Reduce or remove Staff discounts at Independent Schools.

[SchoolRunDays]

Historically staff at fee paying independent schools have received significant discounts on fees for their own children (I’ve heard ranging from 10% discount up to 85%)

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/05/26/private-schools-make-cuts-state-teachers-vat-raid-reeves/

At the independent school my daughter attends the discount for staff is 50% of the fee so if monthly fee is £2000 staff will pay £1000 if academic year costs £24000 staff will pay £12,000.

No parents ever raised an eyebrow it was never questioned until now.

The Labour introduction of 20% VAT sending panic through communities.

School have informed they cannot “absorb” this cost. Question parents are asking is “why not?” Where’s all the money going.

counting heads and realising just how many staff children are holding places (right throughout the school). Many families with multiple in attendance. Doing the math each child representing a potential 50% loss of revenue. Each child costing the school £12,000 pear year!

Are we really living in a time where there are no other staff available that we have to incentivise positions!?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13660725/amp/Education-Secretary-Bridget-Phillipson-parents-warning-Labours-VAT-raid-private-school-fees.html

Rather than full-fee-paying families having to leave school the staff discount needs to be reduced, removed or abolished.

Independent families under a Labour government simply cannot afford such extravagant discounts.

Staff at private schools do not need to send their children to their place of work. It’s a want not a need.

#VATonfees #PrivateSchoolTax #Labour

If they want to they should understand the unprecedented current political situation and accept new contracts with revised/removed discount on fees.

They can choose to stay and pay more online with parents suffering the 20% VAT or remove their children and free up spaces so the school can generate a full revenue per place.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/labour-private-school-fees-vat-tax-when-b2583658.htmlLabour Tax

BEFORE you remove your children from independent school. Fight for them*

Labour have made it clear school must make cuts that there’s no reason for annual price hikes, no reason to pass on the VAT to parents.

No reason bar the fact they are losing hundreds of thousands of pounds offering all-staff outrageous fee discounts.

Bursaries and scholarships are earned under strict admission criteria and few and far between. Take a moment to count heads of staff kids within your school. It’s a very different situation. If they want the privilege of discount their children should apply and be tested like everyone else.

Who to complain to?

Not the school the teachers, the headteachers the finance department the very people in charge of your payments all have a conflict of interest.

If their children are in school and they’re receiving a 50% discount do you believe they will help you to remove it? No They’re protecting themselves and the school(staff) families best interests.

School parents must petition via governors, lawyers and the media to expose what is going on.

#RemoveStaffDiscount #ProtectMyOwn #NewSchoolPolicy #EqualityInFees #LabourVAT

Parents don’t need to take their children out of independent education because of the VAT. Schools need to reduce or remove all unnecessary staff discounts and absorb the cost. Not pass it on to fee paying parents. Schools need to make internal tough decisions and efficiencies

I don’t work. I volunteer. As a TA at a state school.

So what you are saying is that you are not willing to get a paying job and are happy for your DH/DP who must earn a ton of money to pay not only for your/his children but to to subsidise your lifestyle.

Maybe you should re-evaluate your perk and get a paying job.

Great idea- how about you petition to increase class sizes to 30 with 8 classes per year as well, sell off the school fields and sports facilities, get rid of unnecessary music lessons and extra curricular clubs and replace the food choices with low budget basic stuff? That'll really help independent schools survive 😝

Try being a baby boomer. There were 56 in my class in primary school

If approx half the staff in a school with an average of 20 pupils per class have an average of 1.8 children in the school and are paying 50% fees then ignoring scholarships and bursaries the actual subsidy coming from each full fee paying pupil to support this policy is approx 2%.

The school have taken the business decision that 2% on fees to support this policy is worth it in order to make working there a more attractive proposition.

If the OP doesn't like this they can vote with their feet and find a school whose policies they like. There is no obligation to use any service ftom businesses whose policies you don't like but the businesses have no obligation to change their policies to suit you as a customer if they are able to attract sufficient customers who don't object to their policies.

lol - another recent GCSE English parent, right?? :-D

This will blow OP"s mind. I have just been talking with a man whose son is about to start at the same school as mine. I pay nearly £40k per year. He is going to pay nothing. And he isn't even a teacher. The other parents are subsidising his child. Do I resent this? No. I am delighted that a young lad is going to get an amazing opportunity that his parents would otherwise never be able to dream of.

