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?

Same in my experience. TPS is one of the more attractive parts of a shtty job that lure them in. Some of my younger teacher friends moved to international schools recently because they lost the TPS of their deal.

The reality is, though, that the TPS has become an unaffordable luxury for many schools. It's all very well saying pulling out should be a last resort and staff packages have to come first, but in independent schools, packages are already far better than in state schools, so they don't really have to offer the same pension as a state school to remain competitive employers in comparison. I will never work in a state school again. Never. Even if they paid me more. It's not worth the shift in work-life balance for me. I know all of my colleagues feel the same. The pension would not be enough of a draw to drag me back, so withdrawal from the TPS is a bit annoying but something I'll put up with to have a life before I retire!

We do have to be realistic about the financial challenges schools are facing right now. Many independent schools occupy large sites made up of 19thc and older buildings that haemorrhage money when it comes to heating and electricity, as well as the need for constant repairs. I know my school's heating bill went up by nearly 50% last year.

Added on to this is most independent school pupils in many parts of the country are the children of middle class professionals who are also feeling the squeeze. Over the past few years, many smaller independent schools catering to middle class families have shut due to falling rolls. Middle class middle earners who would have been able to cut back on holidays and extra cars and so on to send a child to private school a few years ago are now priced out of independent education altogether, and fee increases year-on-year to pay for the increasing costs of keeping these schools running means more children are leaving independents mid year or mid key stage for the state sector. All of this means many schools are not at capacity, reducing their income from fees considerably.

Secondary schools are also about to be hit with the year groups where there were lower birth rates in the UK, meaning that there now aren't enough kids to go around the school places on offer, before you even factor in affordability. The numbers of international families here on work contracts with school fees paid as part of their package is also hugely down since Brexit and Covid, and certainly in London, they have always been a reliable source of income in less academically selective independents.

Fewer kids and fewer kids with parents able to pay the fees = schools struggling to stay open.

For some of these schools, TPS withdrawal is the only way to keep the doors open as they attempt to batten down and ride out the current storm. Independent school teachers wanting to go on strike need to wake up and realise that. They can either have a job with a less valuable pension, or no job at all. That's what it's going to come down to in the next few years. I can see several smaller independents closing or merging as the decade wears on. Most independent schools are not like Eton and Harrow with huge endowments. Those teachers feeling aggrieved need to actually go to their finance managers and ask to look at the figures. I think they might be surprised at just how cash-strapped their schools are.

There is far more movement back and forth between the independent sector and the maintained sector these days @EnidSpyton .

We don’t all live in fear of working in state schools. And I would suggest that people who work in the independent sector should be more sensitive in their attitudes. We are all teachers and share a profession that serves our communities.

(But some schools have undoubtedly pursued a financial strategy that is wasting money, and it is left for teachers to assert their own worth - where possible, look elsewhere for your savings or, for those earning £150 000+, think about making a salary sacrifice yourself before asking that of your own staff).

@Rocketspam

Most teachers who make the move to independent never go back to state.

I don't live 'in fear' of teaching in a state school. What I am in fear of is losing my life to my job again. I'm an English teacher, and the workload associated with having 7 x classes of 30-odd kids all producing a load of written work to mark every lesson is horrific. I did it for several years and lost both my physical and mental health, and a lot of my friendships, in the process. I don't want that for myself again. If I taught a non-compulsory subject with a low marking load and smaller classes at GCSE and A Level, then I'd feel differently. But with my subject, the workload in a state school setting is simply unsustainable. So I really don't need the pious attitude. I respect all of my teaching colleagues, wherever they choose to work.

I'm sure some schools have made poor financial decisions. However, as teachers, we're often not made privy to why spending decisions have been made. Your perception of 'wasting' money might be totally wrong. The swimming pool a school has spent £200,000 building 'unnecessarily', when they might be paying staff more, might generate £30,000 a year in rental income from local groups using it at the weekend, for example, which means in a few years it will be a regular source of profitable income for the school, enabling them to hire more staff or increase salaries. You don't necessarily know the long term plan. You don't have the bigger picture of projected pupil numbers in coming years. Independent schools are businesses, at the end of the day - as much as they might like to claim they're not - and if you don't like the way yours spends its money, then you know where the door is.

And expecting higher paid staff to take a salary cut so that teachers can keep the TPS is not a sustainable long term solution. The TPS isn't going to get any cheaper. So what you're going to end up with is higher paid staff leaving to earn more elsewhere after being forced to take their salary cut, and the school then being unable to recruit into those positions because the pay is too low. It will create more problems than it solves.

