Private schools dumb down entry requirements after VAT raid exodus
Private schools are lowering their entry requirements in the wake of Labour's VAT raid, sparking fears they are damaging their reputations.
Headteachers said they have been left with no choice but to 'widen the net' as the Government's 20pc tax on school fees has led to a significant decrease in applicants.
More than 11,000 children left private schools in the past year in England – more than four times higher than the Treasury had anticipated.
However, headteachers warned that the impact of Labour's mid-year tax hike has yet to take full effect and there could be an even greater exodus this summer as parents treat it as a natural exit point to remove their children.
It comes after a private school in Kent was forced to close after more than 50 families – equivalent to one in five pupils – withdrew for the next academic year.
A headmaster of a small private school in Berkshire said: 'It is a huge issue. One school very local to us has closed because of their September numbers. They just didn't have the numbers coming in September to make it viable.'
He added that he was aware of many schools that were having to lower entry requirements as a result, either by lowering the pass mark for entrance exams or making the test easier.
He said: 'Schools are having to widen the net. They are going further down their waiting lists because they need to, and what's been interesting to see is that schools where pupils traditionally had to work hard [to gain a place], where it's usually very challenging to secure places, it is less challenging this year.
'You can see how nervous the sector is. Whether it's trying to attract new pupils, or all of these mergers and acquisitions are taking place, what has amazed me is the pace of change.'
However, a headmaster of a small private school in Surrey attacked larger private schools for taking pupils that would ordinarily have attended his own and said it was no wonder so many smaller institutions were closing or merging.
He said: 'As predicted I've seen larger, wealthier schools that are already financially well-cushioned lower their admissions criteria in order to take more pupils in Year 7 who would have gone to more modest schools like mine.
'Add VAT on school fees and a low birth rate and these more modest schools are really suffering with much lower Year 7 intakes. It's hardly surprising that these bigger schools are then hoovering up or taking over smaller schools.'
He added: 'The independent schools sector is a delicate eco-system and it is being disrupted from within as well as from without.'
One headmaster, who admitted to having lowered his school's entry requirements, said: 'We are trying to hold firm but we also back ourselves with the smaller classes to be able to support a small number of pupils who might be sailing close to the wind in terms of meeting the normal entrance requirements.'
He struck a more optimistic tone and said that while schools were currently struggling to attract pupils in Year 7, Labour's failure to recruit 6,500 new specialist state school teachers and the lack of significant funding would bring more families back to the private sector in time.
He said: 'Teacher recruitment is not happening in the state sector and I believe the manifesto pledge is now being sidestepped. The higher-than-anticipated salary increases for teachers have also come at a cost because it's only partially funded, so the only way that state schools can fund this is by making some of their staff, usually teaching assistants, redundant.
'I have seen a recent increase in interest from families who are now concerned that the state sector seems to be declining even more rapidly.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
25 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
'Labour is sucking the confidence out of business,' says Ex-BoE chief economist
Andy Haldane is demob happy. He's ready to get on the road, first to his holiday home on the Kentish coast and then to France and Italy before finishing off the year in the southern hemisphere to catch the cricket. His six-month break has been a long time coming – it's about five to ten years too late, Haldane, 57, laughs. It's the first extended time off he has had since joining the Bank of England as a graduate trainee, rising to become chief economist and something of a rock star in the dry world of central banking. His provocative speeches made world headlines as he shot down much of the orthodoxy of the financial system, drawing on evolutionary biology, and even coming out for the Occupy movement after the 2008 crash. Then in a surprise – some would say premature – move he left the Bank in the pandemic to lead the Royal Society of Arts, as well as to give him room to shoot the breeze, free from 'central bank shackles' and engage in broader policy-making. Which he did, advising the Tories on Levelling Up, and he still sits on the Treasury's Economic Advisory Council. Now he's off again. We met at his office at the Royal Society of Arts, where the bookshelves are already empty and his desk is clear. This time he's taking the break to 'cleanse his brain' to work out what to do next after 32 years in the saddle. He says: 'I like change, and I love ambiguity – it creates opportunity.' But there's no ambiguity about Haldane's long list of ways to get Britain back on its feet. For a start, if he were still on the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee, he would have voted for a cut at its last meeting. More pertinently, Haldane would have voted for base rate cuts going back to the start of last year, well before the MPC's first cut in August. 