FT: Demand grows for private tutoring after VAT charge on independent schools

[nearlylovemyusername]

https://www.ft.com/content/300f07df-0126-46be-8470-544223cb7c35

Some extracts:

"Britain’s elite tutoring agencies have seen a boom in business from parents seeking alternatives to private school, a year after VAT was imposed on independent school fees. Top-end private tutors said they had witnessed demand shifting away from preparation for independent school entrance exams, as more families focus on securing places at competitive state and grammar schools."

"Lessons costing more than £60 an hour in subjects including maths, English and languages have risen by 56 per cent since 2022, and by 27 per cent since 2023, according to the data shared with the Financial Times.

Initially, parents were “aiming for independent schools and might have a grammar as a safety or backup”, but he added, for those affected by the VAT changes “it’s shifted completely the other way”."

"Nick Harrison, CEO of the Sutton Trust, a social mobility charity, raised concerns that a rise in private tutoring risks exacerbating inequalities in education. "

Surprise surprise...

Who could've thought that VAT will lead to wealthier families pushing out poorer ones out of grammars and best selective schools, whilst saving them substantial amounts to help kids with housing deposits instead spending on school fees.
And the same wealthier kids don't hold a tag of private education anymore so can't be discriminated by unis.

Win win for wealthy

Exactly. Our school is far and away the largest employer in the area. They have slashed staffing numbers- teachers are not being replaced when they leave, grounds staff, music staff etc. They used to get produce from the local community - 2 farms for meat and veg for example, but have now gone to a national supplier due to cost.

Indeed @Wellthatturnedbad Thousands of children will be the ones who suffer from this policy. Across the board. Those who have to leave their school or those who end up in grammar schools desperately trying to keep up. Children who miss out on a grammar place because they’ve lost out to someone who got pulled from the independent sector. More and more kids squeezed into state schools without the resources to meet their needs. The list is endless.

The only winners here are the big tutoring companies.

@nearlylovemyusername

May i please ask: what is your beef or angle with this?

What is bothering you about this?

Is it that you cant afford private fees yourself?

Is it that your kids didnt pass the Grammar tests?

Is it that you dont want tutors to adjust to market conditions (more demand - basic economics).

Your post is unclear to me. I’d appreciate your reply just to reconcile what your actual issue is.

Pupil numbers in are falling in England. Projections suggest they wîl continue to. There are regional variations, but the trend is definetely downwards. A small proportion of private school pupils moving to state is not going to impact this overall trend.

Falling rolls impact funding. Additional pupils are not always a negative.

https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2024-25

@HelpMeUnpickThis , let me oblige:

When the policy was first announced there are a lot of us here on MN who agreed that it was stupid, won't raise anywhere near expected amounts (if any at all) and will overall serve the wealthy families better whilst punishing poorer ones.

Surprise surprise, trusted analysis says exactly this now.
So stupid party /government made yet another stupid decision.

Now, return the favor please - what prompted you to comment on this thread if it doesn't impact you and if you don't see the issue?

There are fewer pupils in primary schools and independent schools this year compared to last year, with little change to pupil numbers in state-funded secondary, AP schools, special schools and non-maintained schools. This is primarily driven by demographic changes, following a peak of births in 2013, as children reach secondary school age and lower numbers of pupils are moving into primary school age.

Quote from official statistical report above.

There are obviously implications from the policy and it has a negative impact on those who can no longer afford private education. However, state schools are not being overwhelmed by an influx of children from the private sector.
I am not sure why state school pupils are any more (or less) disadvantaged if parents who previously used private school now make a choice to use state and tutor. Both are valid choices.
Money can enable educational advantages in many ways. It has always been that way.

& apologies for typo in earlier post. It wont let me edit now as too late.

Thank you for “obliging me”. How
patronising.

Not that I have to account to you but i do have DC in fee paying schools who also passed all local Grammar school tests.

I was trying to understand what your actual point / train of thought was but clearly you just want to be inflammatory and passively aggressively target me.

I posted here with a discursive question and you have “clapped back” with an answer that shares no information, provides no further explanation or illumination; the things I was genuinely trying to understand.

Because the private school pupils will undoubtedly target the best schools if they move into the state sector. They can access the best catchments areas and private tutors. Even when birth rates in an area are dropping there are usually oversubscribed schools because people generally want to send their kids to the best school available. The private school pupils will hoover up these places and push out a child that otherwise would have got a place but now has to go to a worse school.