I don't really understand what it is you're complaining about, to be honest. If you hate the way private schools work so much, you don't need to work in one.

@EnidSpyton You can get all the financial information and forecasting that you mention from your school if you have a Recognition Agreement. Many of us do ask those questions and have that information.

If we perpetuate the narrative that private school staff know which side their bread is buttered and will put up with ever-deteriorating pay, terms and conditions because we are just grateful for a job then what is there to stop governors continuing to erode our pay, terms and conditions?

Nothing.

And where will the sector go from there?

And where will the sector go from there?

Presumably, like most jobs in the private sector, you decide whether you want to continue with the new terms or seek an alternative employer or career.

I'm in a career without unions or the ability to strike so we have to suck up changes to our salary and pension. Or vote with your feet and change jobs. It's very rare to find open defined benefit pensions schemes in the private sector, they were mostly shut 10-15 years ago due to the expense of funding the liabilities.

But we're not getting ever-deteriorating conditions.

What we're getting is a wake up call that it's not the 1980s any more and defined-benefit pension schemes are no longer affordable.

You can't have your cake and eat it. The world is changing and we have to change with it in order to survive. You either accept that reality and stay in private education, knowing that market forces determine your employment conditions, or go back to the maintained sector.

I’m sure in some cases that the rise in TPS costs are hitting some schools but some are also using it to drive down staff costs to increase reserves.

If a school offers something along the lines of the 5% increase being paid by teachers, or staying in TPS with no pay rise next year then that is an indication that they can’t afford to pay the latest increase without an excessive rise in fees and the subsequent short term reduction in pupil numbers that this will entail.

(After all the numbers will supposedly pick up again. It has been glibly pointed out on here before that parents that can pay independent school fees can easily afford the rise due to VAT if it comes in, to which I will call foul, without a struggle, for most mid income households.)

In the above case the school should be able to prove the financial situation by publishing detailed accounts (as mentioned by @Rocketspam) to ensure the staff know this is the case. At which time I suspect that staff will be sympathetic and a lot more understanding and willing to engage in a meaningful discussion and agreement.

In some cases, and if you have seen my other posts on this thread you’ll see that I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet with one particular NE school at the minute. And it’s not the only one that is pushing the boundaries.

This one, as are others, are using removing TPS as a tool to fund other projects. How else can a potential 5% TPS increase lead to a school offering a DC scheme with only a 14% employer contribution. Unless they were already in financial difficulty (Charity commision report indicates this is not the case) how can a potential 5% increase in TPS lead to a school claiming that they will go under unless the staff accept this out of hand. How can a school, even ones that recognises the Unions, claim this without making the modelling that proves this available to staff or Unions. How can a school claim that, despite having done nothing so far that they can evidence, there are no cost saving measure that they can make that will help the situation but then insist that teachers take them on (non evidential) trust and instantly go to the stance of “No negotiation, accept the deal of we will carry out fire and rehire”

Not all teachers in independent schools earn a lot more than in the state sector and many are not readily willing to take a big hit to their retirement plans without very good cause – and the proof that supports the change.

I don’t doubt that TPS is a major financial burden but there are ways to approach the discussions and looking at costs savings/income generation before hitting teachers. I believe that sometimes striking is the only way to wake people up and show the strength of feeling.

Some people are happy with the deal they signed, and that's fine, and some people are not in TPS and that's fine for them if they knew what they were getting into. But the ones that are not in TPS shouldn't be arguing for, or supporting, its removal for others.

Exactly @blue345

As a paying parent I expect top quality teaching staff above everything else, and I expect my school to attract and retain great teachers BUT I think there are lots of ways they can construct a competitive package both tangibly in terms of salary and benefits as well as intangibles like work/life balance, lower stress, etc. TPS might be a key part of that, but unlike the state sector independents have the flexibility to tailor a package that is individual and tailored to market conditions. Some talent might prioritise TPS above all, but many others might place greater priority on a higher salary that they can use today to buy a home, or the work life balance may be more valuable to an individual than a better pension.

as a private sector employee I have had jobs with excellent pensions (not quite as good as TPS, but many many times the ‘standard’) and have left those jobs to take others that only offered the mandatory minimum because the overall package was better. Pension is important - I probably prioritise it more than most - but on its own it has never been the sole factor. I probably placed greater emphasis on it when younger- now in expensive middle years and I would much rather take income now than have a better pension.

