3 level of internal financial support there must be many very unhappy homes. The burden on children witnessing financial stress puts elevated pressed and mental health sickness which in turn does not allow for true potential to be met.

They say greater than anything the home and the parental influence decide the child’s success. A great achievement (for you all).

'They say greater than anything the home and the parental influence decide the child’s success.'

That is 100% true. There are studies to show this. Not necessarily academic success, but happiness and success in life in general. The most important factor is supportive family. There's also research to show that children from a supportive 2 parent family (non divorced parents) have more positive life outcomes. Obviously as I said above, there are always exceptions/

Everyone should do what is right for them.

A parent knows what’s best for their own child . A smart parent will look to all pros/cons. A happy child supported at home will find studies easier than one bogged down with worry, anxiety and stress. So ultimately no matter the situation a stress free childhood is the priority. Many children may face ups and downs stressful moments but a good, happy home life is the anchor and greatest privilege. Long term.

Absolutely

I think that's a bit of a generalisation. My daughter was on a substantial bursary and all we had to provide was payslips and bank statements once a year. There was no further intrusion and it didn't cause us any stress. Obviously without the bursary we would have sent her somewhere else, but she had a wonderful five years (she went to grammar for sixth form) and considerably less stress than she would probably have had elsewhere. Stress at home is unavoidable - parents go through health issues, bereavement, job losses, other siblings have issues - but the home/family can still be supportive. Absolutely, parents shouldn't put themselves under too much pressure to pay fees if they will cause unnecessary stress, but it's not a binary question. The benefits of an independent school can be worth the cost to the family - everyone needs to weigh that up for themselves.

For us the benefits were the calm, supportive environment and the extra curricular breadth and opportunities. Obviously we weren't paying full fees so the cost:benefit analysis was different.

Yes,

One third of the Independent (private school) sector are all on benefits. The highest ever figure. Unsustainable. Bursary should be for the few in society, means tested from deprived background, given opportunity. Private instead have for the last ten years ( as we can read in earlier posts) self funding the middle classes or those attempting to be.

The independent internal benefits figure will increase again this year and every year after that. This is what has been brought to attention. Internal expenditure. “Hardship allocation” I have many friends not entitled to it. I’ve read the emails the schools issued en mass Explicitly stating not to apply if you take luxury holidays, new cars or have clear means to pay. Ring fencing funds for internal allocations. I’m sure you can imagine how this benefits culture is being received by those paying the full fee!….. One third being subsidised directly from your own money. In a climate where even if you can afford the fee, it will be a struggle. Not sure what their plan is to control the benefits bill this year but if full fee payers refuse to pay full they’ll have an even greater problem to deal with than VAT.

@Sidedoors it sounds like your school funds bursaries from other parents’ full fees. Ours has a long history of providing assisted places which are funded by donations from previous recipients of bursaries/their parents. It’s a fundamental part of the school’s culture.

I’m not quite sure what your personal agenda/objective is though - do you want full fee paying parents to pull their children out because they’re disillusioned? Do you want schools to stop offering bursaries? Are you hoping private schools will close?

Every family will decide what they can afford and whether the cost is worth it, given the alternatives. There’s no right decision. We were fairly sure our ds wouldn’t have benefited from independent school (he didn’t get in) because he’s a non-joiner/non-conformist so he wouldn’t have taken advantage of any extra opportunities!

OP not everyone who sends their dc privately do it purely for the A level results. From our pov there were many more reasons. Not all dc will end up with good A level results going privately. We were delighted that we sent her to the school she went to. No regrets at all. Also, it can go against DC applying to some uni's if privately educated. One weighs up the pros and cons 😊

If the individual school can afford them without them directly coming from increasing Fees annually for others. Why do independent school need to raise fees annually? Well ahead of inflation for over ten years!? So giving out benefits whilst increasing the burden for others sounds very familiar to an external situation most would (I’m sure) be fiercely against!

There are well-documented reasons why schools might have had to increase fees above inflation. Bear in mind that for most schools, their biggest cost is staff - NI increased from 13.8% to 15% in 2025 and the threshold for paying it went down from £9,100 to £5,000. That's a big increase on top of the inflationary increase in salaries. Minimum wage has doubled in the last ten years, and schools will have a fairly large number of staff on minimum wage - kitchen and grounds staff for example. Schools will also be losing the 80% charitable relief on business rates.

I don’t understand why anyone would be so interested. 😳

People like to know what their money or their investments are being spent on, to the penny. Transparency is essential in order to make sound investment. The rich tend to scrutinise harder! Very interested.

Those who have no risk, those who do not pay will not be interested at all. To date that one third and growing. By ISC own findings.

Many would not be interested at all if all help was removed and everyone paid the same.

Level of interest correlates with personal impact. Increasing transparency is not a request but a demand.

She does come from a supportive home.
But - her Dad worked abroad for a lot of the time she was at school and the company would have paid for private school, in full.
She didn’t want that and wanted local friends nearby. I have to say that at the time I was disappointed, but went with her choice.
I realise it’s really hard finding the funds for private schools and we have seen some of our local ones close. I really feel for the students and the upset it has caused for them. No one wants to see this.
And I am human, my daughter tells me I pushed her too hard sometimes. Apparently I nagged!
Well one day she may have her own children and realise it’s impossible to be perfect!

This thread is bringing back memories of the millions of private school VAT threads. People whose children didn't / don't go to private school bizarrely invested in / interested in those whose children do. Weird really.

Most of those PS VAT threads were full of gleeful posters carping about private school parents having to pay more / having to leave if they couldn't afford it anymore. Awful really. Of course all dickhead Labour have succeeded in doing is making private schools even more exclusive, and increasing costs for state schools. Couldn't make it up. Oh wait.. it's Labour, you could..

PS. Where are the thousands of extra teachers? Where's the c/b analysis from Labour? Where is the data showing where the money has gone? Oh.

When private schools are issuing mass emails begging for donations. When they’re cancelling trips and sports and the arts and co curricular activities, when they’re cancelling trips head cook who’d been there years is gone and food portions and juice machines removed. The activities still running kids greeted early morning by the head of English for 7.30am cross country or a science teacher for hockey. These are the emails families are sharing between friendship circles (which include private, independent and no kids or no school at all) can you imagine what everyone is saying!? I’ll give you a clue it doesn’t start with privilege or “exclusivity”

Only a broke person on a free provision could be satisfied with what is going on! A full fee payer is absolutely not at all satisfied (and this was last academic year!)

Which schools are doing this?

When you’re getting something for free or heavily discounted you practice gratitude. You’re very grateful. When you’re paying over the odds for a service and it’s falling shot you have a different perspective! When the full fee payers refuse to pay in full until they receive what they signed their kids up for that will be the talking point. Labour VAT will be a non issue by comparison. Full fee payers are sick of the subsidies. The independent school benefits bill will grow again this academic year. Families taking bets on what’s next to go.

Where is this @Sidedoors? I’ve not heard of anything like that at private schools I have connections with. Obviously if parents aren’t happy with the value for money, they should withdraw their children - it’s pretty clear cut. It’s not really something to debate online surely?

Private schools. How do you think the internal benefits are being paid for one third of the students! Cut backs and annual fee increases.

None doing that where we are that's for sure. Some in England have closed, smaller ones I think. You've certainly got some bitter outlook here. As I said - reminds me of the VAT carping, from people who can't afford ps.

You're funny. We're 'full fee payers', and recognise none of what you're talking about. We're ok to pay full fees for our fantastic school - if we weren't, we'd leave.