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.

Anas Sarwar (Labour's leader in Scotland), sends his children to a private school;

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19251664.scottish-labour-leader-anas-sarwar-admits-hypocrisy-childrens-private-education/

Have you seen the cost of tutors? Especially if they are qualified teachers and examiners.

You misunderstand - the extra children will remain unfunded. The vat will be used for breakfast clubs incredibly. Which is strange because free school meals children have access to breakfast anyway.

£60-£100 an hour here.

But I don’t begrudge you wanting to send your child to private school @Polishedshoesalways . It’s a choice we might try (and scrimp and save to make) for our children. Do what you think is right for your child, and within the limits of what you can afford.

That extra money can then be made on resourcing the state system better. How do people think society and infrastructures are
going to improve without being taxed more?

People want something for nothing and are not willing to give back in any shape or form. It’s a total “I’m alright Jack” attitude.

I’m no expert but that sounds worse

I’m sure someone will come along and tell me this is a stupid comparison but..:. By the same logic, shouldn’t we also have to pay VAT on private medical care?

It's crazy, that price will only go up if this policy goes through. Anyone who can afford to support their child will not just accept the lot that many state schools are offering.

Perhaps they should care a little because the already creaking state school system will be further over burdened - the families who can no longer avoid private school will be looking for state school places. If we assume those school fees are transferred to home value then it’s a reasonable assumption the school place competition will increase for the state schools that are already seen as better performing.

Child poverty is not going to be fixed by destroying the private sector.

Look at why teachers are leaving the profession.
Broken schools are a reflection of the wider national issues. Having a broken social care welfare system, SEND support, policing, medical and poverty on top, causes a negative implication on the education sector. They are going to need a massive dedicated trained workforce to pull this country back together. They are going to need more than 20% vat. This is just a ploy to buy Labour voters.
The wealthy will keep their children in excellent schools by buying houses in catchment areas of excellent schools. Tutoring will be sorted too. I know some families who have done that already this year as they jumped ship from the private sector and secured a home in a good area that many can’t afford.

There is currently no VAT on gambling eg the Lotterry etc.
Are we really moving to a country whereby it is mire acceptable to gamble than to have private education?

From what I've read, private schools have exponentially increased their fees over the last few years and I presume that will continue even after the VAT increase. If you can't afford an additional 15% uplift next year (or sometime soon) you won't be able to afford anything that comes after that. In your circumstances I'd be leaning on grandparents or remortgaging. I'm not sure what else you can do other than remove your kids.

I went to a private school and some of my friends send their kids there. The school have been soliciting for donations to pad out their bursary scheme. It's clear they are not short of money - they've built 2 large new building over the past few years and have had many large repairs and improvements done to the school. It's all there to see on the website and it all looks phenomenal. It sits directly across from a state comp and the physical contrast between the two is stark. I don't understand why some of the building money could not have been put towards bursaries to help with the VAT increase. It seems to me some private schools, at least, could help mitigate the fee rises but perhaps are choosing to spend the money elsewhere but I'm not a financial person, maybe there has to be separate pots for separate things.

Uh those in £1m+ houses do pay taxes. And that’s basically all of London.

Plus if you have a great state school nearby that is probably because the local parents are ploughing money into it, money they have earned and already payed tax on. Our great state school is great because of those parents, if they send their kids to private school, the school will go downhill quick. Our local has had a new science room and playground in recent years because the local parents paid for it.

Er, maybe it could flog off some of its vast grounds? Honestly, if private schools can’t figure this out, why do you want your kids being taught by morons?

The all girls’ private near us is a charity; its charitable outreach consists of offering Ancient Greek classes to a select few children from the local outstanding comp. Most private school outreach and scholarships are bollocks - offered to naice middle class kids or immigrants who cause no problems and “fit”, never the rough council estate kids.

The tories have already implemented numerous policies that harm children, this will be no different.

