Welcome back all to the Autumn Term 2024. As the Academic Principal of Claires Court, I thought it wise to inform new and existing readers of my role in school, current Work in Progress and the direction and focus on my activities for the Autumn Term 2024.

Firstly, whilst I thoroughly enjoyed my 8 days of leave from work in July and August, actually there has been no longer summer vacation to look back on away from the school. For recreation I thoroughly enjoy the game of golf, love spectating at sport/theatre and the demands of my garden and allotment, and the welcome abundance of flowers and vegetables have kept both Jenny (my wife) and I pretty entertained thank you.

The activities of 1000 pupils and 350 staff and the huge variations in climate through a school year do mean that the summer break provides pretty much the only opportunity to carry out major repairs and renovations, happily in the capable hands of the groundstaff team and our contractors. At Seniors Boys, the whole of the Tech wings windows etc. had to be replaced after 30 years of life, at College updating and renovations to main teaching wings and at Juniors an entirely new sewerage system installed. The entire minibus fleet has been serviced once more, and all the fixed wire testing, fire and intruder alarms serviced, kitchens and cookware deep-cleaned and all. Almost of all of the above HAS TO HAPPEN; the ongoing and increasing regulation of our services means certificates for insurers as confirmation of completion are all part of the game. The activities of Admissions, Finance, Marketing, HR and Regulatory/Curriculum/Exams management never cease, so accompanied of course by the busy Holiday Club activities providing wrap-around care for our and wider communities children still generates work too.

However the delays in the provision of our planning permissions for the new food tech studio at Senior Boys and the new Multi-User Games Area (MUGA) at Juniors meant my required presence at site meetings on weeks 1 and 2 of the break, and with A level results out in week 4, GCSEs in Week 5, sadly the Summer is over and both leadership and management are back in full swing by August close. I’ve blogged about some of my work above already, but what really disrupted the ‘holiday mode’ was the announcement by the incoming Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves on 29 July that the government will eliminate a value-added tax (VAT) exemption for private school fees and boarding services FROM 1 January 2025. The UK VAT is a goods and services sales tax that applies to most consumer purchases in the country, with the standard rate set at 20%.

This confirmation was that the tax will now be applied to private K-12 school fees as of 1 January 2025 – at which point “all education services and vocational training supplied by a private school, or a connected person, for a charge will be subject to VAT at the standard rate of 20%”. The same tax provision will now apply to all boarding services as well. Further, all school fees paid on or after 29 July 2024 for school terms beginning 1 January 2025 or after will now be subject to the tax.

Her announcement was supported by the commencement of a narrowly drawn consultation exercise by HM Treasury on their technical paper provided on how the tax was to be implemented, timed to last 6 weeks, mainly over the school break, rather then the Government’s own recommendation for such consultations to be a minimum of 9. This so incensed my local colleagues leading St Piran’s school here in Maidenhead that they wrote to the government to express their astonishment, and coupled that with a letter to the Times that made the headlines. I’d been separately supporting the Education not Taxation body arising from great work by Christine Cunniffe and her school, LVS in Ascot, whilst pushing my thoughts firmly and directly at Bridget Phillpson, Secretary of State for Education, to whom I had been writing for a year. As a senior headteacher within the Independent Schools Association, I’ve been actively working for months within and across the associations to ensure that the incoming Labour Government were presented with our case to be careful in their proposals and to work with us to ensure all unintended consequences were thought through before making their decision.

From day 2 of the new Government’s work, the Treasury and Education ministries have engaged, but sadly have made it quite clear that the policy as stated is going to be implemented (initially with no date), because it’s a minifesto commitment. Like all commitments, there’s no detail to accompany that, and even the best crystal ball gazer in the country having heard the Labour Party just prior to the election soothe worried voters’ brows with a ‘Implementation will take place at the start of the new Academic year, 2025 couldn’t actually have thought 1 January was even vaguely practicable for either schools or the taxman. Britain has one of the most complicated tax systems known, particularly for VAT, so moving private schools from being VAT exempt to VAT at 20% for their education activities, but not for their care, health and transport activities means an incredible new complication for our finance teams, who if nothing else will need new staff to carry out the work. Whilst the Chancellor’s technical note makes it clear that schools will be able to claim back historic VAT paid as end users, that’s subject to the same complexity – i.e. separate out each bill, work out which bits are exempt, which are at 0% and which are at 20% and try to claim the 20% back.

