I’m a private school head – state schools need us

6 comments

1. Alastair Chirnside, warden of St Edward’s School in Oxford, is one of many private school headteachers to have choked on their cornflakes at Bridget Phillipson’s latest tweet. The Education Secretary, in defence of the Government’s proposed VAT levy on school fees, wrote: “Our state schools need teachers more than private schools need embossed stationary.”

   I can confirm there isn’t so much as a branded pen on display in Chirnside’s study at St Edward’s when I interview him. There’s no budget for posh writing paper or pens, he insists when I suggest he’s hidden them; the school has more pressing initiatives to fund – such as the school’s teacher training programme for modern languages, maths and physics teachers, most of whom move straight into the state sector. And the art classes, sports coaching, free meals and facilities it provides to 35 local state primary and secondary school partners.

   Sending up private schools as islands of privilege where money is frittered on marketing material, is not only spiteful and divisive but inaccurate, Chirnside explains, as the sector supports thousands of state school children every year. Staff from his secondary school, which has 800 pupils and costs from £13,395 per term, run large-scale sporting events for 2,000 local primary school children each year, while 3,500 local young people use the school’s arts centre. Each week, lower sixth formers are dispatched into the community for a 90-minutes service as part of Teddies Collaborates – they stack shelves in food banks, work in charity shops and provide learning support at primary schools, as well as assisting with social media management and events planning for local charities. “These aren’t superficial gestures – we’re working in partnership with local organisations, and children in both sectors are benefiting,” he says.

   **Read the full article here:** [https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/private-school-headteacher-state-schools-need-us-3319136](https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/private-school-headteacher-state-schools-need-us-3319136)

2. This school is 20 minutes from my kids’ state schools. St Edward’s has never done anything for their state schools in the decade my son has been at school.

   Just pay your taxes and shut the feck up.

3. Sick of hearing these twats complain

4. So is the head claiming they won’t do anything for the community if they have to pay VAT? I’m just checking that they think a few token gestures is enough and that they aren’t actually civic minded at all.

   Private education is a premium & discretionary spend. That’s vatable for everything else.

5. Tax on education how dreamy…. I thought the cons were evil

6. Not as much as state schools need the money you’re hoarding