This was always the biggest myth within the policy. It only made sense if all state schools were effectively as good as each other and private schools were the biggest source of inequality. We actually know that the opposite is true and state schools currently act as a form of state sponsored inequality that rich parents don't even have to pay for the privilege of accessing.

@Bargepole45 regardless of VAT people with higher incomes have always been able to buy in more affluent catchments and tutor. This isn't anything new. A small proportion of private school pupils moving to state is not going to make much/any impact on that. Particularly in the context of demographic trends.
Most parents are not seeing school places being 'hoovered up' by pupils who were previously in private school. My DD attends an undersubscribed school. We would welcone some extra pupils.

@Owlbookend

My DD attends an undersubscribed school. We would welcone some extra pupils.

If your school is already undersubscribed, any new pupils there are unlikely to have been pushed out of private schools. They're more likely to have been pushed out of other, oversubscribed state schools by those pushed out of private schools. And those families might not welcome being pushed out of their preferred state schools. But that's their problem, not yours.

I’m not from the UK, so this is probably a silly question, but how can tutoring benefit students who are sitting selective school entrance exams?

Where I am from, the selective school exams are more like an IQ/aptitude test, so you can’t really ‘study’ for them. I suppose some tutoring would get you used to the exam format and question style, but that’s about it. I believe that selective schools also interview the final candidates, at least they used to.

What are these test like in the UK?

This has always been the case. The difference now is there’s even more competition. It will be even harder to get your kids into a good state school.

I think @Owlbookend you are missing the point.

The middle class who may have considered independent for secondary and now considering grammar as top choice. They are already heavily oversubscribed to begin with and even more so. Then if they don’t get into grammar, they will aim for the highly regarded comprehensive rather than the independent they used to choose. So one less place for others

It’s not even just Maths English tutoring that’s going on.

Think a school like Grey Coat, a comprehensive with places for language aptitude or church places. Guess who is going to learn another language now or go to church on the weekends to boost up their chances.

Or the Latymer grammar school which offer music places - so again the more freed up money the parent has, the more they can employ a musical teacher to teach their kid (think instead of lessons once per week maybe they can have it 3x a week now)

We already know friends who left a highly selective girls private to go to the local outstanding rates CoE school instead due to costs in year 1. So without the VAT they wouldn’t have taken up that highly sought after place.

My boss and her partner whose combined income is over 400k a year are not considering independent due to the costs. These are the people that can actually afford to pay and now choose not to, instead aiming at grammars and moving to good catchment.

This is slightly off topic but I can never understand why playing catchment monopoly is somehow seen as more honourable than jujst paying for a school you think will suit your child's needs- if you can afford it. I have a family member who is proudly anti-private school and opines loudly and often about how immoral it was for me to send my SEN child to a small private school with great SEN provision but who also boasts about how they moved early enough to the catchment area of a good school- paying mega bucks for their house- yet she can't see how she is also paying for privilege.

These threads are always dominated by parents whose children attend private/grammar/highly desirable comprehensives. Their concerns are the ones that receive most attention. Most children are not attending these types of schools.

I understand that if you can no longer afford private school that has a big impact on your family. However, I dont thinlk VAT introduction is having a significant impact on state school pupils in the way portrayed. There isnt large scale increased pressure on places (I have given the statistics). Demographic trends are for a downturn in pupil numbers. Sector movement is counterbalanced by a smaller overall pupil population. This doesnt mean it is a good policy (you can argue for both sides). However, some movement to the state sector isnt necessarily a negative. Similarly, a student attending state and getting tutoring doesnt necessarily have a negative impact on my child or other state pupils.

More affluent parents having more options and choices (private, moving catchment, tutoring etc.) is just a fact of life. A small amount of sector movement is not the core issue. What most state parents would like is for staff and schools to be better supported and resourced. However, this requires more tax revenue and a myriad of threads on mumsnet show there isnt much support for that.

Anyway, i'll bow out. As a state parent, I am not worrying about some pupils transferring from the private sector. Nor do I worry about people using tutors We all have different experiences, views and concerns. I just wanted to highlight a different perspective.

Couple of quick comments on cross posts.

@Zebramanners I dont think I am missing the point. I understand what is being said. It is just that the types of schools you are highlighting are a tiny minority of state schools. Very few schools use selection. There isnt a single selective/aptitude school in my county (or the neighbouring ones). Furthermore, where they exist tutoring to get in is widespread and has been going on long before VAT. There are threads on munsnet going back decades. The difference VAT and a small amount of sector movement might make, is a tiny drop in a massive ocean. Children whose parents can support them with time, knowledge, money and resources are advantaged. A few extra parents who now consider state instead of private isnt going to make a big difference. The playing wasnt level before.

