A Principled view

The challenge the High Court judges had to determine is best summarised by the poster statement below; the High Court has concluded that, despite the difficulties the Government’s VAT policy will cause schools and families, it has not breached the Human Rights Act.

I received several statements from the Associations to which we belong. Though the Court recognised that while the policy does engage the claimants’ rights under Article 2 of the First Protocol of the Act, A2P1 (the right to education), it also said that the European Court of Human Rights recognises that states have a broad margin of discretion in this sphere to make a series of policy choices about the organisation of the educational system, some of which are likely to be controversial. As a result, the High Court has dismissed all claims.

Please use the following links to read the judgment:
Summary of the judgment
Full text of the judgment

The Independent Schools Council (ISC) is taking the lead on communications on behalf of the associations. All schools and their membership associations are disappointed with this outcome, not least because of the incredibly intrusive and insensitive introduction of the policy without careful consideration of its longer-term impact on individual families, schools and the nation’s wider education system. Irrespective of the validity of the policy, the government’s

From my position as Principal, in the short term, this decision does clear the way forward and enables us to have certainty for our wider business plans to expand the school’s activities wider into the community. Now we are permitted to rent out our facilities and build wider partnerships with many of our supporting sports clubs, defraying costs whilst at the same time as improving facilities is a win-win. A judgment supporting in part the claimants’ case would inevitably have caused the government to make an appeal, leaving us in limbo for a further 12 months or so. Everything we are doing internally is to review our various needs to bear down on costs whilst retaining the quality and reach of our education provision.

This in no way justifies the current government’s current deeply held conviction that private education should not exist, nor the casual reference to the (apparent) sums of money to be raised from the VAT claimed from our parents. From the initial claims (by the Chancellor) that the money would be used to recruit 6,500 teachers, to fund breakfast clubs in primary schools or now (by the Prime Minister that it will help build new houses for the future, funds paid by working families should be put to the specified use intended, not waved around like a ‘Loadsamoney’ windfall by a latter day Harry Enfield.

The high court judgement calls out the Labour government for using slogans rather than precise, more measured language.

13. The claimants, in their written and oral arguments, submitted that the challenged
provisions have the effect of imposing VAT on educational services, when such
services have never been subject to VAT before. The Government parties, by contrast,
refer throughout to the removing of an exemption or “tax break”. This was, in our view, more a slogan than a legally significant description. We prefer to speak more neutrally
of a “tax change”. The compatibility of this change with Convention rights depends on
its substance, not on any label attached to it for presentational purposes.

Perhaps and most importantly of all, the high court in its judgement has made it as clear as it can that the government cannot ban private education. I quote”

“Does a measure which impedes access to private education engage A2P1 at all?

59. At one stage in the oral argument before us, Sir James for the Government parties
    submitted that the margin of appreciation accorded to states under A2P1 to choose how to configure their educational systems was wide enough to permit them to prohibit private schools altogether. That submission was, in our judgment, wrong. The Court in Kjeldsen drew attention at [50] to the importance attached by many contracting states
    (as apparent from the travaux préparatoires) to the “freedom to establish private schools”. That the right conferred by A2P1 includes such a freedom, subject to regulation by the state, can also be seen from the Commission’s decisions in Jordebø and Verein Gemeinsam Lernen. If it is not within a state’s margin of appreciation to prohibit private schools altogether, a regulatory measure which had the same practical
    effect would presumably impair the very essence of the right. We therefore consider that the Government parties were wrong to submit that A2P1 has no relevance at all to measures which affect access to private schools.

Here’s the Guardian’s summary:

“The high court has dismissed a wave of legal challenges against adding VAT to private school fees in the UK, saying the government’s decision was a rare example of Brexit freedoms.

The judges said that adding 20% to private school fees would not have been possible under EU law, stating: “This is therefore one respect in which the UK’s exit from the EU has increased the scope of parliament’s freedom to determine policy.” Other newspapers exist.

