Latest news with #privateschool
Times
18 hours ago
- Automotive
- Times
‘We spend £9k a year on petrol driving our daughter around'
When Jo Mitchelhill and her husband, Graham, chose a private school in Canterbury for their daughter Jessica, 11, the cost of getting to school didn't cross their minds. Yet the decision would end up costing them more than £9,000 a Mitchelhills, from Sittingbourne, Kent, picked a school in Canterbury, 22 miles away, committing to seven years of 44-mile commutes, twice a day, five days a week. They also drive their daughter to clubs and competitions, meaning that their 'mum and dad taxi service' could rack up as much as 800 miles a week. It's a story many can relate to. Parents spend an average of 176 hours a year driving their children round, adding up to an astonishing 3,000 miles, according to Motorway, an online car marketplace. • Read more money advice and tips on investing from our experts The government's advisory fuel rates, which it provides for employees using company cars, suggest that the average cost of petrol is between 12p and 22p a mile and diesel between 11p and 17p a mile. So ferrying children to school and back, and to clubs and activities, can make a significant dent in household budgets. We look at the real cost to parents of providing a taxi service for their children. Jo Mitchelhill, 49, a parenting coach, and Graham, 58, a mortgage broker, struggled to find a school close to home which they felt was suitable for their daughter. 'The local schools didn't seem like a good fit — the grammar was too academic, and we wanted her to have equal focus on sport and art. But the comprehensive was enormous and we were worried she'd be lost in a year group of 300.' But with the new school 22 miles away, they quickly realised they had to take on a long daily commute. 'As we're both self-employed, we have flexibility over who does the school run, so we're lucky in that way,' Jo said. The Mitchelhills rack up 440 miles a week on the school run alone. But this isn't the end of the story. 'Jessica also does sport outside school. Netball is just six miles away once a week, but matches, which happen weekly, could be 20 miles away. 'She also plays hockey, which is 12 miles away when it's held at the local club, or 26 miles when it's held at Herne Bay, which happens a couple of times a month.' They go there and back twice, which can add 104 miles to the weekly total. Jessica also does pony club every week, which is a 20-mile round trip, and she sometimes takes part in competitions that can be up to 100 miles away. That could mean a weekly total of more than 800 miles, which would cost about £176, according to the government's figures. So, it's no surprise that the Mitchelhills noticed their petrol bill rocketing. 'When Graham told me our petrol was sometimes costing £250 a week, including our own work mileage, which can vary each week as we're both self-employed, we knew we had to make a change,' Jo said. They have now leased an electric car which has reduced their monthly cost to as little as £30. • Should you help your children to buy a home? Leanne Webster, from Perth and Kinross, also spends a large part of her time — and money — ferrying her four children, Jessica, 15, John, 14, Sophie, 11, and Daniel, 10, around. Webster, 43, who works as a maternal wellness mentor, makes a seven-mile drive to collect her daughter, Jessica, from school about twice a week. 'She has a medical condition and sometimes needs to come home.' Jessica also studies some of her subjects in Perth, about 40 miles away, and needs to be taken there twice a week. But it's the children's social lives that can turn a relatively modest commute into a big bill for Leanne. 'Jessica goes out about two or three times a week. Each time I'll drop her off and collect her from a friend's house; I drive about 15-20 miles,' Webster said. John also meets his friends in Aberfeldy about twice a week, which is another ten miles each way for Leanne. Sophie has an active social life, going on playdates almost every day of the week. Each friend lives 5-10 miles away and Webster usually drives both ways. Clubs also mean more taxi trips for Leanne. John is on the local football team, which trains twice a week, plus weekend matches can be up to 80 miles away. 'John also has Explorer Scouts twice a month, that's 21 miles away. And he goes swimming once a week at the local pool — a 14-mile round trip. 'Sophie also has scouts once a week in Aberfeldy. Daniel's friends are all local, although he, too, goes swimming once a week.' On weeks when John has an away game, Leanne could be covering about 750 miles. And even on quieter weeks, she does about 560 miles. In her diesel car, this could be setting her back about £128 a week and Leanne budgets up to £600 a month to cover fuel. 'I'm a single mum, self-employed and the only adult in the household, so I fit my business and my wants around the children's activities.' Carpooling or sharing lifts can help to cut costs. Using public transport or encouraging children to walk or cycle where possible can also cut bills, but these options aren't always available, or suitable for everyone. If savings cannot easily be made, it's important to remember that these hectic years won't last forever. 'Jessica won't be at her school for more than seven years,' Jo said. 'So while we're having to sacrifice big family holidays and a second car to afford the fees and transport, we see it as a worthwhile investment.'
