Eton’s new fees

[IWantedThereThereButItsGone]

Heavens …

Eton College will pass on full cost of 20% VAT to parents

https://www.thetimes.com/article/3fbec730-288c-4a14-b91e-a042c94c7ca1?shareToken=3cff257bc445f9764343feeac522241c

It’s good that current bursary recipients won’t be financially affected (and how I empathise with those parents who must have been worried) but I wonder what the effect will be going forward. The new fees are staggering - perhaps it will change the tenor of the school?

’Politics of envy’
’Race to the bottom’
’Spiteful’
’Punitive’

I think you’re only missing something more explicit about communism.

@Vintago mist people song face access to decent state and if they do it’s by accelerated house prices and grammar schools. Yes I had skin in the game we were on a bursary and it’s just not right that it’s been mandated half way through the school year no proper consultation

£28 quid a day added to the fees. Smashed Avo toast poached egg and a coffee in a naice cafe should sort that out easily. Do these people (who send their sons to Eton) seriously think we are swallowing this nonsense. Tap into the trust fund, the shares and savings, sell a bit of land or grannies old jeweller, if attending that school is so important to you FFS.

I understand that Eton is very academically selective? So logically, they should get good results.

@SabrinaThwaite let’s see how it all washes out just glad I’m not having to face the decision of staying and paying

I don't think Eton's results are outstanding in terms of value added, though.
My sister taught at a large comp and the daughter of a colourful, outspoken member of the aristocracy was a pupil there. She kept her head down worked hard and went to Cambridge. She was a clever girl and deserved her place but her father was amazed by the school's emphasis on academic performance.
I really don't think she would have been offered her Cambridge place if she had attended a top independent school.
Look at the Kanneh Mason family. The seven Kanneh-Mason siblings have won numerous awards and performed at a royal wedding and the Royal Albert Hall. All of them attended a state school in a disadvantaged area in Nottingham that their mother credits with developing their prodigious musical talent.
I am sure that Eton would have offered them all free places but they didn't need to go privately to achieve what they did.
I do get how nervous parents are when they are used to one system. I would be scared of Eton staff not doing it right. I was shocked by the Covid cheating episode. Eton didn't do itself any favours with university admission tutors with regards to inflating public exam student grades. That was an own goal.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/aug/28/private-schools-england-gaming-system-lockdown-exam-results-gcse-a-level-grades
Note the Conservative minister said that schools like Eton had milked the system for all it was worth.
I think that affair was the nail in the coffin that sealed independent schools fate.

By doing this move, Eton have cut out the “Henrys” - High Earners Not Yet Rich. Equivalent of the 80s yuppies.
I work with a lot of them, many state educated themselves, very aspiring, bright kids. So this will have an impact on the school. Many were already a bit suspicious of boarding. I guess it is good news for London day schools, state and private.

A lot of the top floor boarding schools is about making 'chums' - they'll get you jobs, pull you up later in life, stick together and tread everyone else down. Sadly these people's families have purchased such entitlement, over confidence and being 'in the club' mentality that they'll have some boarding school chum or other to dig them out of the shit later in life.
Personally I think they should be taxed, they should have stipulations such as 10% or more full scholarships especially to widen participation, they shouldn't have charity status, and overseas students should have huge taxes, all of which should filter directly into state schooling infrastructure

I don't think Eton's results are outstanding in terms of value added, though.

But you aren't going there just for that. I would expect boys who go there to do well at exams, but it's not the only thing. You go there for the connections.

Sadly these people's families have purchased such entitlement, over confidence.

Bingo! Except you forgot to add ‘thick as mince’.

Or, shocking though it might seem, there are no good leafy comps or grammers anywhere near you, so you have to go to the local small private school, which is full of middle class, not super wealthy families, who will just have to pay up and cut back where they can.

@KnittedCardi yep

I think mumsnet should do a map of schools. So many mumsnetters seem to live in areas with amazing state schools with stellar A level results and loads to Oxbridge. Bonus points for all the private schools nearby 'not being a patch' on the state schools but grudgingly admitted to be good for those 'who need extra support', unlike all the socially confident teens at the local state, who spend their time learning instruments, 'doing sport to a high level' and working in a local shop to understand what it's like to be poor.

Everyone loses. Private Ed is more elitist and the gap widens further.

Why is this only a problem now? This was the case before the VAT as well.

I keep seeing similar posts on this topic- ‘it’s unfair because now only the richest can afford private school!’ from parents who were absolutely fine with that being the case when THEIR child could attend.

As I read the announcement, Eton will be making some VAT savings, but are choosing to allocate these savings to the bursary children? So the full fee paying parents will have a different base fee to the bursary children’s headline base fee, and thus Eton is taking money that comes as a benefit of being vat rated which comes at the expense of full fee paying parents who are paying VAT. I’d be royally peeved off as an Eton parent.

However, part of me thinks they could save their money, send their kids to one o the many, many great state schools and buy them a house or flat when they finish university with all the money they saved

As I said before, most students have a much much better chance of achieving top university places if they go to the local comp

If I look at my friends, lots of friends chose independent schools at secondary levels but the majority chose state. There is very little difference in public exam grades and university places and job offers between them all

Vintago you have said all this and more. However maybe parents intending to educate their children privately aren’t aware of all this. How about suggesting to private schools they include a few paragraphs explaining this in their prospectuses and websites just so parents realise they will be wasting their money?

Christ, what next? Vote with your feet.

Good old jealousy tantrum, I can't afford it so nobody else should, how dare anyone do better than me.

Why don't you strive for better?

Except this really isn't always the case is it?

Sending my dc to Eton was never on my radar. Nothing to do with the money aspect. Personally I wouldn't send them there if THEY paid ME, for all kinds of reasons. It's not what I want for my dc.

Other people make different choices. For those that a) want to send their kids there and b) CAN send their kids there, good for them.

But generally, if I hear that Eton parents will have to pay an extra 20% then 'my heart bleeds' is pretty much my opinion.

I have a lot of sympathy for people struggling. But I can't quite make that sympathy reach to the people who were affording to pay £50k a year but now can't quite afford £60k (or whatever the figures were). I mean, seriously. I'm sure they'll be fine 😂

Jealousy though isn't a factor in my own 'my heart bleeds' opinion.

Because, quite seriously, it isn't necessarily better.

@KnittedCardi
But the Kanneh Mason family didn't send their kids to a leafy state comp but to a run of the mill comp in Nottingham and they still did amazingly well.

A bit of both! Primary age kids and the schools offer very limited wrap around care (their old state school had 40ish places for 550 pupils with an estimated wait list of 3 years)

Also I’d rather improve my quality of life by doing my hobby job more that doesn’t pay but I adore, over my main job that does pay but I hate. I won’t need the income so I can get 2/3 days a week back doing something I love and pay a lot less tax.
Every cloud has a silver lining!

Also making plans to get digital nomad visas and live abroad and hope this is over at the next election.

@clarkkentsglasses
If you want Eton, go for it.
Lots of us don't think it should be subsidised by the state. I worry that it doesn't necessarily offer value for money. If you are wealthy the money element isn't really important though. Presumably, it is status but carrying with it some uncomfortable reminders of privilege.
I bet Eton would so have liked to swap Boris and cronies for the Kanneh Mason family.

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