It’s the season to do the rounds of senior schools and my 10-year-old son and I have been jostling through the crowds to glimpse science labs and drama workshops for the past month. Open days for the top state schools have been heaving. At a state boarding school rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted (boarding fees aren’t subject to VAT), the head apologised for lengthy queues to register, get coffee, join a tour. Another 200 people had turned up in addition to the 600 booked in. Among them, I spotted several families whose children are currently at local prep schools.
Labour starts charging VAT on school fees from January. But an estimated 10,000 children have already been taken out of independent schools, mine among them. Data collected by the Independent Schools Council (ISC) found a drop in pupil numbers by 1.7 per cent between September 2023 and the beginning of this term. The starkest drop was at the Year 7 transfer point, with a 4.6
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