My blog this week covers:

1. Why long-term stable investment in relationship building is how Education succeeds
2. A call to action for those who wish to respond to the government’s consultation on the imposition of VAT on private school fees
3. A reminder that Education, Health and Care in all societies are intimately linked, and what Lord Darzi’s review should not be used as a ‘proxy’ for State Education, but an explanation of why national education resources have become so stretched because of the disappearance of the connections between the 3 services in the UK

I’ve written many times before that Claires Court is surrounded by many amazing schools, both state and independent. Inevitably, growing up a new private senior school to Sixth Form in 1993 (when boys and girls came together as CC ) under the twin shadows of two of the greatest public boarding schools of the land, Eton College and Wycombe Abbey, we chose a very different pathway for our school. Here’s AI Gemini’s take on that – link. All day pupils, aged 2-18, diamond education, inclusive, committed to fill engagement with our town and surroundings, with ‘SL6’ as a major strategy for ongoing investment. Claires Court is not a ‘Public School’ per se for many reasons, not least because of this Principal’s overarching mission to be inclusive, and to seek to serve our community as an organic dynamic part, and wish to contribute to the town in which we are situated, and the surrounding villages and communities. Over the past 25 years, what’s become really evident is that the great public schools have been put under severe pressure to do more locally and essentially offer a closer model to CC – and not the other way round!

That detailed philosophy, ‘don’t build our own, but work with others to become a better whole’ has made a huge difference. and it really does show in the Why, How, What, Who and Where we are. Just the other day, a new friend of the school mentioned that they had started working with our major Youth Counselling Service in Maidenhead, known as ‘number22‘. They were proud to learn from their new employer that CC was their first corporate customer, guaranteeing them the start of financial life-lines outside of state funding/taxation.

There is an enormous amount coming from the Labour press machine currently that the independent-state school partnership schemes are largely froth. For me, it’s never been a competition between our local schools, one of those great ‘red herrings’ from actually being ‘the right stuff to do right for the betterment of all’. We’ve always paid our rates and taxes, so we’ve never had the straight jacket of ‘charitable status’ which in return for 90% discount on rates and zero corporation tax, forces schools to charge higher fees, hold much higher reserves to offset risk and in recent years spend more and more to offer even more tuition subsidies for the ‘needy’. Having looked after refugee & ‘hard landing’ placements in our school all this century, Claires Court has always understood its place in the Education Not Business sphere.

Take a look at Maidenhead Rowing Club for example, and our income stream for 40+ years has added the 3rd bay to the clubhouse back in the 1990s and kept the club’s facilities up to the mark, whilst providing for their juniors their major winter training centre in our own campus at Senior Boys without charge of any kind. Since the building was constructed all at the same time, we can’t actually say which bay is ours, and that doesn’t matter, because it was our gift freely given.

All our partnerships, old and new, have led to our nomination this year as a finalist in the ISA Award for Outstanding Sport (Large School), which in itself of course is NOT a destination, just recognition of our great journey to develop and support our young people’s progress into finding a sport they love. Take a look at the photo in the header: Teachers Heather Frost and James Hammerton have 38 players every Wednesday and Friday at the home of Claires Court Golf, Huntswood. It’s a great course, privately owned but publicly accessible, good value and a great model on how to add to a wider public good.

Winning the ISA National Award last year for Outstanding Engagement in the Community, won previously in 2017 is a great testament to the longevity of our work in this field. The very nature of outreach is that as a school principal, I don’t actually know next where the priorities will come from. The Ukrainian crisis was the last major example of this, but as JFK once reminded us, crisis provides both a warning of imminent danger but also of opportunity.