Daily Mail
18-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
TOM UTLEY: The old lie that private schools are stuffed with posh, rich kids may turn into reality when Labour's VAT raid drives away strivers like the Utleys
On the day 19 years ago when I accepted a job offer from the Daily Mail – which meant a hefty increase in my salary – I took the youngest of our four sons aside and told him that I could at last afford to remove him from our local state school and send him to Dulwich College, the illustrious public school where we had sent two of his older brothers. In robust language, he let me know that nothing on earth would induce him to move from the state sector to a single-sex private school stuffed with filthy rich, arrogant, posh twits (in fact the noun he used had an 'a' in it, in place of my more printable 'i'). Actually, he could hardly have been more wrong about Dulwich – alma mater of Nigel Farage – few of whose pupils were at all posh by the standards of other great private schools. Then, as now, they tended to be the sons of aspirational small businessmen, dentists, teachers, bank clerks, civil servants, corner-shop owners and the like. Indeed, when our two oldest were there, I counted several dozen boys on the school roll who bore the surname Patel – hardly a name that reeks of landed wealth – with not a Cholmondeley-Cavendish-Grosvenor in sight. Many or even most of these boys' parents had to make great sacrifices to scrape together the money for the fees, even though these have always been comparatively modest at Dulwich, thanks to subsidies from the estate of the Elizabethan actor and impresario, Edward Alleyn (1566-1626). In our case, we managed it for our oldest two by constantly increasing our mortgage, while Mrs U took a job driving double-decker buses around London for two-and-a-half years when the money ran out. She often had to get up at four in the morning to start work, poor woman, arriving home exhausted in the evening.(She handed in her notice on that happy day when I accepted the Mail's offer – and our youngest declined mine to send him to Dulwich.) But then our youngest's prejudice against private schools and their pupils was and is far from unusual. For the fact is that Britain's class system – fast decaying, but still surviving – has bred a great deal of ill-feeling over the years. The worst sort of dimwit Hooray Henry still looks down on people who went to state schools, while there are a great many state-educated pupils, like our youngest, who look upon the products of the private system with contempt. Indeed, class hatred and resentment are among the few forms of bigotry that have yet to be banned by law (but I mustn't go putting ideas into the minds of the thought police). If my guess is right, Sir Keir Starmer's aim in launching his 20 per cent VAT raid on private school fees was chiefly to make political capital out of those feelings, since the politics of envy have always played well with a certain section of Labour's core voters. But of course he didn't put it like that in his party's election manifesto last year. Oh, no, the point of the raid was not to kick the aspirant middle classes in the teeth. Far from it. The purpose of making Britain one of the very few countries in the developed world to slap a tax on education was purely to benefit … education! The money raised by imposing the new taxes, said this utterly discredited document, would be spent on 6,500 new expert teachers, increased teacher and headteacher training, delivering work experience and careers advice for all young people, early language development in primary schools, Ofsted reform, over 3,000 new nurseries, mental health support for every school and Young Futures Hubs (whatever they may be). True, admits the Government's website, the consequent increase in fees may mean a few pupils will have to move from private schools into the state sector. But, it says, there will be no more than 35,000 of them – or 0.5 per cent of the pupil population – for whom there will be plenty of room at the local state primary or comprehensive. How's it all going, so far? Well, only seven months since the VAT raid came in, and three months since the removal of schools' charitable business rate relief, more than 30 independent institutions have already announced closures or proposed closures, displacing at least 3,350 pupils … and counting. All have cited the pressures of the new taxes as the principal reason for their decision. Of course, some of those 3,350 children so far displaced may move to other private schools. But to give some idea of the impact on the Treasury, the Guido Fawkes website calculates that if all were to move to the state sector, where it costs councils an average of £8,210 a year to educate a child, the total bill to the taxpayer would be £26.5 million. In one case alone, it emerged this week, state schools in Kent received almost 100 inquiries from parents in the 48 hours after Bishop Challoner School was forced to shut its doors, after it lost more than a third of its pupils to the tax raid. Indeed, it's become ever harder to argue with Neil O'Brien, the Shadow Education minister, when he says the likely costs to state education make a nonsense of Labour's claim that the raid would bring in up to £1.7 billion a year. 