Request a state school place if you want it or not

[clarkkentsglasses]

This email is doing the rounds aimed at private school parents:

"The idea is to try to flood the Council with requests for urgent school places from September. If they get tens of thousands of emails like this we may see them under pressure."

Basically request a state school place if you want it or not.

@Another76543

"For many, a 20% increase in a cost of a significant outgoing will make it unaffordable."

This is why its good to give that figure of 20% an actual cash figure, its also likely to be 15% not 20%.

The reason people object to it being put in cash figures and then say " but some people can't afford it" is that when it is put into cash figures, the amount seems very small against the initial spend.

SO average fee for secondary 18k

Or 1,500 a month, a 15% increase would take it to, 1725. Or 225 quid increase.

When you are already spending the 1500 it doesn't look like much.

Private school parents love to talk about their SACRIFICES but then they already spend more than half the median household disposable income on fees, we know that it isn't really the same as those who are scrapping by.

For all the bleating, special pleading and creation of special circumstance stories on here, I reckon most kids will remain in private and not even as many as the IFS estimates will leave.

I can't get too het up about a small administrative burden. As people have pointed out - the numbers are so small. And as people also love to point out - these people have sharp elbows so are you really surprised they're reacting in this way? If this goes ahead, some children's lives will be disrupted so it's no surprise people are prepared to disrupt others lives to protect their own. I wouldn't do it myself but I'm really not going to lose any sleep over it.

This is why its good to give that figure of 20% an actual cash figure, its also likely to be 15% not 20%.

The increase in fees this year is much more likely to be nearer 25% than 15%, you are ignoring the annual increase needed to cover wage increase and other inflationary pressure - and the VAT on that increase.

That would equal and additional £4,500 per year per child.

Firstly it hasnt happened yet

Secondly there are large areas of the country with little or no Private Schools so it wont make a jot of difference there

They will be small in some areas but where there are more private schools, it could be more dc. Neither does the school population decrease evenly. New estates boost a school population. As I said earlier, in my LA, two administrative areas have few in year places. One area has more. Whether the spaces are where parents want them is entirely another matter.

Every parent has the right to apply for a school place at any time. If YR or Y7 applications, these have a well publicised timetable and parents apply according to the rules. If they are late, they go to
the back of the queue so to speak. Many parents review what they want and apply for state and private, especially at y7 transfer.

@Sloejelly

I'm not accounting for any increase in fees other than the 15% for VAT, every parent should have accounted for yearly fee increases when choosing private education.

You are not accounting for the VAT on that increase either

I'm using this year's fees yes.

But ok 10% on the 18k average fee.

19800 fee a year OR 1650 a month, and you can't find 247 for the VAT?

The bigger the number the actual easier it becomes.

You had nearly 20k to spend on fees but quibbled about VAT?

Do you realise what this sounds like to the average voter?

I think this is what people are missing. It’s not just the assumed VAT of 15%. Many parents started down the private school route anticipating 5% annual fee increases (that was generally advised, and far above average inflation). What some families might not have anticipated was huge inflation of around 11% (a worldwide problem), a big increase in the cost of living, and then a further 15% net VAT on top of that.

Why 15% not 20% ?

@pootleq5

This is the anticipated increase as private schools will now be able to claim VAT back on purchases they won't have to pass it all on.

It’s very much going to depend on the school though. The larger, richer schools will be able to claim more back. It won’t be the case for the smaller schools where almost all of their income is spent on staffing and pension contributions. Those items are not VAT recoverable.

Why is there this attitude by some people that you should be immune to the negative effects of potential policy making? Most people in the UK have been adversely affected by the current government's policy making. Nobody cared when it was vulnerable or elderly or disabled people. But it's outrageous that children who go to private schools might be affected?

@Dibblydoodahdah

Every school spends money on things that are VAT recoverable books, subscriptions, laptops. It will be recoverable

15% is going to be about what gets passed on to parents.

@Onomatofear

Well, one might think that they haven't really been impacted by many of the policies that have been introduced by the Conservatives.

In fact, I believe many of those posters who are vehemently anti VAT were rather pro benefits cuts and other policies.

It won’t be for the small prep schools…also you’re ignoring the usual annual
increases. The TPS contributions went up by 6.7% this year.

Where is your evidence for this? You’re making it up.

The most vocal people on this thread would have us believe they are too poor to really afford private school in the first place(!)

Well according to some people unless I have funds to pay for a 20% increase each year, I cannot afford it. Who actually gets a 20% pay rise pay year?

People who work in the public sector have had to cope with having their pay frozen for years and years in the name of austerity. This was alongside big tax breaks for the rich. So the treatment of ordinary, hardworking people has been ideological.

If your child is in a private school then you are privileged whether you choose to accept that or not. And your complaints of unfairness that you might have to pay more are pretty crass, really.

Easy.

The majority of people who send their children to private school are in the top earning households in the country. Election data shows that these households vote conservative in the majority.

If you've voted conservative in the past 14 years you have been quite happy to vote for policies that negatively impact other parts of the population.

But you don’t know that the vocal people on this thread are in the majority.

I also dispute that it is conservative voters who are responsible for all the negative policies over the past 14 years. Most Brexiteers that I know personally are Labour voters.

Never voted Tory and never will. And none of my friends vote Tory either actually. But we're back to your preconceived idea of a "private school parent"

The conservatives are to blame for allowing people to vote us out of the EU in the first place. They let people play fast and loose with a situation they knew nothing about.

The conservatives are also responsible for cutting council budgets by 50% - no wonder public services don’t work any more. Who do you blame if not the people voting for them?

The politicians…as you said, most people don’t know what they are voting for. Just like most people who support the VAT policy don’t know what they are actually voting for. They think they are getting one over on the “rich” but those that are actually rich won’t be impacted. They are just playing right into Labours hands, another Brexit bus.