I dont judge other peoples educational choices @27TimesAway I do get what you are saying, but they arent my views.

Anyway, I am really going now.

Often a cognitive screen of sorts (aptitude) & then it’s all won or lost on entrance exams. Owens, state, partially selective, used to ask you to carry on a classical novel in the same style in the comprehension. Not sure if still do. Most will need some coaching & guidance if from a state comp. Some interview too.

Tutoring can definitely make a difference within a school.

My DD is now Y12, but in Y10/Y11 I cannot think of a single child among my friends, family and DD's friends who wasn't being tutored across multiple subjects except a couple at elite private schools.

One of the issues that did come up was within certain subjects where around 50% of the class were being tutored and the other 50% were not. The teacher was coming down hard on the second group because they obviously weren't paying attention - when it was pointed out that the topic had never been taught, the teacher was very confused why half the class were able to get high marks on it.

If you have a couple of kids being tutored in a class - those with SEN or the odd one with a very focused parent, it doesn't make that much difference, but I am seeing more and more parents who are tutoring across a range of subjects from Y8/9 in order that their children are ahead of the curriculum in class. Effectively the class teaching is the over-teaching and consolidation.

This then has a knock on effect on the way a class is taught, the confidence of some children and any way of judging the effectiveness of teaching within a school. It also means that parents who wouldn't have tutored but can afford to do so are now asking for details of good tutors. For those with disinterested parents, or parents who can't afford hundreds a month it's potentially a massive problem.

"And the same wealthier kids don't hold a tag of private education anymore so can't be discriminated by unis."

If they go to good state schools and live in a wealthy area they may still be somewhere discriminated against.

The thing is this is an inevitable consequence of the schools shutting down for chunks of the pandemic.
We always expected to maybe pay for tutoring if a child was struggling in a subject. The shift was during the pandemic when schools weren't providing any education, or were expecting a heavy amount of parent involvement in order to deliver the education. For those of us who were still working very full time during the pandemic, we knew the independent schools were forging ahead and teaching, we knew that all our teacher friends were busy focused on teaching their own children at home, so we did what we had to do and got tutors. As a result we, and our , children discovered the benefits and pleasure of small group tuition. Our children were as keen as we were to keep this going even after the pandemic. ...

It's also hugely useful where you have a child like mine with a chronic health condition who regularly has to miss school. Despite all the technology we now know exists there's no facility for him to join lessons remotely or catch up on recordings of lessons. So having tuition in multiple subjects helps level the playing field. He was offset last week and had science maths and English tuition whilst at home. I so often wish that the department of education would focus on improving remote access to education for chronically ill children rather than banging on and on about attendance1

@Honeymoan you are 100% correct.

And I was totally guilty of doing this. DD is ADHD and very dyslexic, she absolutely learns best with 1:1 tuition where she can be kept focused.

The internet provides a vast range of tutor options 24/7 and they don't even need to be in the UK.

But I can absolutely see the disadvantages at cohort level when you have schools with a significant percentage of parents doing State Plus as an alternative form of education, and how that can have a negative effect on education for those students without those resources in a very different way from that group being in private schools.

I don't dispute that there are disadvantages at cohort level but our generation of state school children were badly let down by the decision to just cancel education during the pandemic and I feel zero guilt at throwing what resources I can at my own children to mitigate against that. I still had to work full-time, indeed very full-time, to assist with other aspects of the pandemic response and continuing to deliver public services. So did DH. We tried to homeschool my children alongside this but were surviving on a few hours sleep a night

Meanwhile their own teachers were at home teaching their own children and sending us lovely little email updates saying what a lovely time they were having homeschool and and going for walks and baking cupcakes

So we turned to tuition and online lessons as a way to survive and rebalance things and have just never looked back.

This feels far more a consequence of the complete breakdown of education in the pandemic than anything else.

Wealthier kids have never been discriminated against by universities; universities go to great pains to try and level the playing field.
If private school’s parents were honest, they would admit that their child would not have achieved the same level of grades/confidence at interviews if they had gone to local, bog-standard comp. Universities rightly recognise the advantages that private school brings and they adjust to make it fair- they offer on academic potential.