'The number of children being forced to move schools and away from their friends is much larger than Labour predicted,' he said, 'wiping out the supposed tax revenues. 'The Chancellor said every penny would go on state schools. The Prime Minister said he'd spend the money on housing instead. And given that the number of teachers in state schools is down under Labour, we can see it was all just a pack of lies.' I can say two things with certainty. One is that if this tax raid had been brought in when I was a reporter on a modest income, and Mrs U was a London bus-driver, there would have been absolutely no way we could have kept our two oldest boys at one of the best schools in the land. The other is that, yes, Dulwich College and other great private schools in the premier league for academia, sports and the arts are likely to survive. But their character is sure to change. With fees that will inevitably rise beyond the reach of the aspirant just-about-managing – and less cash available for scholarships for bright, poorer pupils like our boys – they will increasingly become the exclusive preserve of the seriously rich. Indeed, the day may be approaching when our youngest son's prejudice against private schools and their pupils may contain more than an element of truth.
Telegraph
16-07-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
State schools receive 100 enquiries in 48 hours after private school closes
State schools in Kent received almost 100 enquiries in the 48 hours after a private school closed citing the VAT raid. Taxpayers have been left to foot a £1.2m bill after the closure of Bishop Challoner School earlier this month, with around 50 pupils so far applying to join nearby state schools. The Catholic school, which this year celebrated its 75th birthday, was forced to shut after it lost more than a third of its pupils to Labour's VAT raid. In the space of six months, the school's pupil roll fell from 317 in July last year to 270 in January. A further 52 pupils had withdrawn for the next academic year when governors decided it was no longer 'economically viable'. Minutes from a Bromley Council meeting revealed in the first 48 hours after the school informed parents of its closure on June 12, the authority received almost 100 queries from parents about moving their child to a state school. In the following three weeks, the council received 42 applications to transfer pupils to Bromley state schools – the equivalent to 16pc of the school's roll. Bishop Challoner School passed on the full 20pc levy to parents in January – increasing fees by £3,238 per year. The closure of the school means the Treasury will miss out on £850,000 a year in VAT revenue. It costs councils £8,210 a year on average to educate a pupil in the state sector, meaning the transfer of 42 pupils will cost £350,000 per year. Taken together, the costs to the state exceeds £1.2m, in a blow to Labour's flagship education tax. Neil O'Brien, shadow education minister, said the findings showed Labour's costings, which claim the policy will raise up to £1.7bn, were a 'pack of lies'. He said: 'This is yet more evidence that the number of children being forced to move schools and away from their friends is much larger than Labour predicted, wiping out the supposed tax revenues. 'The Chancellor said 'every penny' would go on state schools. The Prime Minister said he'd spent the money on housing instead. And given that the numbers of teachers in state schools is down under Labour, we can see it was all just a pack of lies all along.' There are further concerns parents may struggle to find state school places for their children in Bromley, a suburb popular with families thanks to its convenient location between Greater London and Kent. The authority has 19 secondary schools. Last summer, a Freedom of Information request revealed every school – bar three academies not controlled by the council – had a waiting list. In some schools, this exceeded 50 pupils who were hoping to gain a place in one year group. The Treasury has claimed the VAT levy will raise £1.5bn next year, rising to £1.7bn by 2029-30. However, this calculation assumes around 35,000 pupils – equivalent to 6pc – will leave private schools and move to state schools as a result of the tax. Last weekend, Oxford Sixth Form College became the latest school to announce its closure as a result of the VAT levy. The Telegraph is now aware of 45 independent schools which have closed in the past year citing the tax raid. A government spokesman said: 'Ending tax breaks for private schools will raise £1.8bn a year by 2029/30 to help deliver 6,500 new teachers and raise school standards, supporting the 94pc of children in state schools to achieve and thrive.'