There is absolutely no doubt that the Labour Government’s proposals to charge VAT on private school tuition fees is the biggest threat our independent schools like Claires Court have faced this century. Whilst in the main the great public schools already have VAT management mechanisms embedded in their finance structures, to cover those many revenue streams generated to expand the use of their premises and indeed internationally their brand, the vast majority of schools in the 2 associations, ISA and IAPS do not. Between the 2 groups we cover 80% of the sector, and in every school, proprietors, heads and bursars are mobilising to make councillors, their MP county councils and the national parliaments of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales (not just Westminster) aware of the in-coming threats to our schools, which look after the very substantial number of special needs pupils and those serving in the military, foreign office and international business families. Those parents can as a consequence (knowing their children are well cared for) get about their duties as military, citizens, ambassadors and entrepreneurs, promoting and protecting the vital interests of our country and of course as The United Kingdom, a founding member of the United Nations and one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

In our school’s letter to parents this week, we highlighted why we as a school have no chance of working out what mitigations could be put in place when 20% VAT is added. One of the major reasons why we need to be incredibly cautious if of course that Rachel Reeves prior to winning her seat at the last election had flagged that VAT would not be introduced until September 2025. All breathe a sigh of relief, time to plan. Not so fast: her colleagues had made clear that every possible way to prevent private schools from claiming back VAT either historic capital (10 years) or running costs (4 years) perhaps would be blocked. Now Chancellor, the Rt Hon Member for West Leeds and Pudsey chose wholly differently, on 29 July introducing the Tax from 1 January, but schools can’t see the detail until the budget and can’t register (unless already registered) until after then. There will be a host of work we have already done and will be able to do, but for private schools, the implementation of VAT will be as catastrophic a process as Brexit has been, and certainly as long-lasting, 4 years, 9 months and counting – we have 10 November 2024 and ETIAS to look forward to. If you feel moved to write to make comment on the Government’s consultation, you can find that here, and of course always email me direct (jtw@clairescourt.net) period to Sunday midnight 15 September) for an additional help sheet if you need it.

This week’s public letter to Secretary of State for Health and Social Care by Lord Darzi on the state of the NHS makes bleak reading. Lord Darzi’s Conclusion: the NHS is in critical condition, but its vital signs are strong.

As with the NHS, the 4 Nations Education budget is simply not big enough to cover the needs of its schools and community outreach responsibilities. Too little is available, and yet there are state schools in the same authority who are hoarding millions whilst others are bankrupt. You can’t nationalise the Education system by creating the Multi Academy Trusts and divorce them from the communities the schools serve. The RAAC fiasco for schools is Grenfell Tower writ large – just how long is it going to take to put those problems right? As with the NHS there is a complete dearth of capital investment to permit the building of new state schools, and whilst some areas have a wealth of teacher human resource available, other towns and neighbourhoods just can’t fill their vacancies. As a consequence of the consultation on VAT now launched, both Northern Ireland and Norfolk have already made it quite clear that the proposals as given will badly damage their provision. Other uninended consequences will follow, the most obvious being that the Government’s own Office of Budget Responsibility should state that the Chancellor’s proposals to be announced in the October 30 budget won’t raise the funds projected. This week we see the idiocy forced on Bristol city council who now have to fund a place in a private school for the child of a mother seeking a place in a state school where there are no vacancies.

To conclude, as with the NHS the creation of the State Education service after the Second World War brought the patchwork of schools across the nation into common ownership, and with many independent schools brought into the mix. Successive changes, such as the removal of Direct Grant status in 1976 by the Labour Government sought to damage our sector, yet as things have turned out, actually enhanced and promoted private education by furthering the divide between the 2 sectors. When the creation of Foundations schools in the 1990s permitted state schools to be financially independent from their local authority, some flourished and are now amazingly affluent and others bankrupt. Forcing so many SEN schools to become self-governing at the same time swapped paid for management with volunteers; in many ways for our SEN schools in ISA that’s permitted them to flourish and new schools to open to meet needs very quickly. But, as the Common’s debate showed last week, SEN funding is broken – another blackhole the new government has inherited BUT not one they did not know about. As with the NHS, there have been umpteen reports on the National Education system, the latest conducted by the Times which have made it quite clear the sector needs £Billions to make up the shortfall. Trouble is, we don’t have the billions to hand, and providing more money is not the solution. Raiding the private sector of £1.5 million will turn round to be a cost to the Treasury of over £2billion, mark my words. This government has an opportunity to engage with our sector and tax our knowledge and willingness to partner, promote and make the changes needed… will it ‘Take it instead of Tax it’?