Public school

* bring being

Bring in any of the armed forces (or indeed in any job or profession, is a personal choice.
No-one makes that choice thinking, ' I want to put my life on the line and serve my country', so bravery doesn't come into it.
I certainly don't accord those men and women any more respect than a shopkeeper, call-centre handler, paramedic or KFC worker.

gillybob “active duty” which is for an average of 6 months (normally involves combat/peace keeping(armed)) is not the same as a “posting” average time 2-3 years which is when wives/children go also.

I didn’t think you payed income tax at all when you were abroad on active duty ? My DD’s previous partner was forces and he was always “rolling in it” after a stint away . Horrible, two timing, cheating, little sh*t that he is !

janipat I am not saying that education is the same as childcare but that the expense of after school care incurred by many families is something they are expected just to pay, whilst army children are looked after in a boarding school for nothing. It was a system introduced when wives didn't work and folowed their husbands from posting to posting. Now it is used as a tax free perk by people who could well afford to pay, the vast majority of the forces are in this country.

There won't be many on £100,000 a year
2nd Lieutenant: £31,857 per annum
Lieutenant: £32,975 per annum
Captain: £40,826 per annum
Major: £51,425 per annum

In line with other graduate jobs

But you do get paid when taking a degree!

But trisher boarding school for army children is not childcare, it's education! I haven't known anyone who has been down this path, but I certainly don't begrudge them some constancy in their schooling. I'm pretty sure many of the army parents are hardworking too!

trisher we shall have to disagree on this.

I speak from 30 years of “forces experience”.

It is not a bed of roses and high salaries. It is not pleasant waiting home whilst loved ones are in “combat”. I support all of our forces and feel that if this is the only way that their children can get a consistent and uninterrupted education so be it.

As for your post about UK forces being based abroad and their wives/husbands going with them had long gone. Sorry but you are incorrect on that also.

GG13 There are many "brave dedicated people" who are considerably less well rewarded than an officer earning £100,000 a year. Someone earning that much is effectively given a tax free benefit of around £90,000 if they have 3 children. They don't have to be serving abroad. I expect these people to do the same as most parents do and pay for their own child care. I don't see why hard working poor parents who pay for their own childcare should subsidise them.

One of our AC is an Officer in the Army, in the last 10 years they have lived in 3 different countries and about to move to their fourth. DIL has always accompanied him. GC spent “term time” with other Grandparents so that they could be schooled in the country of DILs birth.

Boarding School is not always an option for forces personnel. I have no problem with these children having their fees paid/subsidised, even though AC did not pursue this option.

Do you expect these brave dedicated people to sacrifice their children’s education as well as putting their lives on the line?

The parents are not necessarily working abroad. Officers earning over £100.000 per annum benefit, and it costs £84 million a year. Fees of £30,000 reduced to £1,600, many spend more than that in a year on out of school care.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3234994/Sending-children-offices-boarding-schools-costs-taxpayers-84m-year.html

Nothing is free, only a contribution these days.
As LullyDully has said, it is not free.
It is subsidised.

If parents are single because they are widowed I hope they are receiving the help they need.
If because the other parent has left, the other parent should be making an adequate contribution to the upbringing of their children. It is simply not fair in the modern world that so many fathers (and yes, in the main fathers) leave the mothers to struggle with the upbringing of their children.

There is a difference between working full-time and coming home every day and being away overseas.

Lots of families live a long way from their families and both parents work full time, often in poorly paid and essential services. They have to pay for out-of-school care and do not even get tax relief on this. Yet members of the armed services receive free boarding education for their children in schools which have charitable status. It is simply not fair in the modern world. And yes it is hard if one parent works away and many people have this experience, there are also a number of single parents who are left alone to bring up children and who receive no such fringe benefit.

I have worked with and for a family whose children were Waldorf educated (the Steiner system) and more balanced, resourceful, knowledgeable, mannerly children it would be very hard to find.
They had lots of freedoms that I personally would not have allowed my children to have at a similar age however, those freedoms worked in their favour.
They were very aware and responsible children and grew up with those values firmly embedded.
It was and still is a real delight to be in their company.

Nothing is free, only a contribution these days.

And, of course, we are not talking about free education at Eton, Westminster, Harrow etc - the public schools which I presume the OP means!
These are independent boarding schools

Thanks for that jamila. My son's ship was.away from February to November. Hard to take two young children in board. If one parent is at home time then boarding is not available to the family. Many families I know have two parents in the forces .

We could question all kinds of outlay by the government on all kinds of schemes, but children's education is a priority as far as I am concerned.

Whatever happened in the army in the past is simply not relevant to today
Child care is provided either by family or is paid for.
I do not think you know a lot about the services, trisher. Rarely do service families have wider family handily nearby to provide 'childcare' and in fact, we are not discussing childcare - we are discussing education, which would otherwise be constantly disrupted by frequent moves.

Jalima a lot of people really know nothing about the Services.The post by trisher highlights this fact.

LullyDully
I agree that it is essential for the children of serving personnel to have some stability and consistency in their education.
People tend not to realise that both parents could be in the services, this is not just for officers and does not just apply to the army.

Yes, I am talking about the Navy, they go away a lot for nearly a year sometimes.

Presumably you would say the same should apply to the Royal Navy, the Air Force, Royal Marines, Diplomatic Service?

The days when the army was based abroad and wives moved with husbands have long gone.
No they have not.

Whatever happened in the army in the past is simply not relevant to today. Many families have two parents that work, sometimes one of them will move frequently for their job. Child care is provided either by family or is paid for. I really don't see why army personnel should still have the privilege of boarding fees paid. The days when the army was based abroad and wives moved with husbands have long gone.

Two of my GC go to boarding because parents are both in the forces and change their postings every two years. They are not together anymore. Without boarding we would have to step up as we did when they were small.
Getting funding for boarding is onerous and not just for officers. The elitism has gone these days.

jura I went to 10 primary schools, passed my 11+, I didn't even know what the exam was when I took it, just thought it was some school test, I had only been at that school for a couple of weeks. I had not gone to school at all the previous term thanks to a combination of chicken pox and my father being suddenly posted from Hong Kong to Singapore.

Thanks to going to boarding school I took O levels and A levels under stable educational circumstances. I wasn't heading for medical school, but I made it to university, what was then Kings College, Durham, now Newcastle University.

I was not alone. I knew quite a number of army brats who like me made it to university. What we had all had, whether we went to university or not, is is what is now called resilience, now considered a quality that should be engendered in children. Forces children have always had it in spades.

Jalima, my experience was that I became very good at making acquaintances and short term friends, but not good at building longer term friendships, However, those I did become long-term friends with have been with me ever since, from school, university and work.