For the next few weeks, all in the education sector will have to take stock of what this judgement means, coupled with the spending review announced by the Chancellor on Wednesday 11 June. The full review indicates growing pressure on the delivery of special needs support in the state sector, aligned with a lower than expected investment in Education overall. The good news for Claires Court is that we have the last 4 weeks of term ahead, with a myriad of events and opportunities ahead for both children and adult to collaborate and celebrate the life our school community enjoys when it is in session. There are so many things in life that we can’t control, it’s best we ‘readiate the sunshine’ when we can and enjoy the warmth whilst it’s here.

80 years ago, over 5 million British men and women were recruited into the armed forces and deployed across the world. Thursday, 8 May 1945, saw Germany’s formal unconditional surrender, marking the end of World War 2 in Europe. While street parties were organised across the UK, publicity outside of the country had to be curtailed, because so many were still serving to keep order in Europe, whilst others were in Southeast Asia and the Pacific fighting Japan. 

This year’s celebrations are entitled, “Lamplight of Peace,” referring to a tradition of lighting lamps, often ruby red, to commemorate significant anniversaries connected with past wars, D-Day and VE Day being two examples. The lights represent the “light of peace” emerging from the darkness of war and symbolise the sacrifices made during those conflicts. The red colour of the lamplights often signifies the ultimate sacrifice of those who fought in the war. The use of cmajor worldwides strange to me, as, growing up in the 1950s in London, I only recall a world of black and white, anthe COVID in the summer of 1967, when I was taking common entrance and scholarship exams aged 13, that I first saw colour TV, showing the Wimbledon tennis tournament!

Reprocessed photographs and film of the 1945 street parties abound in this year’s media, and honestly, they almost all could have been taken yesterday, so normal do they look in terms of humanity at play. The absence of men is obvious, and outward migration of women from communities who suffered many male casualties led to a diaspora south and into more affluent areas, in search of a future yet to be imagined.

In looking at the lessons to be learned from that major worldwide conflict, there seem to be quite a few that chime with the lessons we are now learning as we recover from the worldwide COVID pandemic. Of course, these could be coincidental, but as the son of two History graduates and married to a third, I know the importance of learning from the past!

1. Economic Disruption and the Need for Rebuilding

Post-WWII: Britain faced a severely damaged infrastructure, the need to retool industries for peacetime production, and significant national debt. Rationing and economic controls persisted for years.

Post-COVID: The pandemic caused a sharp economic downturn, business closures, supply chain disruptions, and a substantial increase in national debt due to support measures like furlough. Certain sectors, such as hospitality and tourism, faced prolonged difficulties.

2. Social and Psychological Impact

Post-WWII: the war led to immense loss of life, displacement, and trauma. Returning soldiers needed reintegration, and society had to adapt to a new demographic landscape, including the changing roles of women. There was a strong desire for a better future and a sense of collective experience.

Post-COVID: the pandemic also resulted in significant loss of life, widespread anxiety, isolation due to lockdowns, and mental health challenges. There’s a shared experience of navigating a global crisis and adapting to new ways of living and working.

3. The Role of the State and Public Services

Post-WWII: the war led to a greater acceptance of state intervention in the economy and society, culminating in the creation of the National Health Service (NHS) and the expansion of the welfare state. There was a strong emphasis on social solidarity and “building back better.”

Post-COVID: the pandemic highlighted the crucial role of public services, particularly the NHS. There are renewed debates about the size and scope of the state, social care provision, and addressing inequalities exposed by the crisis. Calls for a “new settlement” echoing the post-war era have emerged.

4. Shifts in Social Norms and Behaviour

Post-WWII: the war accelerated social changes, including shifts in gender roles and a greater awareness of social inequalities. There was a gradual move towards a more egalitarian society.

Post-COVID: the pandemic has also prompted changes in work patterns (rise of remote work), increased reliance on technology, and potentially a greater focus on local communities and personal well-being. The long-term impact on social interactions and community bonds is still unfolding.

5. National Identity and Purpose

Post-WWII: victory in the war fostered a strong sense of national unity and purpose, albeit one that had to adapt to Britain’s declining global power. The focus shifted towards domestic reconstruction and the creation of a fairer society.

