Now that offers have been issues anyone else going state instead of private due to VAT?

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Very unscientific poll but there have been so many posts about the impacts of VAT on school fees and claims from posters that parents will just pay and it won't have an impact whereas parents in the private system have been saying for months that's it's the natural transition points where it will come out in the wash.

Well here we are.....

I'm just wondering how many others are in our situation and decided that the VAT is the final straw and we have accepted a state place at an outstanding (all areas) school for our DD.

Anyone else?

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/children-fail-secure-place-secondary-school-london-b1214415.html

This claims London is experiencing more issues this year

Isn't this still a bulge year intake wise?

Yes, we could just about have afforded it before vat and with a bursary, but not now.

DD got into the local outstanding state school. If needed we'll reapply for scholarships for year 9.

Bulge years until 2028 in secondary but many people said there was plenty of capacity and a few 1000 extra kids wouldn't make a difference. Not sure those London parents would agree

the article linked suggests no impact

"According to the Pan-London Admissions Board, the capital has enough secondary school placess_ to meet overall demand and 94 per cent of schools are rated good or outstanding by Ofsted."

We are not at transfer stage yet but our prep school historically would have had max 10% (4-5 pupils) go onto state and rest remain in private sector.

This increased to about 40% last year and this year will be over 60%. The year performed exceptionally well (just 1 student did not get a place in their chosen state school) and all those going into state sector are moving to super selective/partially selective school

Multiply this out and I have no doubt there will be an impact for the more popular secondaries. The one we are aiming for had furthest place offered reduce by 0.2 miles this year vs last. (Last yr vs 2023 was a 0.4 mile reduction)

I agree that overall there will be enough places for all including those who move sector in London. And as bus travel is already free, councils won’t be needing to pay for transport.

Without a doubt, competition for the better schools has increased and some children who would have got a place at a chosen school will be displaced to accommodate for those switching sector

Almost 25,000 children have failed to secure a place at their first choice of London secondary school.
This is slightly fewer than last year

So overall this article doesn’t seem to support your statement. It does say there is variation and some areas have had more issues than others but overall situation seems marginally better.

There were almost 3,000 fewer secondary school applications in London than in the previous year – a decrease of 3.1 per cent. However, several boroughs saw a slight increase in applications.

London is past the bulge - nationally it hits later.

Almost 25,000 children have failed to secure a place at their first choice of London secondary school.
This is slightly fewer than last year, due to the proportion of applications that are successful increasing from 70.5 per cent to 71.6 per cent.

The article actually says London is having a pretty standard year, with three boroughs experiencing a statistically significant decrease in children being offered their first choice.

Isn't it too early to tell? With DD1 we made a state application as we didn't know if she'd get a place at either of the independent schools we applied for.

For DD2, we've been advised by her prep school headteacher that, even though she has a through place to an independent secondary, we should apply for a state school place, in case our personal circumstances change and we need a place.

It is only once the "just in case" places have been given up that you'd know what the state demand is.

Our LA has only one school that hasn’t been able to accommodate all catchment children, and that school hasn’t been able to accommodate catchment children for the past 10 years or so. So no noticeable effect from private school applications.

Overall applications down from last year (as expected); out of catchment applications for the better schools are down but that’s the risk you take when applying out of catchment. I

We have been offered a place at an outstanding state comp, but we plan on accepting a selective private school. The academics are very good at the state but the sport, trips and extracurriculars are far better in the private school. We're fortunate to have saved and invested well so we have a secure cushion to cover the fees for 2 dds.

Our prep usually has about 10% accepting state places, as some of the pupils live close enough to a couple of good comps. It will be interesting to see if that increases. It doesn't seem to be much more than usual, based on chatting to parents at drop off. We are in a fairly central bit of London, and most families aren't close enough to any state grammars, which can give a close experience to a private school. The good state comps aren't quite the same, despite having excellent results, so they don't appeal to the same group of parents.