The 7th rebrand in 18 months - is this one any better?

I know Labour are not proposing to abolish private education Maizie. Credit me with some intelligence. They just want to make it as difficult as they can for parents who are able to make the choice - and to hell with the children who have to switch schools at a crucial point, who may as a result be seriously disadvantaged.

I still support “choice”, if you choose and can afford private education, private tutors, private healthcare, that is your choice, just be prepared to pay the full wack! Absolutely no reason for independent schools to have “charitable” status any more, they are a business! Even state school academy trusts are now run like businesses

Hear, hear Cossy!

and to hell with the children who have to switch schools at a crucial point, who may as a result be seriously disadvantaged

Are you seriously saying that someone who can afford to pay over £16k a year for school fees won’t be able to afford a further £3k. Rubbish!

Really you are expecting us to feel sorry for people who you think won't be able to afford to buy advantage for their children. Well, I don't think you'll find many takers for that... The concept of buying privilege is somewhat abhorrent to a great many people

👏👏👏👏 MaizieD

LizzieDrip

^and to hell with the children who have to switch schools at a crucial point, who may as a result be seriously disadvantaged^

Are you seriously saying that someone who can afford to pay over £16k a year for school fees won’t be able to afford a further £3k. Rubbish!

I think your assumption that an extra £3,000 a year is easily found rubbish to be perfectly honest.

You have no idea of what sacrifices some parent’s make to send their children to private school, they are not all Rothschilds

Any decent school won’t chuck pupils out , they have hardship funds. The current fees are £24k a year. No one who is on the breadline will be forking that out, some have two or more children at the school. The idea that the majority of parents are on struggle street is laughable. At my old school there were bursaries for the hard up, mostly taken by middle class parents working the system .

The idea that the majority of parents are on struggle street is laughable

Precisely!

Nobody has suggested that ‘the majority of parents are on struggle street’, but a great many who make sacrifices to try to get their children what they believe to be the best education are by no means well off.

Whether a school’s hardship fund can be used to pay VAT on fees is questionable.

I'm sure the school would employ a competent lawyer to work round the problem for them 😂

There will be rules attached to the use of school funds and it cannot simply be assumed that a parent unable to pay the VAT can have it paid from a hardship fund.

I argue in favour of choice and of not making a child suffer humiliation, and maybe have their education totally screwed up, through Labour’s ideology. I hope my numerous statements that I and my son both had state educations is evidence that I have no personal axe to grind. Many say they want fairness - this policy is distinctly unfair. It also contradicts Starmer’s statement some time ago that he would not increase taxation.

From a report by Shelter:

“ The latest government data shows there are 125,760 homeless children living in temporary accommodation with their families in England today – a 67% rise in 10 years. Shelter’s research found that more than a quarter of households (27%) were moved into temporary accommodation more than an hour away from where they used to live.

Families living in temporary accommodation are often required to move numerous times at short notice. Shelter’s report exposes the devastating impact this constant disruption is having on families lives, including on their children’s education and ability to work:

Over a fifth (22%) of homeless children have to move school multiple times as a result of living in temporary accommodation”

These are the children who are having their education ‘screwed up’. These families have no choice.

I repeat, people who can afford school fees, can afford an extra few thousand should they choose to. They have choices!

If you say they can afford more, then of course you might be right.

Germanshepherdsmum

There will be rules attached to the use of school funds and it cannot simply be assumed that a parent unable to pay the VAT can have it paid from a hardship fund.

I argue in favour of choice and of not making a child suffer humiliation, and maybe have their education totally screwed up, through Labour’s ideology. I hope my numerous statements that I and my son both had state educations is evidence that I have no personal axe to grind. Many say they want fairness - this policy is distinctly unfair. It also contradicts Starmer’s statement some time ago that he would not increase taxation.

No it’s not unfair - what’s unfair is you ‘forgetting’ that if children are forced to leave private schools because their parents have been feckless enough not to budget adequately, the children will be cast to the lions educationally. They won’t, they will just go into the state education system that 90% of children already go through.

We don’t know that many or any children will be “forced to leave” their private school, or if any, how many. Not every school will increase the fees by the full amount immediately, some of the wealthier ones will maybe stagger the increase and absorb the difference, increasing it for new parents to the school. I think it’s scaremongering to suggest that thousands of children will suddenly be left without schooling because of this measure.

Casdon, parents who have had a child at private school for some years, and have budgeted carefully and made sacrifices to afford the fees do not become ‘feckless’ because Labour decides to add 20% to their expenses. As has already been said, the children may find themselves coping with the requirements of a different examination board or they may have been studying for the IB.

Vegansrock, if VAT is levied on school fees it is immediately due from the parents to HMRC and has to be charged, whatever the school’s policy. I don’t think anyone has said that this will affect ‘thousands’ of children - but each child disadvantaged and humiliated by this policy is a tragedy.

If you are sending your child to private school at age 11, you know you before they start that you will have 5 years school fees to pay until the child is 16. If you don’t budget for all contingencies, including losing your job, and the long known fact that if the government changes you will be charged extra, and you will have to remove your child from the school because you can no longer pay for their education to GCSE level, then yes, you are feckless. That’s why there was a drop of 2.7% in enrolments to private schools this academic year, people know they aren’t going to be able to afford the fees.

each child disadvantaged and humiliated by this policy is a tragedy

These are children born 3-0 up. They will never be disadvantaged!

Are they Lizzie? Please explain as I have no idea where your statistics come from.

GSM you’re asking that question to goad!

Children with supportive and interested parents will fare better in whatever school they are in.

GSM an IFS report entitled ‘Private Schools and Inequality’ states that ‘there are educational advantages to growing up in an affluent family background’.

There … I’ve allowed myself to be goaded!

I’m sure there are. But that doesn’t necessarily equate to private education. For my son it meant having his own room in which to study and parents who encouraged him and showed him what a work ethic was.

Millions of children are disadvantaged because they are goign hungry.
Despite living in one of the richest countries in the world, around 3 in 10 children (4.3 million children across the UK) live in poverty. This not only inflicts hardship on children in their formative years, but also has a long-term impact on their future health, wellbeing and economic prospects. Children also face a higher risk of deeper and more persistent poverty (living in poverty for a prolonged period of time). In 2023 around 1 million children experienced destitution, the most severe form of hardship.

Joseoh Rowntree Association btw.

I’m sure that’s the case but, as the title of the aforementioned report denotes, the statement is set within the context of Private Schools and Inequality.