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Yahoo
24 Students Just Shared The Wildest Meltdowns They've Ever Seen Rich Kids Have At Private Schools, And Oh My Word
Reddit user Katybee18 recently asked, "People who went to private school, what was the best rich kid meltdown you've ever witnessed?" Here are their wilddddd stories: 1."Two of the kids at my school got into a fight over a parking place, and one somehow drove his super lifted truck OVER THE HOOD of the other kid's sports car. Fortunately, both of their parents bought them new vehicles so nobody learned any lessons." —xiphias__gladius 2."My best friend at the time happened to be on vacation with her family in the Bahamas the same week I was, but she was there for her 16th birthday and brought a few other friends with her. Right before her birthday dinner, her mom gave her a Tiffany's box with a silver keychain, and she had a full-blown tantrum — crying, screaming, and cursing out her parents — because the keychain did not have car keys on it. The kicker? The friends and I were standing there as witnesses as her parents just took the abuse, took us all out to an embarrassingly overpriced dinner in a limo, then proceeded to give her a car wrapped in a bow once they got home." —rockedthelobster 3."I went to a very privileged international school. The kid of a diplomat (who was also independently extremely wealthy) totally crashed out because their parents told them they would have to take the bus home from school instead of their Bentley, because apparently, he got caught cheating on exams. The idea of riding home with us 'peasants' (even though many were just as privileged as him, if not more) had him so screwed up that he threw a trashcan out of the window and screamed, 'I'm going to kill everyone in this school!!!' at the top of his lungs. It was an international school in a country without guns, so it didn't carry quite the same weight as saying that in the USA. Still, I was mildly surprised when literally nothing happened to him for it, and the school admin took a firm stance of 'nothing happened.'" —avaslash 4."One kid had a meltdown because his grandma was hospitalized and he couldn't spend his holidays in his other house in Réunion Island. He went there every holiday." —WiswisBrebis 5."I had a friend in college from a very wealthy county in Southern California. She straight-up grew up on the beach. While in the laundromat, she complained to another friend and me about a surprise care package her mom mailed her. One of the items was a custom pair of TOMS shoes. They were adorable. It was extremely thoughtful of her mom to send them in the first place. She even chose the pattern and colors. My friend was furious and claimed that they were ugly. She said she wrote a scathing note on the package and returned it to her mom. The other friend and I were in shock and didn't even respond. We couldn't believe she did this and told us about it, as if what she did was good." —its-how-i-roll 6."I played competitive cricket on Saturdays with about six guys from school (a fairly middle-of-the-road private school). The other seven came from a neighboring private school, and these fellas were completely loaded. The coach's son, Josh, was used to getting whatever he wanted. His dad bought him a brand new gaming PC, though this was in 2005, so it was not what we're used to seeing today. However, his dad told him he needed to save for the monitor. Of course, Josh thought his dad would cave and buy him one. We're at cricket training, and Josh and his dad have a very heated argument about getting a monitor on the way home. Josh absolutely loses his shit, screaming at his dad. He then picks up a cricket ball and whips it straight at his dad's head." "Josh is 17 and has a hell of an arm. And for anyone who hasn't held a cricket ball, they're a lot heavier and harder than a baseball. Josh's dad spent four days in the hospital, and Josh never got to use his brand-new high-end gaming PC." —BattleDancingQuokka 7."A senior once got wasted and somehow ended up driving his car through a wall into the dining hall. His parents stormed into the school the next day with a lawyer and tried spinning the story that the school's parking lot had 'too many turns on the roads,' which is how his car ended up in the lunch line. Somehow, this worked, and the entire parking lot was rebuilt. The family 'donated' a new dining hall that now has their name on it." —peywrax kid got caught cheating and went to lawyer daddy to plead their case that they were just being efficient and 'using their resources.' It halfway worked. They weren't kicked out, but did have to take a zero. Incidentally, the school received a nice donation at auction from the family." —Briaboo2008 9."This dude got gifted a new sports car from his dad. The dealership didn't have the color he wanted, so he had to wait two weeks. He threw a temper tantrum, screaming, cursing, and throwing things. I'm dead serious." —Medical_Tutor_7749 10."A girl's dad came to pick her up from school in their