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 is nasty and small minded and is very similar to the jealousy that is so prevalent in the "ha ha Private school parents will have to send their posh kids to state" attitudes.

I agree.

"Why should they get it when I can't".

Besides - do you think the schools do this out of the kindness of their hearts? Or do you think they get some benefit. More applicants to choose from and better staff retention so your child has a better education (that the school can charge for accordingly), being able to pay lower wages (your fees might well go up if they remove this benefit and have to start paying more to keep staff).

madness. If this is in any way serious
OP a unilateral change to an employment contract will lead to grievances and Employment Tribunal cases and quite right to. I’m sure it would include constructive dismissal cases from employees that leave. So one less teacher. What they are paying for their DC and then lawyers fees.

Academia is not short of teachers.

Is that a joke?

If they can no longer afford to offer the discount because of the need to cut costs to limit the fee increases, then they will stop offering it. So you won't have to worry.
If you're convinced it's a fact they aren't in a position to offer it any more, I'm not entirely sure what the problem is.

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

It's a want, not a need, for EVERYONE.

Also, thanks for explaining how a 50% reduction works to us thickos 🙄

I have a child at private school, yes I'm against the 20% hike and yes I'm going to have to reevaluate whether we can afford it if VAT is added to my fees. BUT I would never begrudge the teachers at my child's school because they get a discount. I wouldn't begrudge them if they got the schooling free. My child's teachers have been amazing and deserve everything they get.

Do you begrudge airline or shop workers who get discounts?

You sound like a spiteful and nasty person and quite frankly reading this make me embarrassed to be a private school parent.

Don't give her ideas

This has turned into a bit of a comical thread.

You’re annoyed you’re having to pay VAT on a luxury that should really always have had VAT.

You’re bitter about the fact you’re being expected to pay more and those pesky teachers get a 50% discount. Those teachers that you need to teach your own children.

If you’re sending your child to private school it’s fairly evident you’re decently well off, so, you can either-

• pay up so your kids can attend the school
• leave the school and send them to normal schools that the vast majority of the population attend
• relocate your home so you’re in a better catchment area for the “best” state schools from the money saved from fees

What you shouldn’t do is try and take away the few crumbs the teachers have been thrown in their benefits package. I can’t imagine the pressure of working at a private school and how much the job would eat into your personal life- they deserve to have some perks.

That being said, you’re more than welcome to change job role and retrain as a teacher and get a job in your kids school. Then you too can get the discount that you seemingly so badly need.

HTH.

Yes please do! Let’s remove an incentive for teachers to teach at these schools:) more good teachers then going to a state school, hopefully!

You aren't thinking big enough OP. Those teachers have the privilege of teaching your delightful children. No need to deal with the urchins of the poor. And they are in clean, well equipped classrooms. Since not all of them will be using the teacher discount, it wouldn't be enough to cover the VAT gap.

I'd propose a wage cut for all staff. Around 20% should help cover some of the costs and they should be grateful you pay them at all. What with the surplus of good teachers they won't be able to find better paid jobs anyway. Perhaps you can get some more junior teachers to work for free in exchange for social media exposure and a good reference.

Ignore the ridicule you are getting here. Fight to keep yout children from the unwashed masses.

Pre Pre

Empathy begins with understanding life from another person's perspective. Nobody has an objective experience of reality. It's all through our own individual prisms.

Do what’s right for you and your family.

Do you work op ? If not, train to be a teacher and enjoy that 50% discount 👍🏻

Very nice definition of selfishness there.

Which is what those awful teachers are doing…

Unlike staff I pay my full fee.
Why do staff feel entitled to these discounts?

Why should they stay at school ahead of the next person willing to contribute a full fee to the pot?

I thought that the VAT was going to cause the closure of many private schools because of the mass exodus of pupils..?
Is it actually the case that there'll be queues of people clamouring to join and pay the full fees??

Op, you should become a teacher or work at the school. Get the perk yourself. Makes sense.

On another note, after reading a few of these threads on the same vein, I now think that many parents who send their children to private school have clearly just had everything land at their feet for their whole lives and just expect privilege. That's why they're being so batshit about the vat increase.

I do not mean all private school parents but there's definitely a pattern emerging.

Most of us are used to making decisions based on what we can and can't afford.

OP, did you attend private school?

I’m simply just curious as I’ve seen more convincing arguments made by 12 year olds who have just joined the debate team.

If your posts are anything to go by and you did attend, you certainly aren’t selling me on the quality of education provided.

This can’t be a serious post from OP.

I’ve been a Head in the independent and state sector and the package is what makes it viable in the private sector- salaries can be much lower.

Don’t look too closely … a few of these friends you are so upset might have to leave could well be paying less than the teacher children with special discounts.

do you feel the same about supermarket or hotel chain staff getting company discounts? Do you feel when you buy your weekly shop that you are funding the team’s weekly shop?

or pilots who get special flight packages for themselves and their families? Do you complain about your flight covering these costs?

as a PP said, private schools are businesses and if you want to use their services it’s your choice and equally your choice to choose somewhere else.

just to note, I have a £40k tuition package available to me which we do not use as a family.

teachers in private schools are paid less and work longer hours. There is no ‘pool’ of teachers happy to take these jobs. That’s absurd.

the pressure on private staff is much greater. Parents and leadership expect results. If I have a failing student I am expected to do everything I can to help them, extra help at lunchtime after school ect.

I don’t understand how the OP thinks teachers kids attending is a ‘want’ and they should just go back to state school and for her and everyone else it’s a ‘need’ and they couldn’t possibly go to state school. Does the OP think that the students are all segregated? The teachers kids have to sit in the corner and not interact with anyone? Talk about looking down on people and classism. Trying to put teachers and their kids in their place 🙄

Actually many teachers at independent schools, especially at junior level, do need to send their kids to their school because of the very long hours that they work. The hours are much longer than state schools and so they wouldn't be home on time to make dinner/supervise homework etc for their own kids if the kids didn't have this provided at school.

With the loss of pension benefits for many independent school teachers, I would have thought this was one of the key perks that makes teaching in the independent sector (which usually entails much longer hours, boarding duties in boarding schools, providing sports tuition and extra-curricular activities etc) attractive. Independent school teachers aren't paid significantly more than state school teachers and it's often, especially in boarding schools, not a family-friendly lifestyle unless the kids are in the school too.

Exactly @Sherrystrull

There’s folk out there (and a lot of them at that) who are having to choose between heating or eating.

Maybe OP can learn from the “poors” on how to budget-

Downsize your home.
Get a better job.
Take on a second job.
Don’t go on holiday.
Batch cook dinners.

I mean, that’s what they tell us to do, right?

A perk is good.

We all love a perk.

but a 50% discount amounting to £12,000+ p.a is not a perk.

At least not under this new labour government.

It’s a burden.

10%, 20% a free pencil, a book bag they’re perks.

like I said, few knew of these discounts at all pre Labour coming to power. Nobody cared, Now it’s all anyone is talking about.

Every family will have their own perspective relating to how it impacts them or potentially will impact them personally.

There is no right/wrong

There’s simply doing the best for your own family. Under a new government policy. The money has to come from somewhere. As much as people respect the staff when it comes to finance you protect your own family.

What’s your job op ?

I'm not over the moon about having to pay VAT on fees in future, but I don't begrudge staff getting a discount for their own children.

OP you are everything that is wrong with society. You are Mr Birling. Just awful.