Private schools will not have testing funded

[DrizzleandDamp]

Not sure where I sit on this one, state schools are obviously having the lateral flow tests funded by government.

Private schools have been told no funding, no help with extra staffing, ultimately a cost of around 12 extra members of staff who can’t teach (depending on size of school), and £20-30,000 a month on tests. That won’t encourage take up.

Not all private school parents are rich, some are just managing, some are on hardship bursaries and an awful lot right now are getting free schooling:help because their businesses have died from Covid or jobs lost and they can no longer afford fees. So the schools are at the moment subbing them, but it won’t last and they’ll be removed.

Around 6.5% of U.K. (c.600k+) pupils are in independents. Will the government provide those school places when parents have to pull them or private schools go under?

I’m just not sure it’s ethical when parents are paying into the NHS, and into schooling (twice) that they aren’t providing these tests.

Just wanted to have the debate!

For those who object to private schools in general, do you at least acknowledge that the parents who send their children pay once for state schools they don't use and then again for the private schools they do use?

Just curious, how are private schools heavily subsidised?

My DC are at Private school
The schools Covid response has been brilliant and continues to be so with regards to testing too.
We aren’t being charged more for it,in fact we had a discount last year due to closures and a fee freeze this year.
I would pay for testing though if required.

The private school here is largely for SEN children who don't have their needs met by mainstream and cannot access the appropriate schools environment. A lot of parents have really scraped together and made huge financial sacrifices to send their children there, because the state system doesn't offer their child anywhere suitable, which is sad really. Even if it is a wealthy family, they pay a load of tax which goes towards schools that they don't use, so I wouldn't be overly fussed if they had testing funded. As is hopefully a lot can actually afford a testing regime that's better than the shitshow that is bound to be lateral flow tests with staff pulled out of thin air.

It would be an outrage to suggest that privately educated children shouldn’t be able to access the NHS and this is tantamount to the same thing.

They are children and it’s a public health emergency. It’s literally nothing to do with their parents choice of educational setting.

2 of my children are not private they are in a small local state, my eldest is for good reason. my sister is a private primary teacher with underlying health issues and is very very worried, sorry can’t post link as it was a letter to staff and parents.

How are those schools subsidised??

@Momsincharge As private schools are charities they get significant savings on various taxes and don't have to pay VAT for example. The criteria for being a charity is "creating public benefit". For example, St Paul's school in London defines this as giving various fee reductions to boys from parents with an income of less than 120k.

I just think this is an NHS and community goal so should be funded! I am aware through sis that some parents are seriously struggling and the finances of the school from not charging fees for a lot of the struggling parents aren’t good, this won’t help them support school places and not totally fuck those kids education. There aren’t magic state places available right now if schools go under.

Wether you agree with private or not it has to be good for the country to do this surely?

Not all Private schools are charities, ours isnt

Yeh, fair enough really...

The government probably see this testing as extra funding into state schools to keep schools open safely and children learning as much as possible.
The private schools see it as a basic health measure. Given that nurses go into private schools to vaccinate private school kids for flu jabs etc and there are lots of hot shot private school lawyer parents and they are run as businesses, I suspect the government will backtrack quickly. It is a basic health measure, no doubt.

This sounds fine to me. Any parent can send their child to a state school if they want to get testing funded by public funds.

I think you’re missing a crucial point here. Lateral Flow tests miss about half of positive cases, and that’s when they’re done by health professionals. Birmingham Uni found that when young adults did the tests on themselves they picked up 3% of positive cases. That’s not a typo.

So the LF tests are going to create a false sense of security amongst parents who think their child with a cough doesn’t need a covid test because they had one of these ineffective tests at school.

Private school parents should probably be grateful their school staff aren’t being forced to waste time on this charade.

I just googled the value of being charities. An old BBC report (from 2011) said it was worth £88m per year. Then I looked up that there are 615,000 children in the UK in private school. This makes the subsidy £143 per student. Even if we say the figures are old and some private schools aren’t charities, so let’s double that figure, it really isn’t a huge subsidy compared to the average day fees of warping £14,500/ year.