Post-COVID: the pandemic has, at times, invoked a sense of national solidarity, particularly during the initial phases. However, it has also exposed divisions and challenges to national identity in a more complex and interconnected world.

After both events, the ‘winners’ have seen major political disruption, and in many ways, not for the better. Delighted as Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill would have been to sit down to plan the end of the war in March 1945, within 2 years, the Cold War had broken out; the US, Britain and its allies had brought western influences to bear across Europe and Asia, whereas the USSR occupied eastern Europe and developed the ‘Iron Curtain’ to protect the countries newly within the Soviet bloc. Fueled by ideological differences (capitalism vs. communism) and geopolitical rivalries, the Cold War lasted for 46 years, until the collapse of the USSR in 1991.

Looking to the present, we see ideology dominant in both the UK and USA, in which both countries are governed by ‘leaders’ who suggest that their election victories permit them to impose changes to the ordered way of doing things, ungoverned by the usual rules of democracy and consent. The two ‘wars’ may have different durations, but as the nations emerged, the public was utterly fed up with being hoodwinked and failed by the political and economic classes in government beforehand. During the 1943 to 45 period, time was spent planning for the introduction of both universal healthcare and education, developed under the coalition, but enacted by the newly elected Labour government in July 1945. 

2024/25 feels very different. Despite the Labour party winning the election on the back of the public’s dislike of the chaotic behaviour of the previous, mainly Conservative administrations, what it hasn’t done is settle the country down and unite the public. My perspective is on Education, Health & Care, and no visionary policies are being unfolded as they were 80 years ago. A solution to the crisis in care provision has been kicked down the years for a future administration to resolve, the Health service remains a battlefield still to find a ceasefire yet alone peace, and Education has been broken in two ways by a Secretary of State hell bent on stating that those in private schools have never had it so good, so must be taxed for the privilege, but at the same time doing her best to undermine the more general successes won by the local decision making brought into state education over the past 30 years by seeking to renationalise and regulate.

Looking back some 13 years, Harold McMillan used hindsight to suggest that ‘Jaw-Jaw’ was always better than ‘War-War’, and I am utterly convinced society could be so much better if we stopped the posturing, lowered our defences and worked together to provide the improvements to British society all call for. Unlike the 1940s, we have some of the best advances in technology now in our hands, but we must work ‘new’ with ‘old’. A Change for the Better is always a contradiction in terms, and we can see that in the entrenched views of ‘Remainers & Brexiteers’ and all that they don’t have a positive story to tell us, about how collaboration and the rebuilding of our education, health, care, housing and public service systems can take place at pace and using the resources we havemore smartlyy. 

The technological capabilities and the role of media were vastly different in the post-war era compared to the digital age of our post-COVID period. The computer age was just starting and the Space race still ahead, whereas now we have all the advantages of vast processing power at our disposal and are back exploring the stars in so many ways. Examining the parallels offers valuable insights into how our society responds to large-scale crises, and the long-term social and economic consequences when we get them right or wrong. 

In Education terms, the Butler reforms in the Education Act 1944 aimed to build a en education to age 15 for everyone, not just those fortunate enough to be wealthy or win academic selection. It was a great story, long in the telling but by the close of the Labour government in 2010, we had managed to create a heterogeneous mix of state, private and special education that could meet the needs of the vast majority of the population. University expansion had taken place and whether for academic or vocational reasons, a breadth of pathways had been developed for the many to follow.

That story has been lost over the past 15 years, in which the treatment of children and teachers have been treated more like towels, to be used to soak up knowledge and work and then wrung out periodically for the purposes of assessment and performance management. As the academic curriculum in the state sector has been narrowed to reduce costs and restrict the need for diversity in teacher training and curricular provision, it’s become clear as it was in the 1930s and ‘40s  that private education offered advantages worth pursuing for reasons of choice and educational need. As I wrote last week, we need to see a return to the diversity of provision for everyone, and that can clearly come from the partnership of the willing that both private and academy schools offer to the government.

