Thinking of applying to work in a private school

[SuperSange]

Hi all,

Given the recent VAT thing with fees, I'm now thinking my applying to work in a private school may be a precarious situation. Can anyone please advise what I should look for in their account (are they on companies house?) to try to judge if they're in an OK financial situation?

Definitely check their financial situation…. Anywhere small or not breaking even just now would be highly risky, in my opinion. Especially as last in will likely be first out if redundancies are needed :(

I wouldn't worry. Private schools will always prevail.

The people who cannot afford the fees with VAT will leave and the school will adjust fees accordingly for those who remain in order to remain a going concern.

The rich can and will withstand the cost of private school for their children.

Labour have made a big mistake here as all this does is make the gap between private and state educated kids bigger and a private education less attainable for normal people and who may have cut holidays and lived very frugal lives in order to afford fees.

Ignore posters such as above saying parents can and will absorb the cost. Only people with no experience of the Indy sector say that.
In DDs year 10 kids handed in the 1 term notice for December now that Labour have brought it forward to January.
You are right to be concerned, it will be the smaller, local independents that close as they can't attract international pupils.

Look closely at their accounts but ultimately this WILL impact the sector.

A good sign of healthy finances in a school is if they have recently decided to spend a lot of money, e.g. new building project.

You need to be applying to large, old, well established traditional Public schools - the sort everyone has heard of. Boarding schools with an international clientele will absolutely continue to thrive.

On the other hand I’m afraid small local day schools probably are in a more precarious position and liable to collapse with almost no notice to either parents or staff. (It happens a lot.)

Also check what pension they are offering.

I work in a large day /boarding school, lots of internationals. They have been planning for the vat thing for a couple of years, they will be fine (they also own other businesses).

My sons small day school however I'm not so sure about!

Always check the financial standing of a school. The charity commission has all the charitable ones via its Find a Charity service. It's just common sense as there's a wide range within the sector.

If you’re a teacher look at whether they pay into TPS

I'd look at whether there are perks. Assuming you are going for a support staff job, the salaries aren't that much than the state system.

I work as support staff and we get free lunches, tea and coffee and biscuits/fruit plus use of the sports facilities. This does go a long way to augmenting the salary.

*much more

One of the things to consider, in my opinion, is number on roll. Prep schools with less than 100 - avoid. Same with through schools with less than 250. And if they have started to combine year groups, slippery slope.

Relative teaches in private. Relatively recently fucked hard with pension which school can’t afford.

Totally agree. So many private schools are thinking twice about TPS and contributions really vary.