'That was too late. It would have been less painful if rates had been lower. The economy has been crabbing sideways for at least three years, and lower rates would have cut households some slack.' He accepts most MPC members voted against a cut due to fears the Middle Eastern conflict will fuel inflation, saying: 'It's tricky. When you have missed out on the upside, there can be a bit of scarring.' Scarring for the MPC or economy? 'Both,' he replies, grimacing. 'Some members of the MPC are not looking closely enough at the quantitative data. It's clear the labour market is shedding jobs. We can't miss getting it right again.' Famously, Haldane is one of a handful of economists who did not miss out on the upside. He warned that the inflation genie was escaping the bottle in late 2020, calling for rate rises when his peers dubbed rising prices post-Covid and post-Ukraine 'transitory'. His prescience is just one reason why so many in the City, across the political divide, say Haldane is the smartest Governor we never had, and should have been appointed instead of Andrew Bailey. What does he say? 'I loved the job I was doing. I didn't want to be Governor,' he answers, politely. Leaving the Bank has certainly allowed him to fire more missiles from the sidelines, most recently criticising Rachel Reeves' Budget as full of 'mistakes, rookie errors'. He blames her policies – especially the increase in employers' National Insurance, and harping on about the black hole left behind by the Tories – for sucking the confidence out of British business. The Chancellor's non-dom policy – already driving the wealthiest out of the country – should be refined or reversed, because it will lead to net fiscal losses for the Treasury, he says. So too would Reform UK's Britannia card idea, which is too lax. A 'better balancing point' needs to be struck. What drives him to distraction is the lack of serious soul-searching on the big issues, such as tax or welfare spending. He says: 'The poor level of debate at Westminster, in think-tanks, the civil service, academia and elsewhere is deeply depressing. Politics doesn't seem to be growing great thinkers like the late Nigel Lawson, the last great tax reformer, any more.' Instead, politicians should go 'big, bold, plural and at scale'. He adds: 'We need to supercharge supply-side reforms. There must be greater incentives for entrepreneurship and businesses.' Reconfiguring the 'onerous' tax code is not enough. Scrapping stamp duty on housing would help. He says: 'It glues up the housing and jobs market – we have the lowest level of people moving jobs since the financial crisis. We are taxing mobility, and so preventing living standards from rising.' Why, he asks, do we give capital investment exemptions on machinery but not on training people? And why is debt favoured over equity? How mad is that? 'Shiny billion-pound projects like new nuclear power stations or railways are great but if we don't have the skilled workforce, what's the point? Why do so many of our universities not have graduate apprenticeship schemes?' Apprenticeships are down by a third, he adds, so the apprentice levy needs to be made workable with business urged to play a bigger role. And change is possible. 'Look at the amazing job Jesse Norman MP is doing at Hereford with his New Model Institute for Technology & Engineering and the launch in Manchester of a new technical baccalaureate.' Spending on skills is falling: the latest international league tables show the UK's expenditure on training is in the relegation zone. 'How can it be that we have a million 'Neets' – those aged 16 to 24 not in education, employment or training? It's an economic blight, but also a personal blight.' His solution? Scrap GCSEs, exams designed for the late Victorian age. 'If a third of youngsters are emerging functionally illiterate and innumerate from school, then something is very wrong. We need a broader-based system of education based on hands and hearts, and creativity, where we smash the ceiling internationally.' Britain's 'economically inactive' – the nine million people of working age who are not in work – must be helped back into the workplace. 'The impact on their mental health, families and communities is enormous,' he says. 'We need to scrap Jobcentres. That's where people used to go for benefits.' Yet, Haldane remains an optimist. The reset button for growth, he says, could come from higher spending on defence and security, which could prove 'jobs-rich, skills-rich across the country'. 'The country would understand that,' he says. 'The bond markets would understand that.' After all, growth is the great redeemer for bond markets, he says. 'They know tomorrow's growth pays for today's borrowing. But it requires politicians to go big and be bold. If not, forget it.' Is he worried that bond yields – the interest the Government pays on its debt – are back up to levels last seen during the Liz Truss era? The Truss period, he points out, coincided with bond yields shooting up around the world after an anomalous 20-year period of low inflation and low interest rates. 'The global cost of money has gone up. Reality has been reasserted in the markets. We are back up to the UK batting average.' Haldane may be footloose but still has a clutch of 'passion' projects: he's the new chancellor of Sheffield University, where he read economics, and chairs the Glasshouse International Music Centre in Gateshead – homage to his spiritual roots in Sunderland, where he was born, and his family's brass band tradition. Will he be looking for a new desk job after his break? 'Who knows? I might love daytime TV and dog-walking,' he says with the biggest of laughs. 'Or, come December, I might decide to manufacture cider by the champagne method.' And when the Governor's job comes up again in three years' time, would he be interested? He smiles. Judging by the look in his eye, of course he would.
