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I don’t expect Sir Keir Starmer (Reigate Grammar School before it went private) is losing much sleep over the fact that Labour’s policy of slapping 20 per cent VAT on school fees is predicted to cause a stampede of children towards selective schools like the one he was lucky enough to attend. The policy may be vengeful, stupid and counterproductive, as well as deeply damaging to young people, of course, but, hey, at least it gives Starmer some red meat to chuck at the ravening class warriors on his party’s Left.
There is already an arms race in tutors to prepare kids for the 11-plus. Joe Hytner, of Titanium Tutors, reports that, since September, there has been a “huge surge” in demand for coaching as parents move to save money on private-school costs by getting their offspring into grammar schools.
Alice, a much in-demand private tutor, tells me that frantic parents are asking her to take on younger and younger children. Not long ago, Alice was summoned to a grand house in London where a maid in uniform showed her to a palatial salon. An immaculate woman was sitting there with her son. The mother told Alice she’d like her to start preparing Eugene to get into a grammar, one of the highest-achieving schools in the country.
“He’s still very little,” protested Alice meekly.
“He’s three,” replied the Tiger Mum firmly.
Okay, that may be peak Ambitious Parent Insanity, but there is no doubt that the wealthiest parents are already buying up the best tutors for little Eugene and Hermione in order to game the system. Grammar schools were once the greatest engines of social mobility our country has ever seen. People like my mother and father, who grew up on council estates, had access to first-class teaching and an environment where it was positively encouraged to work hard and go on to university. One grossly unfair side-effect of VAT on private school fees will be that the intensively-tutored, possibly less able children who would otherwise have gone into the independent sector, will likely do better in the 11-plus than those kids whose families can’t pick up a tutoring bill of several thousand pounds. Grammars will become free private schools for the wealthy.
“There is less pressure tutoring the kids whose parents can afford to go private anyway,” says Alice. “They’d like to save the money if they can, but it’s no biggie if the child fails because they’ve got them a private place.” The really stressful assignments, she says, are with youngsters for whom success in the 11-plus means the difference between getting a top-notch academic education and navigating the hazards of the local sink comprehensive.
Even well-off parents are going to be a lot less laid-back about kids failing the 11-plus if fees go up by a fifth. And the ones who are already struggling to afford private school simply won’t be able to make ends meet. Average annual fees for a UK day school of £16,656 per year would rise to nearly £20,000 if VAT was added in full.
One headteacher at a small, well-loved private school (profits: five per cent annually) tells me that some mums and dads make incredible sacrifices, even restricting themselves to only one child in order to be able to educate them privately. That may sound extreme, but in certain parts of the UK there is a vast, life-changing difference between private and state schooling. I know many grandparents dig into savings to make it possible, as my pair’s late grandpa did so generously, but this 20 per cent blow will put it well out of reach.
A friend whose son, Harry, was profoundly dyslexic managed to get him a part-council-funded place at a fee-paying school where dedicated, one-on-one attention saw the boy learning to read and write really well. Harry is now at Exeter University. Harry’s friend, also deeply dyslexic, stayed at the village junior school, got neither diagnosis nor special help, and later dropped out of a huge comprehensive aged 15. A private place might well have rescued him.
Lazy stereotypes about independent schools abound. Not all are Eton or Westminster, whose large endowments mean they can ride out a VAT increase or pass it on to rich relatives. Many less-cushioned private schools specialise in youngsters with special needs. “They have probably come from state schools as anxious and needy children,” says the headteacher. “They are particularly vulnerable to change and so to have to disrupt their education [by returning them to the state sector] is particularly problematic.”
The Labour Party breezily says independent schools should absorb the tax increase, but that will inevitably mean making harsh cuts. Bursaries and scholarships for brilliant brains and athletically gifted kids from poorer homes will be under pressure. Our independent schools have a hugely important role to play in developing excellence in sport, music and the arts. When the great Welsh player JPR Williams died recently, obituaries noted he had won a scholarship to Millfield. That remarkable breeding ground for athletes now offers the Sir Gareth Edwards Scholarship for new rugby talent, named for one of JPR’s legendary Welsh team-mates who was himself forged as a champion at the same school.
How many of our Olympians and Bafta-winners hailed from independent schools? Plenty of them will have been on bursaries. The British rowing eight in the forthcoming Paris games would be almost empty if you lost the private-school kids. So would the men’s and women’s hockey XIs. Talk about killing the golden goose.
Tragically, Labour’s vandalism could also make some subjects extinct. Classics, modern languages and physics are, to a large extent, kept going by independent schools. University departments teaching Latin, Greek, French and German will close. Not to mention the threat to the choral tradition, organ-playing and all-round musicianship nurtured by our wonderful cathedral schools.
What about the staffing crisis this vindictive legislation will cause? Starmer & the Barbarians should not assume there won’t be teacher shortages (they are already woefully overstretched) as thousands of private-school refugees flood in. Lots of independent schoolteachers simply won’t work in the state sector. It’s a different job; pedagogy versus crowd control. Many, like the brilliant headteacher I spoke to, are in talks about senior positions abroad. A brain-drain will almost certainly ensue.
Then there’s the rank hypocrisy of it all. No suggestion of VAT on university fees or private tutoring – how do they differ from paying for private education? I guess Labour doesn’t get the satisfaction of smiting the rich (even though private tutoring at £50-an-hour-plus is rapidly becoming the preserve of the wealthy).
Will overseas students at independent schools – there are a lot of them – have to pay VAT or will they be able to claim it back? In which case, Labour would specifically be penalising British children. And where exactly does this leave so-called Army brats? For many in the military, day state schools are not an option and they certainly won’t be able to cough up an extra 20 per cent out of the pitifully modest salary our short-sighted Government gives them. Thus, a career in the military – already struggling with recruitment – becomes even less attractive.
Oh, well done! Top marks to Sir Keir & the Barbarians for a policy which looks poised to cause havoc in our education system: needlessly disrupting the lives of happy children, denying specialist help to the struggling, advanced coaching to the gifted, trashing a precious national resource and making a life-changing grammar school place that could go to a squeezed-middle-class child a luxury item.
Britain excels at private education; it is one of our top exports, bringing in thousands of satisfied, fee-paying customers as well as providing a matchless, challenging grounding for seven per cent of British children which keeps us competitive with the best in the world. It takes so much pressure off the state system that parents should get tax relief, not a tax increase!
You would have to be stark staring bonkers to interfere with independent schools. Or maybe blinded by class hatred. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Starmer’s Britain.
Welcome to Starmer’s Britain, where class hatred will ruin our private schools
There’s no suggestion of adding VAT to university fees as well, but then that wouldn’t give Labour the satisfaction of smiting the rich