It’s amazing that France, a SOCIALIST country, actually gives private school parents the cost of their children’s state education towards their private school fees. Yet here we are in good old England trying to charge people even more tax when there are state education places they don’t even use…. Our education system needs sorting imo because it’s seriously evidentially not working…. Wasn’t in 2016, definitely isn’t now😂. Anyone fancy telling me where the extra £350million for the nhs is….that doest’t seem to have materialised either. We need to stop the populist rhetoric.

This. It’s always someone’s else’s job.

Even in state schools if there is an issue you will get next to no support from those parents who are constantly moaning. When you are the one who meets with SLT these parents are the first to get in touch, demanding to know what was said. Sometimes I wonder how these people actually manage out in the real, business, world.

ENT are taking action. Please join the Facebook group if you are wanting to help with the campaign.
Many of is aren't just sitting back and lots of things are going on behind the scenes.
The issue we have had is passivity from private school parents but since the election was announced interest and applications to join the group had sky rocketed.
There are lots of things people can do to help

Croydon High School staff were striking over this issue some months ago.

What does ENT stand for on FB please? I would like to join.

Education not taxation
The one with 1.4K members

Have you signed the change.org petition too?

This is the link

https://www.facebook.com/share/8YVJZKjsrZUasSV6/?mibextid=K35XfP

https://www.asian-voice.com/News/UK/EDUCATION-PRIVILEGE-OR-RIGHT

Neither of our schools are striking.

We've signed the petition but also moving one child to the state school system.

I suggest everyone apply for a state school place whether they intend to use it or not and see how the Labour government and those who vote labour get on with that. Watch VAT roll in (not) from the private sector and the standards in the public sector soar (not) thanks to the implementation of this policy.

We have several friends whose school fees are paid via family trust funds. These people are very loaded and will not notice the difference. Meanwhile the 'squeezed middle' will be frantically getting their child registered with SEN or moving to the state sector to help clog up state schools and stretch the teachers even further... What's not to love about the policy?

Applying for state schools is key.

I suggest everyone apply for a state school place whether they intend to use it or not and see how the Labour government and those who vote labour get on with that. Watch VAT roll in (not) from the private sector and the standards in the public sector soar (not) thanks to the implementation of this policy.

Actively sabotage state schools because of a policy that state school pupils and teachers have nothing to do with. Displace state school children by holding places that you have no intention of taking up. There is so much talk of private schools providing a more gentle learning environment with much better behaved children. Yet the same group of parents are suggesting, passively condoning and actively encouraging this kind of guerrilla behaviour. The irony.

A poster on a similar thread last night commented that they hoped all the bursary DC can be thrown out of private schools to offset some of the VAT and nobody in that discussion (echo chamber) seemed to bat an eyelid.

How can you expect others who are not affected to support you as a group if disregard for any other group of children is so blatant?

We're being repeatedly told that there are plenty of spaces for us in state schools so how will it displace anyone?!

So you want the higher rate taxes we are paying to fund state places but not use them, pay for our own kids fees and pay fees to fund bursary places - and then add tax on top of those fees. But heaven forbid we should object.

By all means if people need state places, then they should be applying for them and they or may not get allocated what they want. However, if they don't need them, that is just malicious sabotage. There is a big difference. It is disingenuous to ignore that this would affect children who are applying to those schools genuinely in need of places. Of course, object in an articulate and constructive way but that is something totally different and will only taint your cause.

It is one thing saying that future policy on bursaries may have to be reviewed if the fiscal situation changes but for someone to say they hope all existing bursary DC will be thrown out to offset VAT is a very different thing. It suggests that these DC should just be written off as collateral damage. Do they matter less even though they too are already happy and settled in a school?

It is obviously extremely unkind and unnecessary to say they should be "thrown out". However, this is the difficulty - I am.a governor at a very small school with some bursaries. The number who have pulled out in anticipation of VAT has already made the position precarious. Unfortunately we're now looking at redundancies if any more leave. So how do we justify bursaries when the school is in danger of closure. It's not a nice decision to make.

I understand that and it should be an important consideration in the evaluation of any tax imposition policy. It was more the ruthless self-interest that was so evident in that particular post that I found quite shocking. I should say that I have no skin in the game but as an observer it is clear that it is a very small minority who will be directly affected. To get real traction in opposing the mooted policy, the directly affected group needs more widespread understanding and support. Feral behaviour and stiletto elbows will result in the opposite effect on public feeling. If individuals say they don't care about public feeling then they would do well to understand that public feeling is the single most significant factor in politics right now and it is instrumental in shaping policies.

Do you mean people should apply to state schools for places they need or for those they don't intend taking up?