If private schools close the state sector will quickly be overwhelmed

SIR – There are two or three aspects of the private schools debate that nobody seems to be thinking about (Letters, December 3).

While the image of private education is driven by a few premierleague schools such as Eton, most private schools are smaller and more modest. Lumping them all together as enemies of the state is unhelpful.

Most independent schools are modest places with a clientele of hard-working middle-class families who make sacrifices to pay the fees. The majority will be increasingly squeezed in the current economic climate, especially at independent schools outside London and its main commuter belt.

By 2025, when VAT could be introduced by Labour, parents will already have endured two years of high inflation, and this will be the last straw for many. As an education consultant, I estimate that a quarter of private schools could lose so many parents that their finances will be undermined. The published accounts of most charity schools show that they work to modest margins and have very limited cash reserves. With a few exceptions, only the premier league and London schools have the sort of financial strength that could see them through years of tax attacks.

All of this will push very large numbers of children into an unprepared state sector. At national level it could mean a hundred thousand extra pupils or more, but the impact will be local and dramatic. In a country town the closure of an independent school could overwhelm the local maintained schools and their teaching staff. Class sizes would be hugely enlarged, to the detriment of the existing students as well as those joining, and teaching and learning will suffer, as will wellbeing and mental health. And when private schools close, they do so without warning.

The other big question that nobody is addressing is what exactly a school is, for VAT purposes? How can HMRC differentiate between a school teaching sport at the weekend and a local sports club charging for weekend football coaching, or between extracurricular activities at a school and those taking place at Scouts and other youth organisations? And how do we deal with academy trusts, which are also independent organisations and charities?

The whole thing is a can of worms. The next government will have enough to worry about without opening it.

Simon Shneerson

Chorleywood, Hertfordshire

SIR – For years people have looked puzzled when I say we put eight children through school, knowing we had only four. Now, suddenly, everyone is aware of the arithmetic.

Although not particularly rich, we did in this way hand quite a lot of already taxed income to the Government, without acknowledgment, thanks, or mitigation.

Field Mcintyre London SW3