VAT private school requirement to give one terms notice to leave

[KHB]

We have four children who are educated in the private sector. When we did our sums prior to the VAT announcement we could just about cover the fees whilst making many sacrifices to enable us to afford it. We hoped the VAT would be introduced in September 2025, as did the schools we attend, giving us time to work out whether we could afford to continue and give notice to leave if required. Now this has been brought forward to January, the additional cost to us due to VAT is £8850 for this school year alone (spring and summer term 2025). We simply cannot afford this.

Our eldest is due to start senior school in a few weeks time at the start of September (year 9). This school is the most expensive of all the fees we pay. We have made the difficult decision to pull him out and move him to our local state school, who have been incredibly helpful in finding us a place last minute and even allowing us to look around the school during the holidays.

However we are left in the situation where the senior school we are leaving (before we have even started) insist that we pay a full terms fees for pulling our child out without giving the required one-terms notice. My view is that the immediate cost of school fees has increased beyond everyone's expectations, and it would be incredibly detrimental to our son's education and his mental health for him to attend for just one term before being forced to move to a different school. I have written to the bursar to ask him if he would exercise his discretion and consider waiving this requirement. However, I have received little sympathy.

I have heard that some schools are waiving the term's notice requirements to allow parents, like us, to move their children with immediate effect if they can no longer afford to continue paying their school fees. I would be interested to know how other parents have been treated? Does anyone know if there is any scope for legal action to fight the terms and conditions? I would be grateful for any positive contributions. Thank you.

Will there be VAT on a notice period in the future? For a service that is not consumed? I assume not.

The Government have given every private school parent one term’s notice so they can give notice if they have to, in accordance with the usual notice period for private schools. Some boarding schools have a full year’s notice period though and you can only give it at a set time of year. Perhaps there, depending on the drafting of the contract and exact wording, a parent may have more leeway to get out of the full notice period. But I bet any proper public school already changed its terms and conditions last academic year to enable them to charge VAT.

“Will there be VAT on a notice period in the future? For a service that is not consumed? I assume not. ”

I think that the majority of the time notice is given, the service will be consumed eg notice at Easter that a child will leave at the end of a school year for a move to a different school.

Thank you everyone for your input to this discussion. I have found most of your comments helpful, some not so much but I didn't expect anything less!

It is interesting that some schools have chosen to waiver the terms notice given the change in circumstances since the election. I think these school have acted in a very decent and honourable way. None of us knew in April what the outcome of the election would be or when the proposed addition of VAT to the school fees would be implicated. Equally I understand that the terms and conditions are there to protect the school, and we have signed these, so we are contractually obliged to abide by them.

My plan is to contact the school governors to see if they will agree to compromise somewhere in the middle. Yes we can afford one terms fees, I don't want to pay it but if we have to then we will. However I maintain that the financial landscape for the coming academic year as changed drastically since we signed those terms. Yes there is enough time for us to give notice to pull our child out from January, but it would be incredibly detrimental to our child's education and emotional well being to sent him to a new school for just one term. This is not something we are prepared to do.

Good luck to anyone else who finds themselves in our position. We had considered sending our son to this state school in September anyway but the way the admission system works meant that we could not guarantee that there would be a place for him until 6 weeks before the end of the summer term. This uncertainty factored into our decision to send him to the private senior school we chose so that he had some certainty for his future after leaving prep school.

Personally I think the admission process to state schools outside of the normal points of entry has to change to allow confirmation of a school place at least 12 weeks before the child is due to move. This would allow one terms notice to be given to the school that is being left, allowing more certainty for everyone. However that is a discussion for a different time!!!

Personally I think the admission process to state schools outside of the normal points of entry has to change to allow confirmation of a school place at least 12 weeks before the child is due to move.

The reason it isn’t like that is so that children moving into the area mid year aren’t left without a place for 2-3 months whilst someone else is leaving an empty place. Additionally, as the state school would have no penalty on the parent if they later changed their mind and went for a different school or stayed on at private, it means that the parent must commit to the place in fairly short order.

The last thing that the state school system cares about - reasonably enough - is the financial impact on a parent previously in the private system.

I think state schools have some discretion, so might give a week or two longer than the norm in certain circumstances eg illness/bereavement, that discretion wouldn’t apply to a “ chosen” move.

It is interesting that some schools have chosen to waiver the terms notice given the change in circumstances since the election.

