GCSE exam fees £750

[MrsHGWells]

GCSEs are upon us in the coming weeks - do all pupils need to pay £750 for exam fees . Is this standard practice or negotiable by school? how do parents cover this fee ?

No places in state system at the time, only acceptable options was down the silo of independent, and post Covid the educational gap was already spilt and on catch up phase.

This, And other countries like Australia do indeed subsidise the cost of private to the tune of what the state would have paid because they recognise that the private sector provides a very real benefit to the state sector not least in educating SEN children and alleviating other pressures.

That doesn't sound right. The state system has to find you a place via the Fair Access Protocol.

the educational gap was already spilt and on catch up phase.

What do you mean. You imply that post 11 no one can move from state to indie or vice versa?

I don’t know if it ever happens these days but some state schools used to limit the number of exams they would pay for.

When I was at school in the 1970s (bog standard comprehensive) my parents had to pay for two of my O levels because the school policy was to pay for a maximum of seven per pupil.

So there was places in the state system you just didn't seem them acceptable.

The reason why it has to be this way is that exam board staff do not work for free. The school, as the exam centre hosting and sponsoring the candidates, arranges and pays the board for the exams.

You have opted out of State education in its entirety, so the exam fees are passed to you. That opt-out is a binary for practical and principled reasons.

The most obvious principled reason is: State schools usually only offer GCSEs, whereas private can offer any leaving exam they like, including useless ones that prove nothing as well as highly-regarded exams like IB.

• If the Govt funded GCSEs for private pupils, but not other leaving exam types that may cost a different fee, that would impose a two-tier system onto private schools. You'd have the parents of IB kids starting threads saying "the GCSE kids in my private school get their £750 exam fees paid by Govt, why don't my kids get their £996 IB fees paid?".
• If the Govt agreed to pay £750 towards all private pupils' leaving exams, they'd risk paying taxpayers' money to dodgy overseas boards for diplomas best used to clean one's backside.

A line has to be drawn somewhere about how much the Govt will pay for exam fees, to which companies, and for which children. The State is reasonable in saying "£750, to British exam boards for our home-grown GCSE exams that we have some trust in, for all children who we are already responsible for educating".

You were offered free education for your children. You chose to decline that offer, so you chose to take both the opportunities and costs associated with that choice.

Missing? Private schools are a business.

And you think that schools wouldn't put their fees up two grand a term to account for this sudden increase in discretionary spending in the bank accounts?

Strange how state secondary schools more or less make do with six grand (less if they're maintained as the LA receive the funding instead) and fund all the things they legally have to, such as additional support, tuition, exam entries, topping up the derisory FSM funding, books, equipment and suchlike on the heady sum of less than a term's fees in the private sector. It's as though one is there for profit and one isn't.

Yes there must have been a state school place.

If there was literally no space in any school within travelling distance, as @TeenToTwenties says, the LA can use the FAP to insist on a local school adding a space for your DC.

I agree with those who say it’s your choice btw.

By all means pay for private education if you choose to do so – but why should exam fees be subbed by the state? You might just as well say the child’s whole education (which after all is compulsory in some form) should be paid for.

I chose to go private for some healthcare for one of my DC last year, for various reasons. I am glad I was able to afford it as we would still be waiting if we had gone the NHS route. I don't expect any kind of refund from the state for the money I thus saved the NHS!

And the argument that private school parents are saving the state so much money by not taking a state school place doesn't really stand up, sorry. I am sure that's not any parent’s reason for choosing private. And in any case yes, there are plenty of spare spaces at schools near me, so please come and take them up.

Bore off. It was your decision to send your kids to private school and all the advantages it brings, and you’re moaning about paying for public exams.

If you’ve decided to go private then of course you should pay. The government will pay but only if you choose to go state.

• 2 yr course curriculum is set - a wasted assessment switching half way through..

Social dichotomy like yours of “them and us” starts in the education system and paying your way with independent school or private healthcare scorned upon villainised wealthy mindset.

and now with the economy at a standstill with further tax hikes, and rocketing cost of living, you have to question is governments stealth taxes grinding the population to mediocrity and graciously grateful for the little we have left in the same breath, will you hold your stance when you hand over your salary and be given back an allowance of entitlement of social welfare?

@MrsHGWells presumably your school has decoupled the exam fees from the school fees so that you don't need to pay VAT on them. However, hopefully they warned you when you signed up for the school.

Other private schools include it in their fees.

State schools are funded by the state, but still have to pay the fees.

They are not Government exams. They are national tests run by exam boards. Someone has to pay for them.

If you don't like it, you presumably have the option to not pay, and then your child won't do the exams.

will you hold your stance when you hand over your salary and be given back an allowance of entitlement of social welfare?

If private education breeds this kind of conspiracy theory paranoia, then I'm glad I went to State grammar.

The "them and us" mentality is epitomised by the practice of paying in the first place for an education that is offered to your children for free.

When you are used to privilege, having the playing levelled even a little feels like oppression.

Oh give over. People pay for private education because they want their kids to do better than the other kids, it's nothing to do with altruism. That advantage often plays out for the rest of their lives in better career prospects, increased confidence and the old school tie network. That's your ROI, not claiming money back from the government.

What are you on about? You could choose state at any point in time. Halfway through the 2 year GCSE course if you want. Of course you won’t because that would be a bit shit for your kid. But own your choice. And own the fact that you didn’t read the ts and cs properly.

Who’s villainising you? Pointing out that you’ve made the decision to privately educate and that includes exam fees is not villainising you at all. How are exam fees a stealth tax?

I don’t feel ground to mediocrity btw - why would you think that?

Yes pupils at private get charged for GCSEs and pupils at state don’t. Take home message = play the game in advance and buy an expensive house next to a leafy state school. It’s all a game. If you go the £2mill house and state school option, you can pretend you’re the salt of the earth and also get into Oxbridge based on your educational “disadvantage” lol. Glad mine are grown up.

They generally weren’t included pre-VAT either as they differ for each pupil and generally only relate to year 11.

I expect it’s quite clear on the fees info and T&Cs.

You have quite a strange writing style.

If you are at a private school, then yes. You pay the exam fees, I’m afraid. It will have been in the T&Cs and referenced in emails in Y9 etc.

Are you saying that when you filled in the secondary school ‘choices’ list - your child wasn’t offered a single state school option? Not one option?

@MrsHGWells The fact that you adopted the name of a committed socialist writer to start a thread whining about how the state was mean to parents who opted out of the state system has its own exquisite irony . . .

If you are enrolled in a state school, the school will pay for the exams. This comes out of the schools overall budget. They pay the exam boards, not the government.

Private schools make the decision to pass the costs on to the parents. They are independent bodies that the government is not involved in. "why the inequality that independent pays, and pays and pays?" - because it is a private business.

If you go to the local authority and ask for a state secondary place, they will give you one within a reasonable distance. Every child in the UK is entitled to a state education.

You could apply your logic to any part of the money that a private school pays to its suppliers.

For example, schools and private schools both pay one from a relatively restricted list of suppliers for electricity; water; gas - private school parents pay for these via fees, while state schools pay for these from the per capita funding they are given by the state.

Why do you see exams - similarly bought from a restricted list of third party suppliers - as different?