How's the Private School VAT increase impacting you?

[mumsthewordi]

To private fee paying ...are kids/s still in private ? Are you comfortably still able to afford and happy paying it ?

To state, how do you feel? Have you been impacted by more kids in class or would you expect that to play out this year? Or perhaps you weren't supportive ?
Do you think state schools will improve ?

Full disclosure
A struggling fee paying parent of one kid only other is at state and my oh is an amazing secondary school teacher - we are a divided household indeed at time, but we've made choices best for us.

Oh dear.

I don't find any paranoia in @strawberrybubblegum posts. Maybe you are projecting?

“The idea that children are traumatised by changing schools or because of the horror of going to a state school is absolutely fu king insultin”

So why bother with transition events then? Well in advance? Why bother with allocating state places on 1 March, 6 months in advance or sometime in April with state parents applying by Oct 31 and January, well in advance of starting school.
Why are we told in STATE schools for years how important transitions and attendance etc are?

Hmm the reason I’m on this thread is due to the damage that will be done to SEND kids. Many are only in private education because they couldn’t cope with mainstream state schooling or the school couldn’t cope with them.

No, it is not 'many'. It's a very few - my dd is one of the few in a very unusual private school. We are the minority and peddling this as a political issue is disingenuous.

I will not leave this nonsense unchallenged. Because my experience of all the schools in my area is that private schools will not accept children with SEN, especially autism or ADHD. Mild dyslexia, maybe.

There was a post on here not so long ago about a school that accepted an autistic child in reception because she was very bright but once she got a diagnosis they told her parents that she would have to leave and they didn't even give her a chance to find another school.

This is exactly my experience of every private school in my town except the one my daughter is at.

“Oh be a parent!
In your entirely fictional scenario because your children aren't at private schools are they.... if your children are traumatised because you can't confirm which school they will attend in 8 months time then you're done a shit job of explaining what's going to happen.
At KS1/early KS2 you tell them it will sort itself out - which it will
At late KS2/secondary you explain what will happen and when.
No one needs to be traumatised!”

@Heathbear - my Year 6 chose their own state secondary school list. They absolutely know what will happen and are very keen to know when. They absolutely are going through transition, as are all of their friends.
Is it not funny that during the Covid years, the Tories prioritised the Year 6s because transition is so important, on advice of education experts.

Is that a joke? I can’t tell what’s parody now or not?
My children went to transition days to meet their teachers, get the layout of school, have some expectation of the new school, GET EXCITED about going. Not because they were going to be TRAUMATISED by a completely run of the mill, every day childhood experience.

What about all those kids whose parents move for jobs, divorce, change cities, countries even? Are they ALL traumatised by change ALL the time???

And just to add to my previous posts, private schools who identify a learning issue with a child that requires support often decide that they need to buy in extra support for that child. Which is added to the parent's already hefty bill.

You can't replicate your area across the whole of the UK.
I have asked DD and in her friendship group there is 1 x ADHD, 1 x autism and she said there are 2 in each of her top set classes who have scribes + 1-2-1 support tutors with them in each class. This is a non selective day + boarding school in NE.
So respectfully, you are talking bollocks.

@twistyizzy you're the one who thinks that your own narrow experience is the same across the UK.

“What about all those kids whose parents move for jobs, divorce, change cities, countries even? Are they ALL traumatised by change ALL the time???”

Err yes, divorce is really difficult for many children and problematic and so is changing countries. It is exactly why we go out of our way to ease transitions. It is also exactly why schools (state) make a big fuss about the Year 6 to 7 transition. It is a big deal for most kids.
It will be a big deal for most private school kids to deal with their schools closing and having to leave their friends. The least the state can do is help with the transition by having a plan and giving them some certainty.

Like you do you mean? We all speak from what we know but I know that each indy school is individual, that's sort of the point about them
You claim that "my dd is one of the few in a very unusual private school. We are the minority" . You can't claim a minority when the data of 20-25% of SEN across the sector doesn't bear you out. There are many examples on this post + others of parents turning to indy cos state couldn't meet needs of their DC. Equally there are also stories of the opposite direction.

You’ve posted this nonsense before - that no private schools accept SEND kids. Based on your town which doesn’t seem to be located in the real world.

Despite being given the stat that 18.6% of kids in independent school are SEND.

I’m in London where nearly 35% of all private school students are located.

I don’t know of a private school in London/SE that doesn’t have any SEND students.

So respectfully, you are talking bollocks.

Agreed.

Hardly surprising when your posts give out the same vibe.

What new school?

The LA has no way of knowing what new school parents want, unless those parents actually apply for a school place. And once they apply, the LA has to follow the SAC.