On Day 1 of the Autumn Term, I was one of 10 representatives of our sector ensuring that the Education not Taxation petition was delivered to 10 Downing Street, and attending in person the first debate in the House of Lords on this matter, tabled by Lord Lexden. You can read the 3+hour debate here in Hansard Independent Schools: VAT Exemption Volume 839: debated on Thursday 5 September 2024. 35 of the 37 peers who spoke were passionate in their expression for support of our sector, of the need for the government to think much more carefully about their proposals and work through the unexpected consequences of such a rushed-through budgetary measure with less than 2 months’ notice. Lord Lexden concluded the debate with the following very clear statement:

“My Lords, my purpose in seeking this debate was to bring home to the Government the extent of the damage that would be done as a result of the imposition of VAT on school fees on 1 January 2025. That purpose has been very satisfactorily achieved, on behalf of all the parents and schools up and down our land who have been brought to despair by the Government’s decision to impose VAT so suddenly on them. Many who have been watching this debate and follow these controversial matters will be disappointed by what the Minister has said. I do not think that the great concern that exists has been in any way significantly alleviated by her comments. We who have sought to represent the difficulties feel, above all, that VAT should not be introduced without, as I said at the start, a full and independent assessment of the implications of our first-ever education tax. This is the essential point on which nearly all speakers agreed. We must ask the Government to think again. Motion agreed.“

Chair of Governors at St Piran’s Kate Taylor and I travelled back from the House of Lords together, and I see she has blogged on Instagram as follows: “Yesterday I had the privilege of joining a group of Heads and parents to observe a lengthy House of Lords debate on the consequences of imposing VAT on independent schools. The chamber was packed with a healthy number of cross-bench peers and it was encouraging to listen to the overwhelming views against the policy. Many peers spoke to personal and compelling experiences. Of equal note were the labour peers who spoke out against the rushed imposition of this policy in January 2025 and the avoidable damage that would follow. However, listening to the Minister’s response was extremely discouraging and disheartening. She did not seem to hear any of the compelling arguments but simply repeated the government’s prepared stock answers we have all heard many times before. The Independent’s article last night provides a good summation of the debate. – https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/vat-government-labour-black-lord-b2607831.html“

Today we are writing to parents and guardians in our own school community, to explain what a horlocks the Government have made since the announcement 5 weeks ago, to encourage them to make their own individual responses to the narrow consultation and more news will follow in due course. I’m not impressed at all with some of major schools writing to their parents stating 20% will be added to their school fees in January, partly because that is assuming the Budget will actually announce that on 30 October, partly because of course schools should be able to mitigate the effects of the VAT rise when it comes in, and above all because the purpose of communication is to bring clarity, not sew confusion and seed disappointment. Be assured that the Principals of Claires Court will continue to oppose this policy and support the work throughout the associations and sector to protect all those children who otherwise will be adversely affected.

Every new school year brings its challenges, and I commence my 50th year in the teaching profession knowing that over time, huge advances have been in our school and more generally great progress in Education at large. Next week I am working at school (of course), meeting with local council leaders of education to show them what our school does and how we fit into the community, for example supporting as a major stall holder the Maidenhead Waterways Fun Day on Saturday. We haven’t yet worked out how to hold the official opening of our new Food studio shortly afterwards, and all of my work with Artificial Intelligence in the classroom comes to fruition with Years 2 to 6 welcoming Merlhyn Origin on board. Google have me up at their HQ for a day later in September to see what lies beyond the present for AI in Education, and… there will be some golf as well, the Rotary Club’s Golf team event on Wednesday afternoon and the Maidenhead Golf Club medal finals at the weekend. P.S. It’s allotment Roast Butternut Squash macaroni cheese for Friday night supper!