I also keep hearing the line about super size class sizes and schools being overwhelmed - many schools have their own entry criteria. Buying your way into a catchment wouldn't make the slightest difference at my school so our small class sizes will remain the same.

Also - i thought in the private sector, it’s whoever the school says has SEN rather than any formal diagnosis? Hence even selective private schools having hugely inflated number of children with extra time in exams….

This is nothing more than the politics of envy with posters being deliberately obscure and nasty.

A 20% hike in one go I massive and will means that some children are pulled out without notice. Where will they go? Several councils have come out and stated that they have no secondary places available but they have an obligation to educate children. Where are they going to go??

You will then have schools that close which will add to the snowball of children needing places.

Its the children in the middle of this game being used like pawns by Labour to win votes.

if they weren't looking to punish the children then it would be phased in so people can plan accordingly.

The cash wealthy parents have already paid their fees upfront to try and avoid the VAT, the really wealthy won't be affected, some will stop the cleaner/gardener to help pay and while some will say 'oooh lucky you having a cleaner' the cleaner won't be happy when they aren't earning as much and some will leave.

Ds will have 2 years left and we will see him out but pretty much decided that dd won't be going, a labour government can pay to educate her and we will top up with tutors.

Funnily enough, the one-form entry primary school that Starmer sent his children to is featured in this 2013 article in the Standard (Starmer's eldest child would have turned 5 in 2013 although they lived in catchment);

^Eleanor Palmer Primary in Kentish Town is one of the most coveted schools in London — the kind of school that crops up in conversation at the dinner parties of ambitious parents and on the forums of Mumsnet...

Rumours about sharp-elbowed parents engineering places for their children are common at over-subscribed London schools, but this year the situation in this quiet corner of Camden has been especially acrimonious. When it became clear in February that 10 children at the Eleanor Palmer nursery hadn’t got places in the reception class, some of their parents decided to turn sleuth. They soon discovered that some of the places had gone to parents applying from rented accommodation who still owned local houses outside the cut-off zone.

https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/revealed-the-legal-loophole-letting-pushy-parents-rent-the-best-state-school-places-8878941.html

Many people can’t afford to send their children to private school, so they don’t send them. Welcome to the majority of the population.

Teacher at a private school here. I know our school definitely wouldn't be able to absorb the fees. We are worried too as if class sizes drop we will lose our jobs. I am very against the added vat. Not just for personal reasons as mentioned above but state schools are bursting at the seams with no sufficient funding. Thank goodness we have private schools to help the situation. I say this from a teacher who has taught majority of my career in a state school and whose children go to a state school. I'm sure it is a worrying time O.P for you and many others. I also wish it wasn't this way. If you feel grandparents would have the funds then do at least ask, I'm sure they would want to help their grandchildren. Best of luck.

Gosh, threads about Labour or any other party when an election is imminent, what a surprise! Many change name for different topics, hardly a crime. 'The rich (usually meaning anyone with more than them) are evil and selfish tax dodgers' brigade start as many threads or twist other threads out of shape as any other group. Apparently only the so called worthy poor are allowed an opinion.

Strange.

I actively chose our state comp. It gets better results than the local private one. I have the wonderful teachers to thank for that.

The school in question has a nice science lab for a one-form entry primary school;

https://ayarchitects.com/project/eleanor-palmer-science-lab/

For most private schools, fees are the only source of income. To the OP and other Private School parents wondering whether to stay in the system I would say:

1. when the fee bill arrives, watch the extras: if textbooks, lunches, tech devices, exam entries (etc) have been included in the fees up to now, they might be excluded from the taxable fees but to be payable in addition.
2. watch curriculum choice (are rarer subjects still on offer?) and class sizes. Teaching staff are a school’s most expensive outgoing. Trainee teachers are much cheaper than experienced ones.

But you chose it because it was a good school. A heck of a lot of people who send their children to private schools did so because they weren’t lucky enough to have that option. Dire state school or pay for private? What would you chose in that scenario?