Whitehall “braced for private schools collapse” 5

[ICouldBeVioletSky]

Starting a continuation thread in anticipation of the fourth one filling up…

www.mumsnet.com/talk/education/5301690-whitehall-braced-for-private-schools-collapse-4?page=39

Sure, if you say so.

I don't think it's ever great to be the minority in a monocultural school.

DD was the only white British girl in her class at Primary - but it was a very diverse mix of ethnicities and cultures and there were never any issues.

What I have found interesting is that while DD's friendship group at Secondary would be an advertising agency's dream, in terms of socio-economic and educational background of their parents it's not diverse at all.

Given that children don't go around quizzing their friends about where their mum went to university or what their dad does for a job, I can't help feeling that those who think it's good for the 'posh kids' to know about the 'poor kids' probably doesn't happen much.

They just don't seem to mix. And given they're all in the same uniform, it's not as if the Gucci girls aren't mixing with the Primark girls or anything that is an obvious marker. (FSM rate is around 17% and it's not a school you can buy into catchment).

That’s the situation in our area as well - our private school is much much more diverse in terms of cultural background than surrounding schools. Socially it is also quite diverse- about a quarter to one third of students are from farming or trade families. We actually have a more diverse populations in our private school than local state schools.

Ok, that’s interesting! I would agree, if
I am right in what I understand your saying. I don’t think many parents do hold that view although they may claim to.Thinking it is good
for the posh kids to understand the poor kids
and hang out together.

I personally believe in aspiration. Teaching our children whether they go to state or
private school to aspire to aim high academically, socially and culturally.

Some private schools do have ‘posh girls’ obviously, although a lot of hard working parents (not posh), make the decision and sacrifices to educate their children privately as well as parents who make the decision to educate their children privately because their children have SEN and the smaller class sizes and better pastoral care appeal. Private schools are not necessarily the domain of the posh, rich anymore!

At my DGCs schools there is a mix of rich, posh, middle and working class. Let’s leave them to get on with it. The school are aware of their demography and it does seem to be working in my DGCs cases.

We on MN on the whole are not talking about Cheltenhams Ladies College and St Paul’s are we? My DGD has been on some sleep overs at the family estate though.

I think that the designer girls hold court in state secondary schools also and don’t mix because of the label.

Rep to @OhCrumbsWhereNow

What don't you understand?

Socialists like Starmer feel entitled to help themselves to other people's money with no self-awareness whatsoever.

But surely you would like a socialist PM to have sufficient appreciation for how other people's generosity set him up for his very successful life that he wouldn't knowingly prevent other children from benefitting in the same way?

I think Starmer should be deciding national educational policy based on benefit to the UK.

That would include recognising how much private schools and privately-educating parents benefit the UK... rather than allowing spiteful people to fuck that up because he's so self-interested that the inevitable fallout of education VAT - both to individual children and to the UK economy - is less important to him than keeping his stupid party on-side.

Sounds like the poster needs some geography lessons if they think ETH is within Labour's jurisdiction 😂

No fan of Starmer, his government are vandals, however I think he sat the 11+ in an era when all children did it routinely. I don't think it would have been a case of him having sharp elbowed parents seeking it out.

I don't really care that he took the 11+ and went to a grammar. It's only the left who are obsessed with that particular purity spiral.

But he stayed - not only up to O levels (paid for by the council - ie taxpayers) but then for his A levels too, paid for by generous private school parents when the state stopped funding his school and parents had to pay instead.

He was generously given the stability of not changing school. Which he is denying children now. He was generously given a fantastic education. Which he is allowing people in his party to deliberately try to destroy. And he must know that he wouldn't have succeeded as he has without it.

Sure, RGS (one of the top 10 schools in the country) will survive. But other schools which are giving other children a great education won't. Because of his deliberate policy.

Take, take, take. Then pull up the drawbridge.

