As part 1 of the half-term report published at the start of half-term emphasised, the School has been in great heart to date, and the various activities, Holiday Club and trips away at half-term have gone really well. Whilst you can read and see the news stream on our website or via other social media, please consider loading the Claires Court app directly onto your device which carries our news as it is made. I have some immediate good news to report to our junior parents, with a temporary car park being installed on Tuesday 5 November in the overflow area by the sports hall, accompanied by regular road sweeping twice a week. Hopefully, this will keep the area clear of mud and grime.

This week’s budget on Wednesday confirmed the imposition of VAT on private school fees from 1 January 2025. Chancellor Reeves has not minced her words, and she clearly doesn’t care what people think of her policy choices. Since every business has been affected in some way by the major changes to taxes and national insurance imposed from January and April, I won’t plead any special cases in this update. The Independent Schools Council (ISC) and its constituent school associations have agreed to take legal action to challenge this measure, and you can read that statement here. ISC expects the case to proceed quite rapidly, initially at the King’s Bench, and will receive much press interest.

The HM Treasury response to the recent consultation was published on Wednesday to coincide with the Budget announcement, 44 pages in all which our associations will check through over the next 4 days before publishing wider advice to schools in our sector. As of 30 October, Claires Court is one of about 2,500 schools now required to register for VAT, a process that normally takes between 6 to 8 weeks. As we cannot conduct VAT business until we have our VAT number, it’s difficult to imagine a more chaotic, ill-planned set of rule changes, expecting all to be settled down in time for 2025. If as parents, you receive any media interest about VAT and tuition fees, please let me know (jtw@clairescourt.net); most of the time I will share such commentary with Sarah Cunnane, head of comms at ISC, but you can directly email her as well sarah.cunnane@isc.co.uk.

Having HM Treasury’s final guidance does mean we can now complete our impact and risk assessments as well as recovery plans for past and current VAT spending, as well as work through what the implementation pathway looks like for fee-paying parents, with formal publication of invoices required after 1 January 2025. Our finance department will liaise closely with parents, with information forthcoming in coming days. Please do not think that either my brother or I are complacent about this matter because we are not. As with so many other schools in the area and now wider business concerns particularly in Health, Care and Hospitality (because of the change in National Insurance contributions), we will be examining everything we can do to keep costs down.

We find ourselves in very good company in terms of our resistance to the mendacious and deceptive approach the Labour Party has taken since forming government at the beginning of July. The diplomatic row that has erupted between the UK and other European nations whose embassy children are educated here in schools their country funds is really serious, with Prime Minister Starmer’s wish to improve relations with the EU now in jeopardy. And it is quite clear that whatever money is raised won’t feed into local state school budgets anytime soon; as the Secretary of State for Education’s email to me and all headteachers in England made clear on Friday, the crisis in SEND, school building disrepair and pay settlements is such that other developments are going to have to wait their time. Our sector genuinely wishes to play its part in the recovery and growth of the country’s economy. We contribute massively to the respect the world has for the British education system, and we do hope that even at this late stage, reason is possible.

Further and Higher Education now find themselves in the same place as our sector, with new and unforgiving taxation further damaging their financial viability. However, it is quite clear that employers more generally and farmers in particular across the country face similar challenges. Apparently, this is the mandate the new government feels they were given at the election; there is sufficient national press coverage of business and wider societal reaction disagreeing with their judgment without my adding to the ‘noise’. In this part 2 report, I do wish nevertheless to make clear that Claires Court will continue to provide the amazing opportunities that you as our parents ask us to make available for your children.

The many and various infrastructure improvements planned for the half-term have proceeded at pace, involving flooring, decorating, electrical and builders everywhere, and the site/cleaning teams have made particular efforts to ensure we are good to go for the next half up to Christmas. The senior boys are already making good use of the new Food Tech Studio in advance of its official opening on Monday 18 November by chef Wesley Smalley who runs the amazing Seasonality Restaurant in Queen Street. Wesley has been a familiar face at school for a while, helping with our ‘Futurechef’ activities and associated skills. With the Multi-User-Games-Area (MUGA) due to open for use to follow shortly thereafter, we’ll keep the good news flowing!

James Wilding

Academic Principal

3 November 2024