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.

Out of curiosity are you aware of why those teachers left? All the teachers that I am aware of who have left say that many problems arise from outside of the school setting, spiralling additional needs, large class sizes, and the pressure they are under achieve and prove children's attainment levels mean that they have very little time to teach those who can, let alone those who can't. Parents and behaviour issues were also cited as a big problem. More money could not tempt them to stay. Unless these problems tackled you may as well burn any money raised with this policy. Studies have shown that investing in children in these early years (our current funded nursery provision is not sufficient to combat external factors for many children at risk of being failed or those with additional educational requirements IMO) produces better life outcomes for even those who cannot get high grades on exams. Benefits to them.and society like, higher rates of employment, less criminality and lower teen pregnancy rates.

Wow some of the threads on here are just horrid. Not everyone who sends their kids to private school are in the same situation.

I'm a single parent although I earn fairly well but am not rich by any stretch. My DS isn't overly happy in his current school (Y8) and he's not doing amazingly. He's bright and has potential, also is great at sport and I have looked at all the different options because as a parent I want to give him all the chances I can in life. I took him to look at a local private school and it was great, plus the sport provision was amazing. It would have been a massive sacrifice for me to send him there and I would have done that because it was the best option nearby and I think he would have thrived there. The 20% will push this to a point where is unaffordable and I think this situation can't just be me, there must be so many people who have prioritised this.

Someone had written that if we get rid of private schools we will become like Finland. I honestly think if we think that's going to happen, we are completely delusional.

Our local boys Grammar had 1 FSM boy in the last GCSE cohort. It is famous for pushing out kids with SEN and anyone who can't keep up.

Conversely our private has 5 kids on full Bursaries in DD's year and plenty with scholarships. There are also a high number of SEN. If a full breakdown was made to compare grammar and private schools with who actually provides greater amounts of social mobility I think it would be obvious which school is really leaching from the State school pot.

I think Labour need to be clear anout nurseries - and come clean. And universities as well.

Existing pupils had fees paid for them until they turned 16. It is very different. The point is that he knows the value of a good education for ALL, and that is the aim.

Sounds like you're not living within your means. if you cannot afford the vat increase, then it's too.much for you. You cannot ask your elderly grandparents to fund your luxury. Look for a state school. Mine are in a state school because I know I cannot afford private school. My grandma sent her son to a prestigious private school. She said she had to eat jam sandwiches for dinner, and take on 2 jobs (she was a widow). Only for her son to leave with no qualifications. He ended up going into the navy. Private schools can give a nuturing environment, but aren't a guarantee for doing well.

Or the COL is biting just like it is for everyone else.

Yeah I think this is it.

I'm not sure it's working as intended though - the private school parents are not coming across very well in this thread at all.

I think if you can’t afford private school fees without begging off your parents then you shouldn’t have your DC in private school. Good luck to all who are affected, must be a shitty position to be in.

And yet there is not a single policy or planned investment to provide good education for all is there! Just a plan to overload the state sector and not fund it.

I think the case is being made robustly that this is a very bad policy for all children.

The posts wittering on about the alleged hypocrisy of Starmer or anyone else are spectacularly missing the point. It’s not about Starmer. It’s about getting state education back on its feet for more than 10 million pupils.

And this policy will help to do that - even if 20% or 30% of parents return to state over the next few years. It won’t be a massive input of cash by any means, and the improvements won’t be felt in just 1-2 years. But even an added spend of £50 per pupil per year is significant. Even £30 per pupil per year.

State Schools are in a dire situation. It’s a reasonable policy. And private schools can tighten their belts and lower their fees if need be.

They don’t one laptop per pupil etc. They don’t need to spend 17k per pupil. They don’t need class sizes half that of state schools. That’s all their choice.

Starmer is absolutely right and I’m looking forward to a Labour landslide and this all getting enacted.

Why would I vote for Labour who are going to literally ruin my life though? I agree and hate the Tories but they aren't coming for my child and others I know. They aren't being hypocritical about using a system then pretending that they are one of the good guys because their (elite) state school takes from the same pot as your child. Doesn't matter that they are in the catchment because they can afford a house of over a million and what they earn shhh don't look at that they take from your pot so they must be the same as you. Yeah right, believe what you like but this policy is why I simply can't vote for them. I don't think it will do the good he says, the amount made for the chaos caused isn't proportionate. If he had put money into the schools before forcing parents to use them it would not have been such a shock tactic but forcing parents into schools that he is telling the world are so bad we need this change is just bullying.

So he knows the value of a good education and the value of a weak policy to gain gullible votes.

I absolutely agree with you @Polishedshoesalways Labour played their part. Their shitty, self serving decisions are why we ended up with a tory government in the first place! I think we can agree that they are all the same and I have just as many concerns with a Labour government, believe me.
However, just in my sector, the absolute carnage the tories have caused is heartbreaking. They don't even pretend to give a damn anymore. At the minute I see Labour as the lesser of two evils and I know I am not alone in that.

The cost of living has made everyone aware.of protecting their basics e.g. mortgage, groceries, energy&water bills. We have had to cut back on TV packages, car use and holidays abroad. Op has to cut back on the luxuries too, which is private school. It seems crazy to.remortgage and add debt to her name, for private schooling.

Except it’s not going to be a landslide best case it is likely to be a hung parliament and they will have their hands tied for 5 years thank goodness.

I have no judgement here, my son has a disability/send and is currently at a state primary school with 37 in his class. It's massively impacted his ability to learn/perform to his potential. We are looking at private secondary purely down to class size and nurturing environment. We are very lucky, work very hard and I will vote labour despite the personal impact on us because I think it's for the best...

My advice to be practical would be:
Can you remortgage or take a small loan (depending on time left at school)
Look at state secondaries nearby, find out who has space and what they're like, they might be really good (our state secondary is great, just very large, if we can't pay for private he will go there and be fine, just probably not be his best)
Can your children get a scholarship or bursary
If you did state secondary think what you'd do with the money- the holidays! A house deposit for the kids! Private 121 tutoring for their tricky subjects! It could be a good thing
It's unlikely to be a 20% increase immediately, they'll also be able to claim 20% off any expenditure that has vat so it shouldn't be the full 20% ever....

“They’re coming for my child”

No, that would be the tories that want to send your child off to war through national service. Acknowledging private schools are businesses and should be charging like a business is not coming for your child.

A third of state secondary schools in Northern Ireland appear to be grammar schools. Perhaps Labour will reintroduce grammar schools over here ... oh, wait ...

Is there a bus with these numbers on it? It feels like there should be.

@MagnetCarHair No-one is saying all state schools are awful. Of course they aren't. I'm sorry if others give that impression. But some are. And some children, like my ds, are only offered a place at one state school. Even Ofsted said it wasn't safe. That the staff had no idea who was on site at any time. That the younger pupils were at serious risk from older pupils. That bullying was rife. The trust was wound up the following year because it was in chaos.

I wasn't prepared to send a small, nerdy, August-born child into that. Parents have to do their best, each in their own situation. I could have home schooled, given up work, lived off benefits. Instead I chose to stay in work, put ds up for a scholarship that thankfully he won, and spend every penny I earn on paying the half-fees. I am doing my best. That is not wrong.

Labour are no better. They will overspend on genderwoo and close thousands of schools and then what? What are they actually going to do to improve anything? I can’t see that they intend to do anything remotely constructive.

and the value of a weak policy to gain gullible votes.

Yep

This. I don’t have skin in this game, but surely charging VAT on private school places and putting that money in to state education will just end up paying for the students that have to drop out of private school and in to state leaving us no better off