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.

Sure.

But of course! That’s Labour by definition!

Short lived? It’s decades long

He also isn’t a dad. So he isn’t on dadsnet.

@Thegreatergoodgerald did you not have your fill of debating this on your own thread on Thursday? Did a private school steal your lolly in the playground or something?

Contempt riddled with bitter envy.

Mmm, it’s the same old same old, no surprise there…

Is this a joke?

Alas, probably not.

If that was Alton school the numbers were falling for years. They went from single sex to both boys and girls and renamed/rebranded a few years ago. Falling birth rates played a part plus the local Alton state schools are excellent and going from strength to strength.

I doubt it… I feel sorry for the child who parents need to boast it’s highly selective and that their 4/5 year old can read at the standard of a 8/9 year old.

I feel really sad for the child of a person who feels the need to spend time scouring fb looking for evidence of lack of self awareness. The irony.

There are plenty of spaces in state schools to accommodate the small number of children that attend private schools and the even smaller number of those that will leave as a result of the very fair VAT on these businesses.
The spaces might not be in the closest or best state schools, but there are plenty of spaces.

Have also noticed that @Thegreatergoodgerald isn't actually interested in responding to posts that challenge their own. She’s just here for a single purpose rant and to whip up posters who affirm her view. If you’re going to come on making bold statements (that are really just tired tropes that no one asked for) at least be arsed to defend them.

I don’t have kids so no skin in the game for this argument. However the glee and spite towards others that you display in your posts is really striking. Let go of some of that bitterness is my advice, it will eat you up.

I work in the independent sector and have had conversations with two head teachers about how they’re going to tackle the issue. Head teachers and heads of finance have been collaborating nationally on this for a while; I think the general approach is that each school is trying to gather information to ascertain the earning potential of parents; most will attempt to strike a balance whereby parents and schools will contribute to the cost. It’s in the interests of the school not to ask too much of parents, to the point where pupil numbers are severely affected, but they will be increasing fees. I think most are using software to help them achieve this balance, and probably don’t want to commit to any figures until they’ve consulted other heads about it. In my school, it looks as though the school are going to absorb about 50% of the cost. This does mean that they are pulling out of the TPS, which is a big draw for teachers, so they might shortly find that it’s harder to recruit outstanding teachers, and therefore the teaching standards in the independent sector decline. I hope that helps OP!

This callous attitude to children in dire poverty is a good example of why I struggle to have much sympathy for the 20% fee hike. Remortgage , ask the grandparents, move to a cheaper school - you are immensely privileged to be in the position to pay for private education to begin with so I am sure you can work
out a plan.

Exactly. It won’t help that pp or the dc

Take care with any pay in advance schemes.

They won’t necessarily work as HMRC can make the rules mean they don’t. Plus if you have any concerns about the schools financial viability and it fails you will be an unsecured creditor and lose that money.

Well this poster does care. And has as much right to post on these boards asking for advice as anyone else. Not compulsory for you to comment on here if the issue that bothers the OP doesn’t bother you.

7% of the population use private education. Nearly everyday there is a new thread on Mumsnet about VAT on school fees. For the 93% of us who don't use private education this does seem like a deliberate campaign to make it seem like a mass problem. It really isn't. Let's get this in proportion. Children on free school meals (family income less than £20k) make up @25% of the school population. Much more worrying.

The village private school employs most of the residents living on the council estate.

It's not just wetting yourself that some well educated parents who have good jobs and money are spending it on their kids. Who do you think cleans the dorms, cooks the food, mows the lawns. The great teachers can go to the state sector but the estate staff aren't needed in a run down state with only a field. They don't need cooks for breakfast and dinner or the weekend and they certainly don't need a army of cleaners, laundry staff.

There's hundreds of staff on some private schools. You don't need them in a academy state.

Plus the foreign students will just jump country or in the best schools it won't touch them as they are loaded beyound comprehension

Is your school part of a trust like GSDT? If so, the groups (as opposed to the independents) may be able to off-set some of bill, so you may not be hit with the full 20%. Do your fees go up each year anyway? We are at a small independent and they have said the full 20% will be charged to us (and they’ve also just increased annual fees). I honestly think lots of people will leave our school, this notion that everyone who goes to private school is rich, is absolutely nuts.

I don't recall this kind of concern for state school kids under the conservatives! All children matter, if we got rid of all private schools like in Finland everyone would have a better education, like they have! Let's do it!!!

The thing is, by paying for their children to go privately, those that can afford it are freeing up places in none fee paying grammars and good secondary schools for those that can’t. Not many, granted, due to the proportion of private vs none private pupils, but it will result in more spaces, which is surely a good thing. My kids are adults, and didn’t attend private schools as I couldn’t afford, but if someone can afford to, and it’s what they choose for their dcs, then I have no beef with that. Likewise, they should be able to voice concerns about any changes to costs such as VAT.