I suspect we need something a little brighter than a Lamplight to show our politicians the way, and lit by a more powerful fuel than dogma that only permits ‘might to be right’ rather than reason. As the months pass since the imposition of VAT in January and April’s increases in employer and other business costs, with teacher pay changes to come in the future, I remain deeply thankful that we have the opportunities provided by technology to broaden and enhance what we do in our schools. Another Labour Prime minister, Harold Wilson spoke powerfully in 1963 of the “white heat of technology” in his famous speech at the Labour Party Conference in Scarborough in 1963, one I saw on the black & white telly at home. Now we see what’s possible in technicolour – perhaps the orange smoke from the Vatican in Rome might offer some new insights after Pope Francis. What he got right of course we can all follow, which is ‘above all, be kind’.

Firstly, may I give all of our parents, guardians and supporters a warm welcome back to school for the Summer Term. To those 14 new children and their families joining Claires Court this week, I can assure you of the sincerity behind this introduction, and I look forward to meeting with you somewhere on campus sometime soon. Whilst the world outside remains fraught with complexity and confusion, we have every intention of staying fully focussed to provide the best we can for our children, young people and adults. 

Please read my tribute to the best teacher I have ever had, James Reason, who taught me Psychology at the University of Leicester. Perhaps his greatest claim to fame was his explanation of why things fail, storytelling at its best, using the Swiss Cheese model; a metaphor for analysing and preventing accidents that envisions situations in which multiple vulnerabilities in safety measures – the holes in the cheese – align to create a recipe for tragedy. I do my best to keep many layers in place and reduce the number of holes to the minimum! 

Our regular weekly bulletins aim to provide sufficient information to allow our school community to know what’s happening in the days and weeks to come. We know that if we send out too many communications, these can be overwhelming, but by having different channels of communication, we can not just inform but affirm and celebrate too. That’s why the website news pages and school App are really helpful – when they work! Sadly, all META (for example) has to do is tweak its API and our news may not break through at all, so this does require pretty constant vigilance on our part as those pesky APIs seem to change relentlessly!

The major Parent Teacher celebration this summer is our PTA Cocktails & Canapés event to be held in the magnificent surroundings of Moor Hall in Cookham on Friday 5 June. The ongoing contributions to the PTA via their various fund-raising events and activities continues to support our awards and accelerate our developments and facilities in school. I cannot thank our parents, guardians and staff community enough for their generosity with inspiration, perspiration and (it must be said) money, and to that I add our PTA chairs and trustees, whose stewardship guarantees the funds ‘reach’ the target.

The Easter break, for watchers of Netflix, was dominated by the screening of “Adolescence”, a British television psychological crime drama series centering on a 13-year-old schoolboy, Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) who is arrested after the murder of a girl in his school. It’s no surprise that schools have been focussing on the growing burden placed on our children through their engagement with social media. To meet this specifically at Claires Court, we have refined over many years our twin strategies of “Girls on Board” and “Working with Boys” which have opened up ongoing dialogues with our young people, not just “one offs.” 

In light of the above, I do commend to parents our dedicated health channel, https://clairescourt.uk.schooltv.me, which provides a wealth of support and information for parents. Published today is our Special Report: Social Media & Comparison Culture.

Young people today are growing up in a world where exposure to other people’s lives is constant. Through social media and other platforms, they are regularly presented with curated highlights – from flawless holiday photos and academic milestones to the latest fashion trends and fitness achievements. This continuous stream of idealised content fuels what is known as comparison culture, where self-worth is often measured by how someone stacks up against others.

For children and adolescents, who are still figuring out who they are, this culture can be particularly damaging. Constantly comparing their appearance, achievements, or social standing to friends, influencers, and even strangers can lead to unrealistic expectations and a skewed sense of self-worth. This relentless need to measure up can contribute to feelings of inadequacy, self-doubt, and anxiety – undermining both confidence and emotional wellbeing. Here is the link to that special report:

‘Ut Omnes Unum Sint’ – the school motto – declares “Let All be One”. Here’s hoping the highway ‘elves’ remember to keep all the local roads open in school time, because our work is made all the harder by those wretched traffic lights that keep popping up to break the traffic flow!