If there are waiting lists at the majority of these schools as you state here if you have to leave because you can't pay the VAT element then it suggests those places will be filled, the staff can retain their child places at discount and the school does not have to go to the additional expense of recruitment and training of new teachers.

Your own argument fails in that you have pointed out there are people in the wings waiting to take your space.

I’m very much against the vat policy on principle, either way this is a hard no from me. I wouldn’t my children attending a school to be taught by teachers harbouring resentment that they can’t afford the same education for their children.

Staff discounts are actually a very cost effective policy for recruiting and retaining high quality teaching staff.

OP you do realise that generally Heads of Departments are ..... teachers.

Yes and often they only earn circa 40k. With school fees around 20k, there's just no way they can afford to send their own kids to the school without a discount, and/or a higher earning partner.

Op is making these teachers out to be free loaders, but she doesn't have a paid job herself. If she's so worried about covering an extra 20% of fees (4k? 5k?) she could work a light part time job and easily cover it.

I don't know why I'm feeding the troll!

I get a 50% discount; one child is now at uni, the other in sixth form. Of my colleagues with children, I'd say that roughly half of them send their children to state schools; those tend to be the ones where the teacher is the higher earner of the couple. The point is, even with the discount, a teacher's salary isn't really enough.

Having the discount has certainly worked to retain me. I'll be looking to retire as soon as practical after DC2 is through the system. Uni top-up is still considerably cheaper than half fees!

Well, it would be great to see these teachers coming back to the state sector.

But how do you think your private schools are going to run if you can't attract the staff to run them?

Within our school this petition has already been put to governors.

And what has the response been? I wish I could be a fly on the wall.

I'm willing to bet that, not only will they not entertain it for a second, but they'll be at pains to hide any word of it getting to the teachers, for your sake.

I can't believe you're so willing to become so unpopular among the staff. "That Parent" doesn't begin to cover it

You'll very quickly find teachers will leave private schools, which will affect your children. The state sector is in a dire situation with staffing, and if private schools remove, in my opinion, one of the main draws which is to offer a reduced fee, then you'll also be stuck with supply staff or much larger class sizes.

@MultiplaLight stupid really?

There is nothing wrong with most state schools that's my point

Staff at my school include secretaries, janitors, gardeners.

Also, we are not full. The school getting 60% of the fee from a staff family means a place is full, not empty. A teacher is retained.

I moved from state after my kids had left school. I work much longer hours and have less job security. Our teachers' pension scheme is under threat.

You are the kind of parent who takes up so much of my time - angry, demanding and ill informed.

I am not sure we would want your children if this is how you are bringing them up.

No it's not mean spirited at all, it's about equity. It's also been known about for YEARS! I worked in a private school 4 years ago and there were conversations then about planning for a VAT increase from an inevitable Labour government. If private schools finance teams didn't plan for this at least a year ago, it says a lot about the school's poor strategy.

This is quite nasty.

People upset about about the VAT charge because of settled children maybe having to move schools and be disrupted.
Oh but it’s fine if children of staff have to move schools and be disrupted 🙄

And yep watch lots of good staff leave because of it, and you can have all the fancy buildings and facilities you want but a school is only really as good as its teachers and leaders.

If this is the #1 priority of private school parents, it reflects astonishingly badly on them. However, I am not convinced. I'm no fan of private education personally, but the majority of private school parents I know do have a level of respect and appreciation for the teachers that are educating their kids, and most would recognise the importance of retaining these staff members.

Sorry, I quoted the wrong person!

@MultiplaLight phew

And bloomin heck why are you personally worried about the VAT rise OP when you aren’t maximising earnings (or earning anything?)! You could get yourself a part time job to cover the increase!

The most ridiculous post I’ve seen on a while, I’m not convinced this is real. How would anyone possibly think there are enough staff families to solve VAT issue? Might as well cut staff salaries too as clearly they are plain greedy…🙄

Staff paying higher fees does not affect the VAT charged on your fees you numbskull