If we waived a wand and took away charity status from all private schools, the money saved wouldn’t go far or make a huge difference to most parents. It might not even be felt by parents if private schools pulled back on the outreach, sharing of resources etc that they are compelled to do as charities.

Looking at the charity thing, I think it’s more a symbolic gesture. A red herring.

@Candycane2020

Private schools were able to furlough staff but state schools were not. Private schools have smaller classes. It’s not been an even playing field all through the pandemic.

Exactly, my friend was furloughed, as were many of her colleagues. The school still charged the same fees, despite having less expenditure, due to not being there.

1. private school don't necessarily have smaller class sized.

1. "Good. If you opt out of state education then you opt out of the benefits such as they are."

Lovely sentiment. grrr. Anyone who is paying for education is still paying for state education --> your kid!, through their taxes. How the fuck is that fair?

1. Lateral flow tests are useless and this whole shit is just for show. It gives around 50% accurate result. Basically every test result is 50% yes OR 50% NO.

I can give you this answer without a bloody test.

That’s fine but private schools need to be able to make their own decisions as to whether to open or not based on the measures that they have put in place and parents have paid for.

As pp said lateral flow tests are a bit of a joke anyway- even Dh who is a Dr agrees that. The private schools should stick the middle finger at the Government and refuse to do the testing. We haven’t had one single positive Covid test in ds small independent day school, and no bubbles having to isolate either. All kids and staff have remained well. Flow tests will be a waste of time and money.

I think you’re missing a crucial point here. Lateral Flow tests miss about half of positive cases, and that’s when they’re done by health professionals. Birmingham Uni found that when young adults did the tests on themselves they picked up 3% of positive cases. That’s not a typo.

If this was Twitter there would be a message about disputed claims below. The official figure is 76% success overall and more than 90% for people with high viral load. The Birmingham figure is just someone having mucked up.

This is a health pandemic that affects the whole country. I think this it is disgusting that ALL children in education are not being given access to free testing. And yes my DC are at private school so I would say that.

This country is so divided in so many ways and this is one of the reasons that we havent done very well so far. The comments by posters on this thread show a level of bitterness towards children, how very sad.

Any parent can send their child to a state school if they want to get testing funded by public funds.

Yay bigger class sizes for all, can they also opt out of paying the portion of their taxes that go towards schools then so they aren't paying twice?

@notevenat20

I think you’re missing a crucial point here. Lateral Flow tests miss about half of positive cases, and that’s when they’re done by health professionals. Birmingham Uni found that when young adults did the tests on themselves they picked up 3% of positive cases. That’s not a typo.

If this was Twitter there would be a message about disputed claims below. The official figure is 76% success overall and more than 90% for people with high viral load. The Birmingham figure is just someone having mucked up.

I think -personally- that New Scientist is quite a reliable source of information

www.newscientist.com/article/2263746-test-caught-just-3-per-cent-of-students-with-covid-19-at-uk-university/

more so than you -a random person- giving us numbers without backing it up.

Short sighted by the government. There’s a clear public interest in testing and not all private schools are swimming with money.

It should be funded if it is compulsory. Private school children and parents mix in the same society as everyone else its not an issue generated by them.

@BunsyGirl

That’s fine but private schools need to be able to make their own decisions as to whether to open or not based on the measures that they have put in place and parents have paid for.

It's not that easy.

1. contractual obligations
2. because it's a paid for service parents can be very demanding - to the point of sheer stupidity. HTs are in a bit of a pickle on this one. They can hardly justify online when df guidance is f2f.

I'm quite pissed off at our private school. They have followed dfe guidance to the letter. And it popped out in a convo that they do it because of the above 2 reasons, not because they don't know better.
Parents were up in arms about masks. And they are footing the bill. What can they do?