Where this has been mentioned (only once, I think, though I might have missed it) - it was a waiver for those leaving after being paying pupils for some time, rather than refunding someone who never started.

Schools have different levels of reserve and their first duty is to continuing pupils and staff. I presume the school that waived it had a fair idea of the numbers this would apply to and weighed up whether it was affordable, rather than setting out to be “decent and honourable” (!!)

Just don't pay it. Let them take you to court. You haven't been given enough notice. IMHO.

The thing is OP every year private school parents do what you are doing for year 7 entry at least- many sit on state school waiting lists and then try and dodge the first terms fees at a backup private school. Or some have accepted eg Marlborough and are waitlisted at Eton and get a place weeks before and have to pay twice the first terms fees.

All the big schools already changed their terms and conditions last term based on the usual standard form terms and conditions to allow them to charge VAT. So most private school parents legally signed up to this already.

I think private schools that fill a place when someone else does not show up are wrong to double charge!
But in this climate, unless they are a top 50 private school they are likely to struggle and so you may just have to pay or get a CCJ. I agree talking to them about it nicely would be best. In addition, if you don’t like state after all, you may want to be careful if there is any chance any of your DC may need to go private in the future (if it’s the best private option locally).

One thing to remember, OP, is if the school can’t fill the place for the start of September term, they may well carry an empty place all year and possibly throughout years 10 and 11 as well, given some schools start preparing for the GCSE years in year 9

that’s not your problem - your only liability is the term’s fee. But could be one reason why the bursar wasn’t jumping to waive your fee.

Then the OP will owe court costs on top of the one term fees

I think saying you didn’t know who was going to win the election that was due to happen this year is a little disingenuous. You didn’t know it would be July and you didn’t know VAT would be brought in by January but VAT was a nailed on certainty to be brought in and your sums seem not to have allowed you any wriggle room when it should have been factored in from the outset. Best case your DS was going to have to leave the indie after a year especially as the annual fee increase would likely have been an issue too.

I don’t know if that’s fair. No one expected brexit to be voted in but it was. Labour did not win because everyone loved them - they won because people disliked the tories. The uk is a democracy - labour did not win until the people voted.

The recent general election result wasn’t a surprise, nor was it as close as the Brexit vote.

I don’t think anyone can live their life based on ‘just incase’. Private school parents need to give a term’s notice before they leave without penalty - to achieve this by Jan 2025 they would have had to give notice in April - before the election was called in May - does any sensible adult really think private school parents should have given notice before an election was called?

Agree, it wasn’t a surprise result - Labour were leading in the polls substantially for some time.

Planning ahead financially for events that are going to happen isn’t living ‘just in case’.

To leave without penalty before January 2025 parents need to give notice before the start of this Autumn term.

Yes it’s not great the rules change mid-year.

If it’s a competitive private school there will be a waiting list with someone ready to take your sons place

No necessarily - it’s the middle of the summer holidays and a 13+ (year 9) entry for OP. Many of those looking for a year 9 place will have settled for their next choice - or perhaps, like OP, have reviewed their finances and decided to go state.

I’m sorry but your suggestion it’s ok for them to give notice before the autumn term is either very naive or just plain heartless.

I’m going to go with naive and assume maybe you don’t have kids. Because if you did, then you would know it’s better to move them at the start of a school year ie Sept rather than in January.

Particularly kids who are entering key school years like GCSEs or A levels because they have to choose subjects that might not be transferable to another school. GCSE programmes can be 2-3 years long and A levels are 2 years long. It’s the private high school kids who will be affected the most by having the vat introduced mid year.

Honestly, I am gob smacked that any adult in the UK could not have compassion for children needing to suddenly move school - away from school friendships they have developed, routines they have created, subjects they might have worked for that might not even be available in their new school.

The least the government could have done is brought in the vat at a time that fell naturally in the school calendar. Everyone is so busy bashing private school parents they have not even spared a thought for the disruption to their education this is going to create for many innocent children.

It is factually correct that notice is required at the start of the Autumn term ahead of January; you said April which isn’t right.

The rest of your post is irrelevant to the OP as her child hasn’t even started at the school and isn’t in a GCSE or A-level year.

I can completely understand why she doesn’t want him to start for a term only and I already said it coming in mid year wasn’t great - do get a grip. However she still owes the fees in lieu of notice.

I suggest all private schools should apply to the government changing their status to state schools instead. I thought all education should be free, right? The only difference is Eton and Harrow will have to take up more students compared to the current small classes.

People do talk nonsense