Concordia 2025

Concordia Winter 2024

Head Master Simon Everson reflects on the real value of education

Of course, this ignores the ways in which independent schools support a wide network of state schools, both primary and secondary. Independent schools want every child to benefit from that ‘tie and crest’; each has a vast array of activities and partnerships. At Merchant Taylors’ up to a thousand state school pupils have used our facilities over the course of a week. We assist state schools with applications to Oxbridge and medical colleges. We train staff at other schools to teach Science and Maths. Local primaries take part in orchestras, joint musical events and in special learning days. Sixth Formers visit local primary schools to offer teaching in robotics, Latin and Computing. We also offer our facilities and support outdoor activities in our school grounds. With the advent of VAT, I am even more mindful of my school’s duty to provide value for money. The judgment of whether something is good value is not objective. It is not associated with some sweet spot on a graph where two lines of numerical value cross. It is to do with perception, opinion and even a sense of shared endeavour. We are dependent upon a delighted parental body who remain willing to pay their child’s school fees. The Governors have agreed to lower our school fees to mitigate the extra 20% the VAT will add to a fee; the effect on parents will be equivalent to an extra 15%. A good way to express the idea of good value is ‘a dram’ of whisky. Imagine that a guest arrives in a Scottish home, and hospitality is called for. A dram is the exact amount of whisky that the guest is pleased to receive, and the host is pleased to pour. It is not defined in terms of fluid ounces, but in terms of shared hopes, expectations and obligations. Good value, for a school like ours, is determined by a complex interplay between what parents are prepared to pay, against what they expect their child to receive, modified by what the school is able to offer.

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I ndependent schools are very much in the crosshairs of the government. We face a future in which the government intends to add VAT at 20% to the cost of school fees. Further, they intend to do so in January 2025, at exceptionally short notice. One might reasonably ask why they have picked out independent education as a focus of their dislike. In our society, all kinds of luxury and even advantage can be bought and sold. No one sensible is proposing that we add VAT to private medicine — indeed, private healthcare will probably be used to support the NHS. Nor is there a clamour to get rid of first-class travel or five-star hotels. However, purchasing an excellent education is perceived to be in a different category from buying a nicer holiday or faster healthcare. The purchase of a better education is seen as an advantage that will echo through the life of the child, transforming his or her life opportunities for the better. It is the archetypal gift that keeps giving. To quote the lyrics of The Jam’s song Eton Rifles (referring, of course, to Eton College), ‘What chance have you got against a tie and a crest?’.