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

Academia is not short of teachers.

What planet are you on? There is a national teacher recruitment crisis right now.

Do you realise that if a teacher leaves because they no longer receive a staff discount, the school will also lose the marginal revenue from their child. As you are all so traumatised by the VAT charge, a full fee paying family is unlikely to take the place instead. Your school is more likely to suffer financial distress. However, the state sector will benefit from more teachers. They can help the government achieve their promised teaching targets.

It’s clearly just a goady thread by the OP looking to rant about VAT.

To be honest it makes me chuckle to see private school parents complaining that the VAT will mean only the rich will be able to afford private school, they don’t realise that’s already the situation and don’t like it now the shoe’s on the other foot.

QUOTE:
"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.
........
Each child costing the school £12,000 pear year!"

I disagree with your logic. Unless the school and classes are full the teacher's child is not costing the school 12k each year (as no-one is waiting for their place). In fact if you push the teacher into removing their kids it's just another 12k gone from the budget, or if they have 2 kids at the school 24k.

You’ll save a lot on the family budget by putting your child to state school. HTH

Btw, teachers whose children are attending the school will be invested in the school's success and community.

Teachers who have been given a massive reduction in their benefits? Not so much.

So no concern at all on your side for all the children you wish to send to state and who would (in your own words) have to leave their world, their school, their friends

I can see so much compassion there.
Im alright Jack attitude whilst not giving a shit for anyone eise.

That's true where I used to work. The classes were around 18 but could have gone up to 22. The subsidised places weren't taking the place of a fully paid one. Stop being jealous! I'd rather have been able to have paid the full fees but that's not possible on a teacher salary of 35k

Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Every fee paying parent is entitled to put to their school governor request to amend staff policy and implement reduction of staff discount, which is no longer feasible.

Independent schools are businesses. They need to make money not give discounts!

its up to each school to review. This is what many parents have already raised with school governors. We must retain our friends and families who have contributed the cannot be priced out when efficiencies are obvious.

Also OP, have you thought about the fact that if you launch this petition what you are actually doing is ask that your children’s teachers (who are actual human beings and are the people you trust to work hard to educate and care for your child) have to find a new school for their kids because you think it will help you afford the fee increase that the government has imposed. These are the people you meet at parents evenings and you will have to look them in the eye and they will know about your petition and what you gave been demanding.

🤣🤣🤣 employers can offer any benefit to employees that they like and you, the customer, can't control this!
Also VAT is payable on the product you've agreed to buy - it's not a choice for schools to charge it or not.
Don't like the operation - don't pay.

My daughter's best friend is the child of one of her teachers at her fee paying school. A much loved and excellent teacher and a popular and hard working pupil. I don't want to lose either.

I'm sad that some children might go, but most of my children's friends parents can either comfortably afford the hike or have plenty of options for a bit of belt tightening.

I'm not that fussed by fancy facilities, I picked the school for the quality of its teachers

You know in many schools staff are entitled to a free lunch providing they give supervision to the children at this time and have a curtailed lunch break. Would you like to remove this too?

Well they're not really friends if you'd lose touch just because you don't go to the same feeling paying school, are they?

I am senior management in a profit driven business. Retention and recruitment of good quality staff is key to our success. We are nothing without decent staff.

The one thing I notice in these type of threads is the what about me .. State schools have been cut year after year with more and more SEN children in mainstream schools .

I absolutely don’t begrudge them the perk of the job

Do you not want to attract the best teachers to teach your children you daft ha’perth?

Imagine being this posh and entitled to be enraged about this, when Majority can't afford and have to send to state school regardless. #howtheotherhalflive

And all the while the OP will expect all the teachers to carry on providing excellent service to her dcs Wo blinking 😂😂😂

Because you know the best way to get a great service is to make the life of your provider harder. A very well known technique

Yes, there are a lot of people on these threads who aren't at an independent and so keen to tell everyone else how they should feel and what they are able to afford. I don't agree with OP, but this is the result when people fear their children will lose their school and their community and are feeling desperate.

It's quite likely there are a few teachers at the school who could easily afford the full fee because the teacher salary is the second income, so it's not completely irrational of OP to feel that this isn't fair. But what's MORE unfair is the number of teachers who are being priced out of their own school because of the teacher pension related fee rises (also created by the government) and now this unforgivably badly timed VAT imposition. We all know who's having the temper tantrum and, unfortunately, they just won the election and have a lot more power than OP.

i think having staff’s kids in the school is actually very clever, because the staff literally has skin in the game to make the school the best. I would argue that your kids being there is a want, not a need but hey ho.
What next - scrap the siblings discount and make everyone ride the shuttle bus for more money.. Such a narrow minded view.

Hahaha…. Seriously. You’re delusional

Entitled
Selfish
Utterly out of touch
Batshit
Keep stamping those feet op, you won’t get anywhere

Academia is not short of teachers

There are plenty of qualified teachers in the country. Increasingly large numbers of them are no longer prepared to work in the state system though. It sounds like you want to get rid of them out of the independent sector as well!

I doubt op is "posh". She clearly doesnt have any savings cushion or wriggle room. And I can feel sorry for her that she is in this corner while still thinking her suggestions are bonkers