If you’re charged VAT will you remove your child from their private school? I’m v stressed!

[Liikklu]

We won’t be able to pay the increase. Only hope is asking grandparents for the shortfall which we don’t want to do. Anyone else in a similar boat? Do you think it will literally be a 20% increase on fees or will schools absorb some of it? Our school has said they will address the matter ‘if and when’ it applies.

As a SENDCO in a PRU in the poorest borough of London... THIS!

Let's not forget David Millibrand the aethist llegedly sending his child to a faith school which performed better than his local school.

I think it should be private school's charitable status that is in question. I think all parents want the best for their children. Private education class status is not intelligence or endeavour only paid opportunity.

Such hate. Is the Private school system the reason the PRUs exist?

That's the parents job - to maximise the opportunities and educational value for their children. The state should be encouraging that because education is merit good.

Unbelievable

Your lack of awareness is staggering.

Such a shame. Ironically I wished the likes of Starmer sent their children to private schools so that a spot in a good state school could be freed up for a family who can't afford private.

Why come to this thread then?

I know. I'm really struggling with some of these replies.

It's like critical thinking is an alien concept.

What has this got to do with private school children or their parents? Have you reached out to your local MP? Started a petition? Organize a Protest?
I'm an immigrant in this country, and worked hard to send my child to a private school. What I see is a politician using private schools as a scapegoat the same way immigrants are blamed for well, practically every negative thing in this country by the conservatives.

@RespiceFinemKarma grammars don't filter out fsm pupils, in fact they get higher priority than wealthier students. Yes, there are more wealthier pupils than poor ones, but that is likely due to parental engagement, tutoring, etc. But I there are certainly deprived children there too.

As do I.

Our state school is better than the nearest private so certainly nothing to do with envy either.

I have two dc in private secondary. Both went to state primary. Oldest has SEN, never got any help in primary as he ‘wasn’t the worst’. He managed to meet expected targets so that was enough for the school. He’s now in Y9, starting Y10 in September. No local schools accept transfers into GCSE years so no option to get him a different school even if we wanted to. Wonder if there will be different plan for exam years?

He’s thriving at his private school, had access arrangements put in place the moment he joined despite me not yet talking to the SENCO. Everything was picked up during induction, was a bit amazed after 7 years of begging for help in state and being ignored.

Youngest will be Y8 in September, he has mental and physical health issues. Again, no help in state primary. As we aren’t key workers he missed 6m of school in Y3 which led to him developing anxiety and OCD that manifested as intrusive thoughts. Apparently, there was supposed to be help after covid but he didn’t qualify as again ‘not the worst’. Primary was four form entry (120 kids) and very badly organised. He hated school after covid and wouldn’t engage. He’s so happy at the private secondary, it’s small (60kids per year) and their ethos is pastoral support rather than academic, he’s back to the child he used to be before Covid. We don’t want to move him, I don’t think he’d cope.

We run construction companies, so not elite, both working class. Grandparents wouldn’t be able to help. Our plan is to sell the house if needs be, move nearer our dcs school as it’s a cheaper area. We only bought in late 30s, but renovated two houses in quick succession when kids were small so have added some equity.

Unfortunately our local secondary is massive (240 per year) has very poor results and poor behaviour, has been ‘requiring improvement’ for a few years now. If we lived in an area with better schools we’d never have gone private, we did think about moving nearer to a better school and probably in hindsight should have done that. We did price in fee increases, although 3 years in a row they’ve been +8%, mostly due to pension increases. Never priced for a 20% increase on top. Our school have done quite a lot of work on costings and have said they’d have to pass on an increase of 15%.

A lack of awareness from parents to FAIL to buy sanitary products for their children is okay then? Staggering!!

It's because they can't. How hard is that to grasp?

@aiak if the child in question is going to a private school which is not open to the average child in the U.K. (roughly 7%) that's a privilege. It's one thing to send your child through private education it's another to not accept the privilege you're buying for them

I feel for anybody in this situation. But life is full of curve balls. Liz Truss's budget screwed us. We had to get on with it.

Thing is, private schooling IS a luxury. Foe those saying some kids there can't handle state school, I get that, but lots of poorer kids can't either.

So why can't parents who do not use private school get their share of their child's school expenses they aren't using paid to the school of their choice like they do in Scandinavia?
Or get it back in tax relief - then surely you can charge all the VAT you want.

@Floatingvoternolandinsight There's not enough staff because teachers are leaving education at a fairly rapid rate. Retention has been appalling under the Tories and in the past few years they've not met recruitment targets either. Even good schools are suffering.

I am rolling in laughter here. You think these people are not taxed??? If they are high earners, they pay huge amounts of tax already, strange you don’t know it. A bit weird to expect other people to be taxed even more so you don’t have to pay VAT on what is clearly NOT charity business

😂😂😂

What, based purely on a policy that negatively impacts a tiny minority of people? The vast majority of the electorate are voting based on the state of the NHS, transport, economy etc which the Conservatives have done a dire job with. They'll be lucky to wvwn hang on to many of their existing voters, let alone win over any new ones.

Yeah that's disgusting even for Mumsnet

I'm in a privileged position on this one but I also can really understand the decisions having to be made. My eldest daughter did not grow up in the best of circumstances. We lived in a one bedroom apartment on the eighth floor of a block of flats until she was 4. Our circumstances improved a bit from then and her primary school recognised she was really smart and recommended she try for a grammar school, despite the fact no girl from their school had succeeded in the last 20 years!

My husband and I, who are also smart, supported her and helped her with preparation but she had no other coaching and she got into the most prestigious grammar school in the area. So, she got an education and facilities beyond any we could have hoped to have afforded any other way.

Before we had my younger daughter we had moved house but were within a few miles distance of another good grammar school and as she was very smart we were sure we could get her in.

Just before she was to do her 11 plus they changed the local rules on catchment areas that left us 500 meters outside the area. She did extremely well and under the previous rules would have got in but because of the new catchment area didn't.

She went to the local secondary school which was horrible, but we kept her on the waiting list for the grammar school as it was not defined by area but by score in a new set of exams. A place came up for the start of year 9 and she got it.

After seeing how she got on in the state school and how she had dumbed herself down for it I am so happy she got in eventually!

I could never ever afford private school but I can absolutely understand the urge to get a better education for our kids!

Pay the VAT, it's tiring having people moan about paying taxes when they use the NHS etc. Private schools, private medical etc are all optional, cut down on holidays if necessary.

If someone is so hard up they can't afford 20% VAT on expensive fees then I'd question their reasoning in choosing this 'luxury' in the first place. Should have looked at personal budgets and not overstretched yourself when there is a free alternative.