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'm thinking maybe this is another devil's advocate thread? When Labour say the schools 'don't need to pass the VAT on to parents' what they are talking about is cutting jobs and/or reducing pay, bursaries etc. for staff at private schools. In other words, the staff should suffer to save the parents. These 'massive profits' that they hint at don't exist - and they know it. The great majority of schools are run not-for-profit and the few that aren't have to match their fees to their competitors, so also can't cream off large profits. Having wrecked teachers' pensions, the government now want them to suffer more.
Let me spell that out more clearly: the VAT policy is about punishing hardworking TEACHERS because they work in the private sector, which the government is ideologically opposed to.
The great majority of parents don't want this at all. Apart from the morality of it, teachers having their own children in the school is a huge boost to morale, community spirit and an incentive to make sure that the standards remain high as their own children's education is at stake.

By penalising the teachers so that they leave and go for better pay and pensions in the state sector? That makes no sense.

There are plenty of staff who don’t need any discount of school fee.

Can you explain that?
As in theybdint need it because they’re paid well enough already? Or they have a partner who earns well?
Are you also jealous of the teachers pay by any chance?

So you’re happy for schools to see a mass exodus of staff ???

Teacher salaries very similar to state sector but smaller class sizes mean lower ratios which means more teachers to teach same amount of kids, resources and equipment, marketing and consultancy, grounds and buildings maintenance and all the extra curricular activities and other things that they offer that not all state schools do. While a large proportion of a school's budget is tacher salaries, there are many other expenses and running costs.

But will the VAT be applied to the teachers' bills as well? That could make the bursaries significantly less attractive. I just can't understand parents who are 'on board' with the VAT. Can you really not see how this is going to cause havoc with school budgets?

Well yes.
But not by destroying the thing you want to save lol.

This is stunningly out of touch with reality. Irrational temper tantrum stuff.

Tuition discounts are vital for staff recruitment and retention, and staff recruitment and retention is one of the single most important factors in a school's success.

staff recruitment and retention is one of the single most important factors in a school's success.

Fully agree with that!

Jeez, now you want to remove your children's teachers' benefits?

The discount is one of the way you pay for your children's education, it's one of the things that keeps the teachers at the school.

Why don't you tell us what your situation is op. Why did you choose the school you did for your DC?
How many are they?
What's your family income?
Why have you not been preparing for this rise in cost ( if that is the case)?
should your want come above other childrns' wants? (The children of staff)?
What will you think if all these staff members leave and your kids are stuck with supply staff for crucial subjects?

It's part of those staff's benefits package. You are asking them to de facto take a massive pay cut.

My name - yes it will.

If both parents are teachers and have two kids it will be unaffordable for them even with the discount.

OP - please try to understand that these discounts aren’t a cost!! It won’t save the school any money if they aren’t offered any more. It will just mean few pupils and a lower income for the school!!

Preferable to a mass exodus of children, friends, family. Absolutely.

Only the staff utilising the current staff discount will be impacted. Not all staff.

Every contract is open to change. I’d say this Labour government is most definitely a change of circumstance where 50%+ staff discount is not feasible.

My kids aren't at an independent btw but this just feels like a not very well thought out tantrum.

You really don’t want your precious angels mixing with the kids of plebs, do you?

this is a business decision for each private school to make: not something that can or should be legislated.

So op seems to think there’s lots and lots of spare staff knocking about, and they’ll all be falling over themselves to work in schools that have taken away TPS, are in financial trouble and offer no incentive to staff parents

I disagree.

The hours our teachers put in,and the commitment they show, I do not begrudge them a discounted rate for their children. They do not have the time to do a separate school run and need the benefit in order to do their jobs.

You are suggesting, essentially, that they should have a pay cut because of a totally unrelated govt policy. In no way is that fair.

Your views suggest you are anti-independent education, and stirring.

" sending panic through communities "

😂😂😂

You're hilarious OP

Kids who have no one to teach them ????

Wow! Let's pit everyone against each other. Also it's in many teacher contracts. Believe me, they will leave if their kids can't attend. Teachers with children in the school are much more invested and care more about the school. That's just the way it is

The discount is part of their employment package. To remove it would be a significant change in T&Cs. It can’t be removed just on the whim of a petty little woman who is stamping her feet

Preferable to a mass exodus of children, friends, family. Absolutely.

Despite your, um, passion - you don't seem to understand what makes a good education. It's the teachers.

Nasty.

The extra 20% will be painful for us but the more of these kinds of thread I see from vitriolic, arrogant, over privileged and entitled people, the more glad I am to be shouldering that burden.

Private schools shouldn't need to exist. I'm not sorry that we are using our wealth to get the best education we can for our DC given that the free state alternative was inadequate but its awful that those without means have to have the inadequate school.

Meanwhile I don't begrudge the staff perk of a discount at all. It helps boost competition for jobs which therefore benefits all the school's pupils.

I just don't think this is a huge problem if a few teachers have a kid on a discounted place.

On the other hand, many schools offer discounted places to siblings - maybe 25% off. I always wonder if this is cost effective given how many families have 2 or 3 kids in the same school while there's a massive waiting list of families who would pay full fees for one.