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

This

You simply cannot stand by and watch families have to leave whilst offering such ridiculous staff discount.

Of course independent schools can change their policy. They can amend the discount. It’s not set in stone and they’re no longer in any position to offer such incentives. Fact!

Congratulations you have just won bonkers thread of the day

Independent schools can easily replace them with the pool of outstanding teachers

Hahaha have you been living under a rock?!

I'm an independent school teacher, of a shortage subject. Believe me, they would take many other cost-saving or revenue-creating measures before risking losing us.

Many other things they can do like renting out facilities in the holidays and weekends (unless boarding). Many schools do this already.

My last school was used as a wedding venue in the holidays. I got married there myself - and had a discount for that too!

There are many teachers using this site.

Outside of MumsNet parents are scrambling and talking looking at the efficiencies Labour have highlighted.

This is their #1

lol at the huge amounts of academic staff running at independent schools for jobs

Often 6 days a week compared to 5 days for state, dealing with ultra high stung students and parents. Not the dream scenario you might think it is, no TPS pension!

What a shame that begrudge this so much op, you clearly have no respect for these teachers and believe they should experience a pay cut?! Some schools are quite remote and it’s difficult to get to other schools, plus the hours are so incredibly long, including evenings, nights and weekends, that they actually couldn’t get childcare to work those hours if their kids weren’t in the school with them!

Maybe you also begrudge the fee reductions for military families, scholarships and so on. You sound like a really horrible person and I bet you’re the kind of parent who gives the teachers hell!!

Did it take you long to come up with an idea for a thread that plays to all the negative stereotypes of Private school Parents?

Brilliant, they're eating themselves now 😂

It'll probably end up more expensive having to up the wages of teachers as many take the low pay because part of the package is subbed fees, they'll have have be more appealing and rising pay is the best way to do so.

This is how independent schools reduce turn over and save a fortune on recruitment, being able to keep strong teachers for years while their dc are educated. A friend of mine teaches in a prep school and is Oxford educated but felt a calling to teach. Some of the nonsense would have seen her quit over the years but the 75% discount for her 2dc kept her there. The forces dc also get a discount and many families with multiple dc negotiate on the price. Don’t like it? Take your dc out.

If you have a problem with how your DC'S school structures it's staff benefits scheme, that's an issue for the individual school. A private school is a business and this is how they choose to incentivise staff. The government can't pass a law stopping schools offering a discount on fees any more than they can stop retailers offering their staff a hefty in-store discount. If you want to write to the leadership team at your child's school to suggest they remove this perk you are welcome to do so, but you'd be wasting your time.

As PPs have said, many teachers and other staff with children choose to work at private schools largely because of the discount. Removing such a big financial incentive amounts to a significant reduction in renumeration and staff, with the support of non-parent colleagues and trade unions, will mount legal challenges, taking more money from the school budget.

In the unlikely event a school removes the fee reduction or starts to not offer it to new staff, they will face a recruitment and retention crisis. Pay is often not much better in private schools (cos they're a business wanting to operate at a profit / so those really in charge can pay themselves the big bucks) and there's lots of pressure from parents who expect top results for the amount they pay, but teaching staff go there for the perks such as fee reductions for their own kids.

Also, there's a risk that if you complain loudly, teachers may leave because they feel unwelcome and under attack, and the school will struggle to recruit good staff to teach your DC if there is public conflict and animosity with parents, before even getting to the idea of losing the financial incentive of a fee discount.

Families are not concerned about retaining such teachers if it means they’re going to be forced out themselves!

Everyone is looking at the budget. What can be done. Where can savings be made?

To protect my family and my children.

Reading your later posts, I’m not sure they’ll be desperate to keep you as a parent. You’re not coming across as a nice person at all.

Cleaning, grounds and office staff also get discounts. It enabled a few of my friends to sent their tiddlers to pre prep while earning a low,wage living in council house.

Why do people think everyone who works and uses indi are rich snobs? Who do you think cleans the bogs? Where they work once the school goes bust? Making beds at the local state? Where will the money go? Not into the local state I can assure you. Some are overseas students abd some of that money will just leave the UK when all the private schools go TU.

Our whole village it feels works at the indi school.

I'm sure the teachers don't earn as much as the parents who can send their children to independent schools. They send them because of the discount. Take that away, teaches and children leave. Then again you are left with only those very fortunate who can afford it. Add those places to state schools too! Catchments will be even tighter!

Why are you not concerned about retaining good teachers?

What do you actually want private education for if it isn't the good teaching?

Private school teachers are not paid a lot. They often do not have the same pension benefits. Work longer hours.

The teachers at our school get 30% of prep and 50% of seniors.

Our school have next to no staff turnover as once you're children are in the school, they'll be there for at least 12 years, if not more with multiple children.

It is cheaper to retain staff than get new ones every few years.

But private education is a want not a need - otr does that only apply to the children of teachers?

This discount represents part of their award. What you are suggesting is that the schools cut the teachers’ pay in order to keep costs down. You do realise that don’t you?

This has to be someone posting to make private school parents look bad.

@Mumoftwo1316 Hmm, if it's not the teaching (not necessarily any better than a qualified state school teacher) then it might be smaller class sizes? Or it might be not having to mix with poor people .

This makes no sense. If you don’t retain teachers you could end up with someone much worse covering. Someone with no commitment to the school who is not willing to go the extra mile. In that case what’s the point of private school?

Yep. Satire.

This is either a reverse thread or the OP is lacking in critical thinking skills.

Of course Labour suggested this. Labour is desperate to recruit 6500 teachers into the state sector and will say anything to make private school teachers move sectors.
Most private school teachers who take the hefty discount are stalwarts at independent schools and stay for years, far longer than transient parents such as the OP. Plus teachers kids tend to be clever and well behaved.

Academies also often include priority admissions for staff. It’s how the best schools get the best staff. All schools want supportive parents. If private is too expensive move to a good state school, plenty around.

Typical person used to privilege. Campaigning to have someone else's wages cut so they can have what they want and calling it activism.

If you want to complain about this you can. To your kids' school. I don't know why you expect anyone else to be interested. I can't afford a holiday this year but am I campaigning for airlines to pay their staff less so I can? No. No, I'm not.