Completely agree with this. I find it utterly bewildering that there’s the suggestion that KS didn’t receive any private education when we know he did. His parents just had the good fortunate not to have to pay for it.

He could have offered similar generosity to families already at private schools - families like mine - who have really struggled since Labour slapped the VAT on in the middle of a school year. (I mean exempting us from paying VAT, or starting it at the originally planned later date, not Labour suddenly paying the whole bill!)

Yes, posters can reply that we didn’t need to be at private schools in the first place, or that we should have budgeted more carefully, or whatever. For my family though, we went down the private route in the first place because my son wasn’t offered a state education for three years. And now we’re paying for Keir’s children’s cornflakes.

I went to a grammar school and am very well aware of my privileged education. Aged 14 I didn’t have a clue that I was fortunate to be at that school. As an adult, though, I most certainly am. DS2 is in Y12 and is very aware of his privilege. I’d like to think KS, as an adult, is very aware of the privileged education he received. Instead he’s deliberately restricting others’ choices. And his party doesn't seem to have any plan to improve state education across the board and for those with SEN.

It also makes me laugh that posters who swear they are anti-Brexit are generally fine with taxing education; something which has only legally been able to come about because we are no longer protected by the EU VAT regulations. REMOVAL of regulations. Yet are they taking money from the big corporations and billionaires?

Shhhh! Kindly stop clouding the issue with facts!

Labour chose to tax education over gambling. Wonder why.....but it shows their moral compass which quite honestly, stinks.
https://www.thenational.scot/news/24624306.labour-took-1m-donations-gifts-gambling-firms/?ref=twtrec

And his party doesn't seem to have any plan to improve state education across the board and for those with SEN.

Whatever do you mean? Weren't we categorically told by the policy supporters that there will be £££ VAT moolah bonanza for 6500 new teachers and mountains of cocopops (plus I seem to recall something about repairing school roofs)? Isn't that still happening?

Well as they are now having to employ "advisors" to encourage schools to take up "challenging" breakfast clubs 🤣🤣🤣

These "free" breakfast clubs are becoming increasingly expensive

Now they are selling off school playing fields to build houses on:

https://www.thetimes.com/article/a5fe4c20-198b-4a87-84ba-3f63203ccdd2?shareToken=4c8ccbd550e82f4bb6007d4ac186d173

Ah but apparently we don’t need as many new teachers now, so the recruitment targets have been cut. Given the VAT on fees was supposed to be funding those new teachers, presumably this now frees up further funding? It’s strange though, because all that extra funding doesn’t seem to be materialising. Cuts are being made all over the place. Still, not to worry, local councils can free up some more funding through Rayner’s plan to let them sell school playing fields.

They won’t be happy until they extinguish all STEM/music/classics/sports etc in schools.

This is so depressing.

Why do pp cheer Labour and think they’re good for state education.

Because they don't look past tribal loyalty

Tribal loyalty at all costs. With this Labour that cost = children!!

Where are children going to be able to do sport? I suppose sports clubs can always use the facilities at private schools (just like Phillipson does). Oh hang on, they want those closed. Let’s just scrap sport for children altogether.

This really is depressing. There is no political representation for "the common man" anymore.

There will be the usual suspects coming along in a minute to support the selling of state school playing fields!

It all could have been so different!!!

So far, they’ve cut funding of advanced maths, funding of physics programmes, language hubs, Latin, youth music, and now they want to sell off sports fields. But at least wealthy families get a “free” bowl of cornflakes (assuming their school hasn’t withdrawn from the programme).

I had thought that Labour just wanted to destroy to private education sector. It seems that isn’t enough for them though. They now appear to be trying to destroy the state sector as well.

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/cuts-to-advanced-maths-scheme-short-sighted/

https://www.musicmark.org.uk/news/department-for-education-support-to-national-youth-music-organisations-not-renewed/#:~:text=The%20UK%20Association%20for%20Music,£525%2C000%20towards%20their%20work.