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
Starmer needs to set out what he believes and how he will achieve it before voters make up their minds for good
It's all been a bit of a Downer Street JUST 12 months ago Sir Keir Starmer stood proudly on the steps of Downing Street after securing a historic landslide. He promised a new era of grown-up government, an end to knee-jerk politics that had bedevilled the defeated Tories. 1 How hollow, as he marks his first anniversary at No10, those words now sound. His landmark comes as he licks his wounds over his latest self-inflicted humiliation — his doomed efforts to curb Britain's £300billion welfare addiction. In the past year his government has executed more U-turns than a Grand Prix driver at Monaco. The flip-flopping over the disastrous decision to strip some of the poorest pensioners of their winter fuel allowance and a national inquiry into grooming gangs have laid bare Labour's lack of direction. Sir Keir seems unable to grasp that the great power a landslide brings demands a set of clear, consistent policies and a remorseless drive to secure them. What has become painfully clear is that Labour were woefully unprepared for the duty of running the country. The party's first weeks in office were marked by controversy over freebie Taylor Swift concert tickets and clothes for the PM. To justify policies, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has repeatedly harped back to the £22billion 'black hole' left by the Tories. But they have splurged billions on pay rises to please their union paymasters and on far-off infrastructure projects. Starmer 'loses control' as over 1,000 migrants cross Channel in biggest daily total of 2025 – as French cops watch on Hardly a day goes by without Reeves appearing in another high-vis jacket and hard hat at a factory. But instead of PR, her time would surely be better spent making hard-headed decisions about how to secure economic growth. Labour have had wins on the international stage, even if Sir Keir was painfully out of the loop over the US bombing of Iran's nuclear plants. And NHS waiting lists are coming down. They have also benefited from Tory disarray, but their failures to tackle issues such as migration have let Nigel Farage's Reform surge in the polls. The PM must quickly decide whether he should still pursue economic growth or bow to the hand-wringers in his party. Even his most staunch supporters admit that former lawyer Sir Keir plays better with the judge than the jury. He has never had a compelling enough story that would explain where his core values lie. He needs to set out clearly what he believes and how he is going to achieve it. Before the most important jury of all — the voters — make up their minds for good.
South Wales Argus
an hour ago
- South Wales Argus
Conservative MP refers himself to watchdog over adviser role
Former minister George Freeman submitted queries to Labour ministers about the sector the firm operates in, The Times reported. The newspaper published what it said were leaked emails that showed exchanges in which Mr Freeman had asked the company's director what to ask about as he prepared written parliamentary questions related to space data and emissions tracking. He reportedly tabled the questions, which are a way for MPs to ask for more information on the policies and activities of government departments, to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. He became a paid adviser with GHGSat, a monitoring service for greenhouse gas emissions, in April last year. The appointments watchdog Acoba advised him that in taking up the role, 'there are risks associated with your influence and network of contacts gained whilst in ministerial office'. 'In particular, this is a company that is interested in government policy and decisions relating to the civil space sector and emissions. 'You noted you have made it clear to the company that you will not lobby government on its behalf, and this will not form part of your role.' Mr Freeman told the Times: 'As a longstanding advocate of important new technologies, companies and industries, working cross-party through APPGs (All-Party Parliamentary Groups) and the select committee, I regularly ask experts for clarification on technical points and terminology, and deeply respect and try to assiduously follow the code of conduct for MPs and the need to act always in the public interest. 'Throughout my 15 years in parliament (and government), I have always understood the need to be transparent in the work I have done for and with commercial clients and charities and am always willing to answer any criticism. 'I don't believe I have done anything wrong but I am immediately referring myself to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and will accept his judgment in due course.' Mr Freeman and GHGSat have been contacted for comment. A Conservative Party spokesperson said: 'George Freeman MP has referred himself to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner. 'It would be inappropriate for the Conservative Party to comment further whilst the Commissioner's inquiries are ongoing.' The Lib Dems and Labour called for Tory leader Kemi Badenoch to suspend him. A Labour spokesperson said: 'Cash for questions was a hallmark of Tory sleaze in the 1990s, and three decades on the same issue has raised its head again. 'George Freeman has referred himself for investigation so now Kemi Badenoch must suspend him from the Tory whip.' Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper MP said: 'This looks like the same old sleaze and scandal people have come to expect from the Conservative Party. 'Kemi Badenoch should immediately suspend the whip from George Freeman while this is investigated. 'Failure to act would confirm that even after being booted out of government, the Conservatives are still hopelessly out of touch.' The MP for Mid Norfolk is currently on the science, innovation and technology committee and a trade envoy. He was responsible for the UK space agency in his previous role as a minister in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology under Rishi Sunak.
