How VAT on school fees made us rethink everything

We got it wrong; they didn’t listen and there is no point complaining.

Brexit, the cost-of-living crisis and Covid hit our sector hard enough and as we were reeling, along came VAT. Our warnings and complaints have fallen on the deaf ears of those in power. And the general public, most of whom are educated in the state sector, have failed to rise up in support of our plight

If we were starting again with an new school, what would its business model look like?

As a head for 20 years and now chair of governors I am confident that this is the harshest of times for our sector in living memory. It’s tough, will stay tough and could get even worse. Some school closures up and down the country will not lead to a flood of children into the surviving schools and most schools are now facing difficult decisions.

Our sector provides exports, employment and tax revenue and is now facing huge problems but the media perpetuate the false narrative that all our schools are like a few of our schools – cash and asset rich, oversubscribed and endowed.

This is the harshest time for our sector in living memory.

Windermere School is none of these. Many parents find the task of paying fees a stretch. Like all our schools we offer an education that families love and it makes a difference in the lives of all who graduate (IB in the Sixth Form). We have done this for over a century and now we have to adapt. Not complain, just change. It’s what we would tell our pupils in the face of challenge – show resilience, courage and determination.

The school was managing before Covid and the last few years have been tough. As a board we had to decide if we were happy to bump along the bottom (answer – we weren’t!) or look at the problem from a new angle. We asked a simple but different question: if we were starting again with a new school in this market what would its business model look like? We knew it wouldn’t look like the school we had.

We wouldn’t hold as many assets, we wouldn’t own as much land, we wouldn’t have as many estate or support staff, we would not opt for long term cosy contracts with suppliers or one-off agreements over fees with parents. We wouldn’t be in TPS, staff would have formalised, standardised appraisal. We would be resolute on our values and beliefs and commit to our families just as before but run the business like a business.

We have started again and it is as painful as it is exciting.

We wouldn’t expect a busy head and SLT to be running the business as we want them focused on families, education, wellbeing and safety. We would plan for declining as well as rising numbers by ensuring significant income streams besides fees. We cannot expect families to continually swallow higher and higher costs knowing incomes and birth rates are not rising.

We have started again and it is as painful as it is exciting. After sharing the VAT burden, we have frozen the fees until January 2026 and reduced the fees in key primary years. We sold our primary campus and have used some of the cash to invest in lovely new prep facilities on the senior site. We have recruited specialist staff to manage the business and boost income, hired experienced consultants on day rates to support marketing, admission and project management.

Some staff drank the union Kool-Aid and went on strike when we left TPS. Paying it would have crippled us. This was just awful but we had no choice. Parents were facing the VAT hike and we could not ask them to pay more into the pension fund. We have a new scheme but staff can stay with TPS if they pay into it. We lost some teachers but recruited some amazing new ones. The school moved on, bloodied but unbowed. We looked at the curriculum, class sizes and the pathways from pre-prep to IB asking how we can make the school experience better and less expensive at the same time.

Some staff drank the union Kool-Aid and went on strike.

Change and cuts do not have to mean deterioration and diminution. It can (look at DOGE in the US!) but with care, time and keeping pupils as a priority, there can be efficiency and savings. We have a better curriculum and a better experience for the children.

Reducing staff numbers is painful and seen as the portent of doom to some inside our gates. It isn’t. Parents typically know that redundancy and change and just as much part of the cycle of work as growth and consolidation. If they trust the leadership, they tend to accept the decisions.

Reducing staff numbers is painful as seen as the portent of doom to some inside our gates.

What we are doing feels like trying to redesign and repair an aeroplane mid-flight. Its fraught with difficulties and we have made mistakes. We are only doing what we have to and making the best of it, without complaining. We want to celebrate teaching and learning, sustain the school for the next 100 years and get over this rough patch. Our job includes all the business decisions but really we are all here to protect the children from the stresses of the adult political world and let them get on with loving school, growing and learning.

The article first apeared in School Managememt Plus