The LA cannot hold places at school for an unreasonable amount of time whilst waiting for a private school parent to take it up; if another random pupil applies for that “held” space during the term, and is higher up the criteria, the school has to admit. In the case of school closures in Hackney, I’d put money on the LA knowing the capacity of the receiving school and knowing it could accommodate all the new entrants, and still comply with the SAC.

And yes, LAs routinely model 10 years ahead for school admissions. One medium housing development can cause more school placement movement than a private school closing. You can find our LA’s school place assumptions on their website, down to the school level.

But they have no idea what school they are going to get given.

Your primary concern is the increased competition your state educated children will face from children leaving private schools to join state schools.

They make a fuss of transition because there's sod all else for year 6 to do post SATs.

The walking to school independently, prepping for multiple teachers per day etc is the same regardless of future school. The day at the new school is to learn the lay of the land. Yet children who change schools over the summer as waiting lists move (which frequently happens) are still fine when they turn up.

What is your argument based on with closing private schools and where those kids willl go to next?

What makes you assume all or even the majority, of parents will be able to afford to put their DC into another private school if their school has to close? Or will want to?

We already know that all the small (non-big-name) private schools are having to whack up their fees to survive all the new costs suddenly imposed on them by the government + pass on the VAT.

If a local private school closes down the neighbouring private schools will already be massively raising their fees to avoid the same fate. Cutting their bursaries. Not offering the same scholarships etc.

Many parents are not going to be able to buy back into the private system in their area at the same price point that they had before (at the school that closed). So those parents will all be applying in-year to the local authority admissions process at the same time. As we’ve discussed in year transfers don’t attract additional funding.

That’s even if there is an equivalent private school to the same area to the one that had closed. Only in a very few wealthy urban areas, will there be a choice of similar schools and similar basically standard unit cost per school place between them.

Outside those types of areas, fee paying schools are likely to vary massively in a given local area, because the areas wont support a clientele for duplication of what each private school offers.. They might have a Steiner school, plus a small local single-sex school, plus a sports focused co-ed, plus a big name academic focused boarding school, plus a religious boarding school. Or whatever combination it is.

There isn’t a standard ‘private school pupil’ that will just be able to slot in at the next available local private school pupil place, in a lot of the less wealthy areas of the country. So that will put massive pressure on local state school places in those less wealthy areas that the private schools have closed in. Its totally irrelevant to those areas that in zone 1&2 in central London, some school rolls have been falling.

Outside those types of areas, fee paying schools are likely to vary massively in a given local area, because the areas wont support a clientele for duplication of what each private school offers.. They might have a Steiner school, plus a small local single-sex school, plus a sports focused co-ed, plus a big name academic focused boarding school, plus a religious boarding school. Or whatever combination it is.

Splendid. Lots of options to suit most parents and children.

In DSs class of 15, 10 had diagnosed ADHD, autism or both. 1 was in denial and refusing assessment. At least 3 had dyslexia.

His state school class are broadly similar to be honest from what I can see of them.

These threads always descend into crazy bunfights eventually, but personally, I've started keeping an eye out for your posts. I've followed your story about send issues in state and private. Usually the comments are heartbreaking, but they are always also incisive, insightful, and beautifully state what the issues are. You have a way with words, and articulate a lot about what I wish to say about my own experience. Wish you and your child the best support in the school they end up at. (I actually have nothing more to add to this debate beyond that).

No. The opposite

“The LA has no way of knowing what new school parents want, unless those parents actually apply for a school place. And once they apply, the LA has to follow the SAC.”

@shockeditellyou - most of the displaced private school parents will want to hasten the blow to their DC emotionally and keep constancy by keeping the DC with some friends. How about the LAs actually start planning for private school closures on that basis, would then solve a lot of extra issues for teachers and transport costs for LAs - if the kids are kept together, just like they are given that option for closed state schools.
It need not be an “us and them” when you start thinking about it. It is also in the LAs interest to get this sorted out properly and funded properly. Everyone should be demanding the Labour Government and DFE sorts this out.

“The walking to school independently, prepping for multiple teachers per day etc is the same regardless of future school. The day at the new school is to learn the lay of the land. Yet children who change schools over the summer as waiting lists move (which frequently happens) are still fine when they turn up.“

In this climate everyone is given at least one choice on 1 March and then possibly a better option that they are excited about and embrace.
It is a completely different scenario than a child witnessing months of uncertainty and parental anxiety/stress and friends talking about it at school and teachers having no answers etc (and possibly also being worried about their jobs). It is really not OK to do this to children and families and to minimise it as well. I am not really sure what the agenda is.

“Your primary concern is the increased competition your state educated children will face from children leaving private schools to join state schools.”

No it is not @Heathbear - it may have been 6 months ago when we were in the 11 plus stress but given DCs scores and the other own’s predictions, it certainly is not.