Whitehall “braced for private schools collapse” 6

[ICouldBeVioletSky]

Continuation of previous threads to discuss VAT on independent school fees.

In fact, I think yours was on the Bristol 2024 admissions cycle list but not on the considerably shorter 2025 list.

Rents in Bristol are ridiculously high so this uni is always going to be more accessible to the richer student, list or no PC list.

I can’t read the Telegraph story but isn’t it the case that the Tories brought in new legislation under Gove during the Free Schools gold rush years specifically so that no more LA maintained community schools could be opened?

I don’t expect Reform are ones for checking the small print before making a statement so excuse my querying this. I just don’t know legally how a council could take over to bail out a private school, even if it would make economic sense to do so.

The closing private school would have to reopen as a free school, if I have understood correctly, so it would need to meet certain criteria for that which would be quite specific. Or, perhaps the private school in this scenario would have to be adopted by an academy chain?

Indeed it no longer is.

Still some very surprising schools that are on it though.

https://archive.ph/Suxz8

Link for you

Yes, it’s always been an odd list.

It has never had a quota. It had a target. They're different things. You'd get nowhere near with that level of accuracy.

Ooh, bitchy!

I think I touched a nerve!

This is interesting from back in 2023
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/16/private-schools-university-entry-cambridge-state-schools/

Oh look, switching to state does increase acceptance rates. Of course, this simple table doesn't control for reasons for switching, so we can each apply our own perspectives/bias when interpretating it.

Interesting that Imperial - which from that article seems to have resisted the trend to discriminate against private school students - rose above both Oxford and Cambridge in recent rankings.

LOL more magical logic, describing what is clearly discriminating against someone because of the school they went to as ‘recognition’.

I believe that universities take into account postcode and give students a POLAR rating based on the university participation of people in that area when making contextual offers. Therefore, if you live in a nice area and go to a leafy comprehensive where many students go to university then there is less chance of a contextual offer.

Not my fault if you don’t understand contextualisation.

No I know, but it also isn’t independently educated children’s fault you’re unhappy with your life. Recognising against 7 year olds at prep schools really isn’t going make you feel any better.

I’m not at all unhappy with my life. What a very strange comment.

Seems par for the course though, as I have no idea what ‘recognising against 7 yr olds at prep schools’ means either. I haven’t noticed many 7 yr olds applying to university.

I’m not at all unhappy with my life. What a very strange comment.

Obviously I can’t know for sure and I’ll take your word for it, but it usually is the reason why people hold these types of views.

Obviously I can’t know for sure and I’ll take your word for it, but it usually is the reason why people hold these types of views.

It really, really isn’t. But you do you.

Look I could be wrong in this instance and in which case I apologise, but you have to admit that people who spend their spare time every night posting spiteful comments about a group of children generally aren’t the happiest bunch.

You continually declare anyone who doesn’t agree with you as ‘spiteful’, ‘envious’, ‘bitter’ ‘bigoted’, and (my personal favourite) ‘less than average intelligence’.

And yet I’m the unhappy one. Righty ho.

Well, we're obviously unhappy and pissed off at Labour's outrageous on-going attack on our children. And concerned for what the consequences will be for them.

What's your excuse?

There you go with your assumptions again.

I’m neither unhappy nor pissed off.

It can't be concern for the impact on your own children's education. After all, this whole derail where you all jumped in to deny that Oxbridge discriminate against private school students came about as we were discussing whether state sixth forms would be over-subscribed this year.

That would be a reasonable thing for the anti-private brigade to be concerned about. It will affect your children too, not only ours.

There were several informative, detailed posts of explanation for why this is a perfect storm for state sixth forms (natural transition point, private being less beneficial given 6th form focus on academics, better chance of getting preferred state sixth form and less disruptive cohort there, chance to save fees and avoid anti-private discrimination in Unis) and also why over-subscription may not be obvious yet.

But instead of engaging with the actual concern being posted about - whether September will be a shit-storm for state sixth forms - you all jumped in to be bitchy about private school kids. Again. Determined to say that changing sector at sixth form is about 'getting an advantage' rather than about avoiding evidenced discrimination, as well as all the other reasons.

All you care about is to deny the discrimination against private students, which is frankly a laughable position. All the numbers back me up - both the admissions numbers for kids who switch which I posted and also Cambridge's own analysis on outcomes.

I think @fairmindedmaiden is spot on. Spiteful and bigoted. You can't bear the idea of our kids getting an education that improves their lives. Even when it's at our own expense, whilst you take the £8k per year subsidy for yours, and spend all that money which we're spending on education on different advantages for your kids. You feel threatened in some way by our kids having anything yours don't. Fucking weird, to be honest.

It is a very Brexity policy, no obvious gains whatsoever, all downside. Totally irrationale. So those agreeing one should be able to ask why?

There are some people in our state primary school who are very anti private school, “out of principle”. Some of them got older kids into grammar schools, but not the younger ones this year. They may be finding that some of those who would have gone to private schools in previous years, may not be so thick after all. And the same will play out at Sixth Form all over the countries.
It is not great for those of us who have kids who wanted to change Sixth Form, it is added pressure for GCSEs. DD is in Year 11, wanted to aim for another Sixth Form due to their Maths/Science specialism, they are massively oversubscribed. She will be fine to stay at her school, but that means her place won’t go to another child which in a normal year would have been a high performing child at a local comprehensive. Play this out up and down the country. I am not looking forward to GCSE results day.

Sorry to hear that's a worry for your DD @Araminta1003 . I hope she does get the sixth form she wants.

I'm sadly quite sure that if state sixth form oversubscription does prove a problem, plenty will blame the private kids who chose to take up their state place this year. Not many will think to feel appreciation that the state kids in previous years had better options because we previously paid for private education ourselves instead of taking up the state places we were entitled to and paid for as well in taxes.