new helicopter. She threw a tantrum and refused to get in it because she had asked for a white one, and he had bought a black one. He ended up flying home alone and sending a driver to pick her up instead." —WinterSoldierFetish 11."A guy genuinely believed the WiFi password was a basic human right. He screamed, 'I'll sue the school!' when they changed it." —aeonstudio_official 12."A girl in my class called her mom screaming because the maid packed her 'everyday' diamond earrings instead of her 'school' ones. She threw her entire Louis Vuitton bag at a wall and started hyperventilating. The school nurse had to calm her down like she'd had a panic attack." —ukraian-valkyrie 13."This rich kid threw a fit during a fire drill because it interrupted his Fortnite game. He actually shouted the classic, 'DO YOU KNOW WHO MY FATHER IS?' while refusing to leave the building. Administration had to physically escort him out. Outside, in front of the whole school, he kept whining that standing in direct sunlight would 'damage his skin investment.' He literally said that. Apparently, he was on a $1,000 skincare routine. Then a bird pooped on his blazer. Dead center. Custom-made. Everyone lost it. Even the teachers were laughing behind their clipboards." —lucyyygrif0812 14."A rich kid I grew up with backed his Porsche onto a Honda Civic, and just walked away from it. He was just being a POS. Not even kidding, a week later, he had a new Porsche. His dad has a garage full of them." —PegCity-Handshake 15."When the girls' nanny came to pick her up, but she didn't have a game the girl liked on her phone, she started SCREAMING in the middle of the changing room, and the nanny was basically begging her to stop." —Critical-Milk8581 16."One guy got expelled from boarding school for stealing money. He stole someone's card to spend like £400 on some new shoes and whatnot. So his dad came and picked him up, landing a helicopter in the sports field to take him away. That flight would've cost so much more than what the kid stole." —goldlord44 17."My classmate's parents bought her a brand-new car and gave it to her in the parking lot of the school after school on her 16th birthday, and she had a meltdown because it wasn't the color she wanted." —ranchojasper 18."When I was in high school, someone arranged for THOUSANDS of rose petals to be laid out on the school lawn spelling this girl's name to ask her out to prom. This was while a plane flew overhead, towing one of those banners asking the question. He got rejected and freaked the fuck out. Their parents were beefing with one another. People were telling the girl to just go with him since his family spent so much money. He was clowned on relentlessly. It was pretty hilarious." —madhero3333 19."This girl's dad bought her an ugly yellow Hummer, but the parking spaces at our school were too small for her to park. Her dad went to the school with a donation and demanded that they combine two spaces into one and give her a designated spot. The school refused, so she had to park in this strip mall, climb a fence, and cross the fields to get to school and would arrive PISSED every day." —Due-Huckleberry7560 20."A guy smashed a $10,000 guitar over a post at school when he couldn't learn a song. Another guy rented a private jet to go to our end-of-year event and showed up with his bodyguard, who threw a tantrum for him because the restaurant didn't have a 45-year-old whisky he wanted. Another guy paid for a steel door to be put in his room with iris scanners so his parents couldn't get in after a fight with them when they were away. I have many more stories. This was in Singapore." —Logical_Business9541 21."We were on a school trip for 10 days. They rented three Airbnb apartments in one building – a girls' room, a boys' room, and one for the teachers. This kid had a full meltdown when he found out one of the apartments was not for him and his girlfriend. They also fought loudly and publicly through most of the trip." —passportwhore 22."A spoiled brat lost her shit because she lost as student government president (she was insufferable). She's now a congresswoman in my country." —MisanthropeInLove 23."A girl in my class once cried because her parents bought her the wrong color Tesla for her birthday. She literally said, 'How am I supposed to show my face in the carpool lane in a white Model X?!' The best part? She refused to go to school until they exchanged it — and they actually did. She returned a week later in a matte black one and acted like it was a personality trait." —NaughtyMira_ "I knew a girl who, by age 16, had totaled two brand-new cars. When her parents refused to buy her a new one and told her to get a job if she wanted a car, she threw a massive fit and complained, because 'how dare they make her walk to school?' I remember just staring at her and laughing as she complained. It made her so mad, but I thought it was hilarious." —CaptainFartHole What's the worst rich kid meltdown you've ever witnessed? Tell us in the comments or share anonymously using this form.
