Your daughter has my fullest admiration.
I think the comment about 'children's education being wrecked' is quite correct, but has been taken out of context.
It didn't infer that transferring from a private school to a comprehensive school would mean inferior teaching, but because, in their spiteful haste to impose VAT on private school fees from January 2025 rather than at the start of the next academic year in September 2025, the children whose parents can't afford the increased fees, will need a school place in January 2025, half-way through the academic year, when they might well be taking GCSEs or A Levels.
Their parents, through taxes have already paid for a place at a state school and by not taking up those places, that's helped to fund schools, so expecting them to pay 20% VAT on fees is taking 'another bite of the cherry'. Under the Education Act, the Local Authority, and by extension, the Government, has a statutory duty to provide such places. As was predicted, thousands of parents who can't afford to pay the increase are applying for places in State Schools, for which the government has made no provision.
Starmer/Reeves have ludicrously said that the VAT gained will fund 6,500 additional teachers.
It's nonsense - it was a dogmatic ill conceived act of spite - nothing more.
Many smaller private schools, including special needs, will close as they won't be able to absorb the VAT and parents won't be able to pay, and there are no places for the children in State Schools. Scandalously, parents have been asked to provide evidence they can no longer afford private school fees to secure a place at a state school.
An email sent out by Buckinghamshire council showed a mother being told her daughter had been rejected by two local secondary schools because “they are full”. She was then asked to prove her financial situation in order for her daughter to be considered for another school in the area. The mother, who asked not to be named, had applied for a place at two schools via the council’s online portal amid fears she could be priced out of her daughter’s private school by the Government's VAT raid
The email from Buckinghamshire council said: “Unfortunately we cannot offer any places at your preferred school/s as they are full”. The email continued: “In this circumstance, we would normally advocate that [the child] should remain at their current school. However, if you can provide evidence that you can no longer finance the independent school fees, please advise and we can make a local authority non-preference allocation.”
Councils must not ask for parents’ financial status:
All children in England between the ages of five and 16 are legally entitled to a free place at a state school. The Government’s school admissions code also states that in some cases, local authorities may seek supplementary information from parents if schools are oversubscribed.
However, the code states that councils must not ask for information relating to a family’s financial status, criminal convictions, language ability, disabilities or medical conditions. Buckinghamshire council’s website claims it has received a “large number of applications” for schools in Aylesbury and High Wycombe, and that schools are currently oversubscribed. Data from the council show that just five state secondary schools out of a total 38 in Buckinghamshire had places available for Year 7 students at the latest count in July, while only four had spaces for pupils in Year 8 and three in Year 9.
It comes amid concerns that some local councils could become swamped with applications if parents are priced out by fee increases as a result of the decision to add VAT at the standard rate of 20% VAT to private school fees from Jan 1 2025. Estimates drawn up by the Institute for Fiscal Studies predicting that up to 40,000 private school children could be forced out under the plans.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/06/parents-asked-prove-afford-private-fees-buckinghamshire/#:~:text=Parents have been asked to,because “they are full”
Most private schools are small and many cater for children with special needs - they're not like Eton, Harrow or Westminster.
Most of those who send children to private schools are aspirational working class parents, making sacrifices to give their children a better start in life. It isn't simply about the quality of teaching, but the ethos of the school. No disruptive behaviour, respect for the teachers, children who want to learn and parents who support them, and to support the teachers too.
And no truancy either, which doesn't just affect those who are absent, but other pupils due to teachers spending extra time in trying to bring absentees back up to speed. In State schools across the academic year 2023/24, 20.7% of pupil enrolments missed 10% or more of their possible sessions and are therefore identified as persistently absent. By school type, the persistent absence rate across the academic year 2023/24 was:
- 15.2% in state-funded primary schools
- 26.7% in state-funded secondary schools
- 37.6% in state-funded special schools
Maybe if the Government spent more time and effort in dealing with the epidemic of absenteeism in State schools wayward kids would get a better start in life. Much of this is down irresponsible parenting which starts are primary school age. A new report has found that 50% of parents think the toilet training task isn't solely up to them, with teacher saying they're more like babysitters than teachers.
Teachers are having to spend many hours helping young children who arrive at schools in nappies, with almost a quarter of children not toilet trained by the time they start school. The report revealed that 24% of kids in this age group are not toilet trained, while 37% are unable to dress independently. Staff also reported that 39% of children in Reception struggle to hold a pencil, 25% do not have basic language skills and 28% of kids ‘incorrectly use books’ – for example, they swipe or tap them as if using a tablet.
Strewth.
At age 3 my kids and grandkids were 'potty trained' and by age 5, knew their = names and addresses, knew the alphabet, could recognise letters, knew the names of colours, could count to 100, dress and tie their shoelaces, knew the names of shapes, could tell the time, could hold a knife fork and spoon, pencils and crayons. That's not a boast and has nothing to do with whether parents are skint or well-heeled - it's about responsible parenting.
