Private school parents - why don’t you take collective action?

[Rocketspam]

Lots of private school staff are striking.

Head teachers are enjoying extraordinary hikes in their salaries. And there appears to be some kind of arms race over who can spend the most on facilities. Even bursary programmes rarely assist children where families have below average income or who might be eligible for free school meals.

The VAT increases bother parents on MN, but why don’t you take collective action as fee payers and challenge the HMC, GSA, ISBA or ISA on where your money has gone up to this point? Are you comfortable with so many independent schools using ‘fire / rehire’ for example. Is the level of stress this incurs conducive to the wellbeing of your children?

What do you think is going on inside a school when you see that teachers are taking industrial action against their employer?

Apparently at the RGS parents were largely sympathetic to the teachers striking, but not to the point of threatening to leaving the school if staff didnt get the deal they wanted.

OP are your children / is your child at private school? If so are you unhappy with it?

Because my ds's teachers seem happy and settled. They seldom leave except to retire, and we have no issue recruiting new teachers to replace them. There is no fire & rehire at our school.

Our fees haven't risen above the rate of inflation.
The pastoral care is outstanding
The school is enhancing facilities in line with PTA suggestions.
My ds is happy, safe, settled, doing well.

Why would I upset the apple cart when everything is going well?

I know you have an issue with private schools. Your previous posts show that, but your experience and views are completely different to mine.

Same here

I have worked for 30 years in private schools @Meadowfinch and am rather committed to safeguarding their future, actually! Parents are stakeholders in that project, too.

I posted here to offer an angle to parents around the general lack of scrutiny fee payers seem to apply to reading their school’s accounts - how many seriously do this?

Bizarre that some would take issue with VAT (a tax that might generate much-needed funding for the state sector) and yet reel at the suggestion that fees may already have increased due to—essentially—price-fixing in the sector.

Because if I don’t like the way my school is raising/spending fees, treating teachers, etc. then I can change schools. As fas as I know our teachers are happy, and broadly speaking I feel aligned with how money is spent.

I don’t really have a view on TPS, I just want my school to do what they need to attract and retain the best teachers. TPS may be a part of that, but I can also see an argument for moving to a more typical pension scheme and freeing up funds for higher salaries - I suspect younger teachers may prefer the salary uplift given uncertainty around sustainability of TPS.

Not quite sure what you are looking for OP.

It’s apparent from the replies that parents aren’t doing anything because there is no visibility of this as an issue at their kids’ schools. Teachers seem happy. So why would they join in a form of collective action?

This only makes sense if addressed to the patrons of schools where teachers are being mistreated.

’a tax that might generate much-needed funding for the state sector’

We all know it won’t really do that, sadly.

@ComfyBoobs I suspect collective action will establish around the common issue of VAT, however.

It doesn’t seem wholly outlandish to imagine that—in this age of social media—parents in the independent sector might communicate even outside their own school, and that this might lead to a greater awareness around benchmarking and fees.

You are all filling out the same ‘affordability’ survey, for example—don’t you want to chat about that?

Well it isn't happening at DDs school so.....

😂

Sorry @twistyizzy . Were you being serious? I had thought you were joking.

Laugh all you want but I know it isn't because my friend works at the school. We aren't in London and the school serves the local farming community so probably doesn't have the profile of the schools you are talking about.
Staff are generally happy, well settled and the school is very transparent about finances.
I have no worries at present.

So no child or children at private school? Peculiar that you’re so agitated about it.

Considering you have no children in private schools you seem weirdly fixated on them 🤔 Aggressively so.

I don’t think I have said anything about my children at all…

@Sunflower8848

As private schools should be. With very few exceptions private schools are not charities in reality, they are businesses providing education for those who can afford significant fees. I have no issue with those who wish to send their children to private schools to do so but claiming vat exemption due to being an educational trust, a charity is disingenuous at the least. The bursaries very rarely are sufficient for those on medium incomes (£50-60k sort of level) to access the school, my DD's school looked really hard for her knowing she really wasn't suited to the large comps locally but there were no options for girls (there are a few for boys including Harrow which they got a boy the year above into 100% bursary).

Charging vat on fees means they can also claim back vat on expenditures including building work so doesn't mean fees will necessarily go up 20% and schools can still have "friends of ..." org to funnel donations for bursaries for instance.

I have no concern about the private schools we use - the staff seem happy and there has been no suggestion of any strikes.

If I understand correctly though, most (if not all) of the strikes have been about the TPS, which is a government scheme if my understanding is correct. The government has said that the contributions need to increase substantially. I suppose the schools are trying to balance having to pass on the additional cost to parents (many of who are already struggling, and will be tipped over the edge by the imposition of VAT), or getting teachers to effectively fund part of it.

I do think there needs to be a debate about the viability of defined benefit pensions though. The majority of private sector jobs no longer have such pensions because they are too expensive. Most private sector jobs do not have anything like a 28% employer contribution into their pension fund.

claiming vat exemption due to being an educational trust, a charity is disingenuous at the least

The VAT position is entirely separate from charitable status, which around 50% of private schools don’t currently have anyway.

😂😂 you didn’t answer my question. You said you worked at private schools. So I asked the question again. You still haven’t answered.

Again, peculiar.

Because the sort of person that sends their child to private school is not the sort of person that engages in collective action.

Another76543
The thing is private schools are competing with each other and with state schools for staff. If 90% of the sector has TPS you need to ensure that the rest of the job is better in other ways if you dont offer it or you dont get the staff.

I think most people assume their school is well run and trying to keep fees low but i believe OPs issue is a lot of schools take advice from the same consultancy which creates a bit of homogeneity in fees.

Bit of a sweeping statement. I have quite a few friends who have been on strike who send their children to private schools.
And lots of others who support others striking.

I'm in the Northwest.

My 2 dds go to prep. No strikes.
Two other schools my friends kids go to from kindy to year 11 - no strikes.

Its obviously not happening across the board.

😂😂 you are most definitely here for the bun fights 😂😂😂😂