Daily Mail
08-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Fury grows over the NHS staff who are turning away sick private school pupils
Wes Streeting was urged to 'act swiftly' yesterday after a child was denied vital treatment because he goes to a private school. Head teachers called on the Health Secretary to step in after the eight-year-old was unable to access occupational therapy for his hypermobility syndrome. The Independent Schools Council (ISC), which represents most private schools, said pupils should receive 'equal access' to NHS care regardless of whether they are fee-paying. The intervention comes after The Mail on Sunday revealed the family of the child, who asked to remain anonymous, believe a 'two-tier system' is now at play. They say the Government's attack on private school pupils, which prompted the new VAT on fees, has 'filtered' into the NHS. However, the Department of Health said yesterday any suggestion school choice was a factor was a 'miscommunication'. According to the boy's mother, he was referred to a paediatrician at Kingston Hospital in south-west London after she noticed he was 'struggling to hold the pen well enough to write properly', along with other mobility issues. At the hospital appointment she was asked to fill in a form which asked: 'Where does your child go to school?' She was hoping to get an appointment with Richmond children's occupational therapy service that would have been the 'most important stage' of his assessment. However, days later, she received a text message saying the child had been 'declined' the crucial next appointment with occupational therapists. She then discovered the specialist unit had written to her GP, seen by the Mail, saying: 'We are unable to see this child as we do not provide a service to school-age children who attend an independent schools [sic]. We are only commissioned to provide a service to the mainstream schools.' The boy's brother had been treated for the same condition without issue several years ago. Yesterday, a spokesman for the ISC said: 'Any child coping with ill health should receive equal access to NHS services. We would urge the Government to act swiftly to ensure no child is denied care they are entitled to.' A spokesman for parent group Education Not Taxation added: 'Parents pay for these services through their taxes, and their children have the same right to these services as other children. We urge the Government to end this discrimination and ensure equal access to these services.' Yesterday, a spokesman for Kingston and Richmond NHS Foundation Trust said the boy had not been denied treatment because of his school – a prep in Kew. They said occupational therapy services are provided to all children with an education, health and care plan (EHCP), regardless of their school. EHCPs entitle children with special needs or disabilities to state-funded support and care, and are issued by councils. However, they are rationed due to funding shortages. For those without an EHCP, some state schools provide an onsite NHS occupational therapy service. The spokesman added: 'We are sorry if the wording of our correspondence has caused upset and confusion; we will amend it.' It is understood anyone without an EHCP who attends a private school would not be able to use onsite services at state schools. But there remained questions last night as to why the child was not treated at source by the NHS and instead expected to seek care at a school site. It comes after the Mail revealed other similar cases. These included the mother of an autistic girl in Somerset saying her daughter was denied access to NHS mental health services, and was told: 'If you can afford the school fees, you should pay privately.' It is also understood a child in Norfolk was refused a standing frame by the NHS because he went to private school. And young cancer patients from private schools had to pay £115 an hour for tutoring in an Edinburgh hospital's wards, while it is provided free to state school pupils by the city council.
